On election night I was in the McClintock suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel as the election results came in. I knew we were in trouble when Tom has a couple of percentage point lead and LA still hadn’t been counted. Pollster Stephen Kinney was there. It was his and other polling that had told us that McClintock, McPherson had slight leads and that Strickland was getting close.

Today Kinney made his post-election analysis at the meeting of the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club (For disclosure purposes I chair this Lincoln Club chaper)

Steve went through all the pre and post polling. Why did we lose the down ticket races? TURNOUT

Kinney thinks that the spread between Dem and GOP turnout may hit 10%. Some big Southern California GOP counties had lower turnout than in 2002. Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino to name them.

The reason. Kinney points to the nationalization of the election that didn’t come to California really until the last few days. Republicans were demoralized and didn’t show up. According to Kinney Arnold won by only 2% on election day.

I agree… Read More

Congressman Tom Cole was just elected to head up the National Republican Congressional Committee. In a recent letter to his fellow Congressional Members he wrote, "Everything is on the line in 2008 — lets start working together now to illuminate the liberal agenda of a Democrat controlled Congress".

Cole was Chief-of-Staff at the RNC in 2000 and he is a member Chickasaw Nation Indian Tribe from Oklahoma. He was an Oklahoma State Senator and Secretary-of-State.

This is a clear indication that the GOP is serious about taking back the House.… Read More

From today’s San Bernardino County Sun (missed this on the news roundup):

Discouraging words aimed at Lewis George Watson, Staff Writer Though he won re-election, November has not been kind to Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands. First, his party lost control of the House of Representatives. That meant Lewis will lose his chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, which made him one of the most powerful lawmakers in the nation. And now, already facing a federal… Read More

It seems to me like Senate and House Republicans in Washington, D.C., have a tremendous challenge ahead of them. If I had to give it a title, I would call it, "Mending the Credibility Gap." When you are the party in power, you have to govern. This means that you move beyond the world of rhetoric, and you actually have to enact policy. I believe that a large part of the reason why Republicans their majorities in the Senate and the House in this last election was because a lot of core Republican voters had finally stopped mustering up the support to re-elect Republicans who were long in rhetoric about limited government, but who presided over unprecedented growth in the size and scope of the federal government. According to Ed Fuelner, the President of the Heritage Foundation:

It seems to me like Senate and House Republicans in Washington, D.C., have a tremendous challenge ahead of them. If I had to give it a title, I would call it, "Mending the Credibility Gap." When you are the party in power, you have to govern. This means that you move beyond the world of rhetoric, and you actually have to enact policy. I believe that a large part of the reason why Republicans their majorities in the Senate and the House in this last election was because a lot of core Republican voters had finally stopped mustering up the support to re-elect Republicans who were long in rhetoric about limited government, but who presided over unprecedented growth in the size and scope of the federal government. According to Ed Fuelner, the President of the Heritage Foundation:

Thanks to HJTA for providing the text and links……

A Great Man Passes

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman has passed at the age of 94.

Many know him as a great advocate for the virtues of the free-market economy, but fewer may recall that he was an enthusiastic supporter of Proposition 13. In 1978 he appeared in television spots saying, "Don’t let politicians fool you. Proposition 13 will work. It will not force schools to close. It will not cause policemen or firemen to disappear. It will not require increases in other taxes."

Professor Friedman and his wisdom will be sorely missed.

Links to news stories:

The Financial Times Los Angeles Times… Read More

GREAT NEWS FOR THE FAST GROWING INLAND EMPIRE!

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Regents of the University of California this morning authorized UC Riverside to proceed with the next phase of planning for a School of Medicine.

Provisional ballots have put Lou Correa ahead of Lynn Daucher by 282 votes in the 34th SD — a 429 vote swing since yesterday.

You can read more here.… Read More