A good friend of mine who has always lived in the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana and Missouri) moved to California about two years ago. Yesterday was her first California election.

She called me today and left this message on my voice mail:

“Jennifer, so I live in a state that values the safety of its chickens more than the safety of its daughters?”

It’s sad, but true.… Read More

We’ll put out a Winners & Losers column for this General Election. Who should make the list? Who were the movers in front of the ballot measures? How about behind the scenes? Architects of legislative wins or defeats? How about some big local races? IE’s that worked? Didn’t work? Send in your suggestions, and we’ll try to see if we can’t inflate the egos of some winners — and dump on the losers (politely, in most cases).

Send in your suggestions here, or comment below.… Read More

I have gotten a lot of e-mails and a few phone calls this morning lamenting the "loss" of Tony Strickland’s bid for State Senate in the 19th District. Currently, he is down around 100 votes to Hannah Beth "Taxin’" Jackson.

That said, the race is FAR FROM OVER. In the Ventura County Star, it is being reported that "tens of thousands" of late absentee and provision ballots remain to be counted. You can be sure that similar large numbers of late votes remain to be cast in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles County portions of this sprawling district.

I have no doubt that Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans have dispatched their top operatives and attorneys to the three Registrar offices, as this kind of thing turns into quite a production.

It actually reminds me of a similar situation not too long ago. Jeff Denham was down over 300 votes on election night in his first bid for the State Senate in 2002. He went on to win by over 1800 votes. Like Strickland, Denham was called "too conservative" for… Read More

Wherever one or more TV cameras may gather, there you shall find Gloria Allred.

The left-wing media hound attorney is going to announce a lawsuit against Proposition 8 in a few minutes.

On what legal basis? Who knows.

The political basis, of course, is media exposure for Gloria Allred.… Read More

The race between Tom McClintock and Charlie Brown for the 4th CD is still too close to call. Right now McClintock is up 451 votes and the absentee ballots are expected to break heavily for him. Provisional ballots are the real unknown factor. Knowing that Democrats have engaged in dirty politics throughout this election, the McClintock campaign is taking every precaution to ensure that there is no vote tampering.

Senator McClintock issued the following statement earlier today: “I wish to thank everyone who voted in the Fourth Congressional District. I am gratified and thankful that my campaign emerged after election night with the lead. I have full confidence in the hard-working and dedicated election officials who are counting the remaining absentee and provisional votes. I am confident that once the process is completed I will be the Representative for the Fourth Congressional District.”

This story is developing as quickly as the votes are being counted. Stay tuned for more updates…… Read More

Back in the early 1990’s all I heard about was how the Republican Party needed to be a “big tent.” The idea was to embrace anyone who wanted to be a Republican regardless of what that person stood for.

Of course that is how we get tax raising Governors like the one here in California. But what you also get are politicians that will put a bullet in your back as soon as the going gets tough.

Let’s look at John McCain. John McCain is no conservative. There are many issues where he went “maverick” rather than the generally excepted conservative position. Joe Lieberman reminded us of all those things during the RNC Convention.

So who stabbed him inthe back? Was it conservatives?

Collin Powell. This guy was made by Ronald Reagan and then the Bushes (not conservatives either). An enormous amount of Republican resources were spent promoting the General. Unfortunately, he isn’t the only one.

Former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, and Sen. Charles Mathias Jr. , Former Congressmen Jim Leach, Cong. Wayne Gilchrest and Former Mass. Governor Bill Weld all joined the team. How much did the Republican Party spend on behalf of these guys?… Read More

Day after thoughts on some local “stuff”….

SD City Attorney… Aguirre is evacuated, victim of his huge mouth and even larger ego, mixed in with delusions of grandeur and a tad paranoia. Jan Goldsmith will make a great city attorney.

52nd Congressional… Congrats to Duncan D. Hunter (now simply Duncan Hunter). Registration was tough enough to beat, add the name factor and the combo was lethal. Virtually everyone knew this was over a year ago, except for a handful of Mike Lumpkin supporters that became constant commenters on GOP blogs. And, every moment spent trying to convince GOP activists on a center-right leaning blog that Lumpkin had a chance was time that could have been used with real swing voters. And, they say the blogs have no impact.… Read More

I started my day today the way I usually do…I read my Bible and prayed for all the people on my prayer list…until my kids starting fighting over the breakfast table, and I felt like I was in the middle of the Seinfeld episode with George’s dad running around saying, “Serenity Now!” In fact, the Serenity Prayer is printed on a coin I carry in my pocket: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.” How apropos for the morning after this election. Last night, I was asking the question, “What happened?!”, and desperately trying to make sense of the past year and the outcome of the election. It was only leading me down a path of sadness and disappointment, because I’ve been so very proud to support Senator McCain all this time.

So this morning, I asked a new question, “What now?” And I asked it prayerfully, and not in hopes of finding the answer from another person, because we’re all… Read More