California Ugly

There are no lengths to which elected officials won’t go to escape term limits that threaten their political career plans. In California, Democratic state legislative leaders Fabian Nunez and Don Perata are struggling to evade a 1990 law limiting their terms that was approved by voters. First, they put a misleading measure watering down term limits on next Tuesday’s primary ballot. Then they pressured special interests and unions into contributing $15 million into promoting it.

But voters appear to be rejecting the sham measure, Proposition 93, which Messrs. Nunez and Perata are touting as a refinement of term limits when the real goal is to give 42 current members of the legislature more time in office. A major… Read More

GOP – stronger or broader?Debra J. Saunders Thursday, January 31, 2008

Florida was big. Florida Republicans not only went for John McCain over Mitt Romney, but also, when you add the McCain vote (36 percent) to the now-withdrawn Rudy Giuliani vote (15 percent), you see a shift: A majority of Republican voters are straying outside the ever-pure conservative base. While conservative talk show hosts and a slice of the GOP base demand all-or-nothing from GOP candidates, Republican voters in general clearly understand that, in a democracy, the all-or-nothing equation has only one sure outcome: You get nothing.

Especially when your party does not represent the majority of voters.

In his gracious victory speech Tuesday night, Sen. McCain told Team Romney that "the margin that separated us tonight surely isn’t big enough for me to brag about or for you to despair." Wednesday night’s CNN-hosted Republican presidential candidates’ debate was more combative. At the heart of it lies a divide on how far a party should go. Asked which type of Supreme Court justices he would… Read More

Our publisher asked me, as a Rudy Giuliani supporter, if I intended to post on my thoughts on the election now that Giuliani is out of the race. I decided to take him up on the question. Here goes.

Some readers know I am a conservative Republican with a pedigree. I was a Reagan delegate at the 1976 Republican National Convention, served as State and National Chairman of YAF, was an original director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, worked as a senior executive in the Reagan Administration, and am a national Board member of the American Conservative Union. Next week I will be attending the ACU Board meeting at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. where Board members will be discussing this same subject. Our Chairman, David Keene, is a prominent Romney supporter.

My wife and I originally supported Rudy for a combination of reasons. We strongly feel that national security is theissue that matters most for our country, and that Rudy was best suited to lead our country on that issue. We liked his tax cutting positions. I was willing to hold my nose on some of the other issues because of the leadership qualities… Read More

Yesterday afternoon, I had an opportunity to sit down with Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. For about seven and a half minutes, I spoke with the Governor about some major issues facing California — illegal immigration and the economy. I also had a chance to ask the Governor about his recent statewide television buy here in California, and his stategy on how to win here in the Golden State.

Governor Romney was very quick in this interview to make it clear that it is a two person race here in California, and that if Republicans in California want a conservative nominee for President, then he is our man.

I caught up to Governor Romney at the Hyatt Hotel in Irvine, just after he had finished up a major fundraising event. Before that, he held a large rally elsewhere in Orange County. After our interview, he traveled down to San Diego… Read More

FR readers know when our friend Bill Leonard. He is a frequent contributor to this site. He asked that we share his reasoning for endorsing Governor Mitt Romney’s bid for the Presidency:

On Board with Mitt By Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard I have decided to support Governor Mitt Romney in Tuesday’s Republican Presidential Primary and invite other conservatives to join me. After 24 years as a… Read More

Assemblyman Van Tran is an ardent supporter of Senator John McCain’s candidacy for the White House. He makes the following case to FR readers in support McCain:

McCain Will Stand Tall Against Islamic Fanaticism, Wasteful Spending by Assemblyman Van Tran After this week’s Republican Primary victory in Florida, Sen. McCain will now move into Super Tuesday in a great position to be the Republican nominee for President. As a proud member of Senator McCain’s California Finance Team and state Co-Chair, I encourage my fellow conservatives to take a second look at a man who knows that the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremism.… Read More

Yesterday afternoon, I had an opportunity to sit down with Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. For about seven and a half minutes, I spoke with the Governor about some major issues facing California — illegal immigration and the economy. I also had a chance to ask the Governor about his recent statewide television buy here in California, and his stategy on how to win here in the Golden State.

Governor Romney was very quick in this interview to make it clear that it is a two person race here in California, and that if Republicans in California want a conservative nominee for President, then he is our man.

I caught up to Governor Romney at the Hyatt Hotel in Irvine, just after he had finished up a major fundraising event. Before that, he held a large rally elsewhere in Orange County. After our interview, he traveled down to San Diego… Read More

Cities throughout California are facing deficits similar to the state’s problems.Naturally, government-program saturated San Francisco has not been spared from ominous budget problems, and Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking drastic measures – at least that’s what he’s leading the public to believe.And, to reward himself, his staff is getting an extreme makeover. According to The San Francisco Chronicle (January 18, 2008), Newsom’s calls for fiscal conservation were contradicted with self-serving, expensive “improvements.” “After eliminating jobs and ordering departments to make drastic cuts to brace for a $229 million budget deficit, [the mayor] went on a spending spree to create an office at City Hall for his newly recruited team of aides.” … Read More