Ward Connerly and his team have won the hotly contested campaign to end racial preferences in Michigan. With the help of our own FR alum, Joe Justin, Proposal 2 passed by a huge margin, 58%-42% Despite the pile-on opposition by politicians, labor unions, businesses and the education establishment, the voters saw clearly that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was a straightforward, fair measure that simply called on government to treat people equally, without regard to their race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Ten years after California voters passed the California Civil Rights Initiative, Prop. 209, Michigan voters got it right and passed their own ban on racial and gender preferences. Congratulations, Ward,… Read More

Along with Jon’s commentary this morning and Assemblyman DeVore’s reflections comes this apt quote from former California Republican Party Chairman Mike Schroeder (highlighted in red on the main page) in the Orange County Register today:

"The Republican revolution that started in 1994 has run out of gas, and it needs a new voice and a new rationale,” said Michael Schroeder, a Newport Beach lawyer and former GOP state chairman who predicted this day. "I think that over the last couple of years the Republican base has been given very little reason to care whether or not the Republicans held the House."

The consensus among conservativesseems to bethat Democrats… Read More

As part of a "thank you" to his supporters, Assemblyman DeVore sent along a synopsis and a Beltway prediction. He and I spoke a little over the phone yesterday morning. We shared our predictions (which were closely, if not entirely, aligned) and we lamented the state of the party. I think he and I both had much higher hopes for the Republican candidates for statewide constitutional offices. This was not an ideal result.

Well, here’s his message:

In California, it looks like a virtual status quo at the top, with Governor Schwarzenegger being reelected along with new Republican Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner. We lost the Secretary of State’s office, so our net was zero. In the State Senate, we are currently leading by 13 votes in the marginal Democrat 34th district in central Orange County. Picking up this seat would mark a positive shift in our ability to continue to block tax increases.

Other than this one potential shift, California’s legislative seats continue to be impacted by the partisan gerrymander that locked our districts into noncompetitive seats. California’s… Read More

Senate District 34 – DAUCHER is leading Correa by 13 votes. Stay tuned for the frenzy…

5th Supervisorial District – BATES won over DeYoung’s money 53% over 48%

Anaheim Mayor – PRINGLE easily wins re-election

Anaheim Council – Balance of power in question with Kring (a former councilmember) winning and Chavez an incumbent losing.

Costa Mesa Council – MANSOOR and LEECE win to solidify a conservative majority with Beaver who was not up for re-election.

Dana Point Council – Diane Harkey is the big winner without being on the ballot. She is on the council but was not up for re-election this year. Two of her candidates (BARTLETT and BISHOP) won giving her a governing majority. Incumbent Lacy lost.

Fullerton Council – Incumbent Wilson lost to to ultra-liberal KELLER shifting the balance of power in that city.

Garden Grove Council – BROADWATER easily won back a seat on the council after being termed out as mayor two years ago. KREBS also won re-election

Huntington Beach Council – Status quo as three endorsed… Read More

The Riverside County Registrar website has turnout at 35.35%. It will probably be revised upwards when all the counting is done,but it certainly wasn’t good overall. It showed in the depressed win percentages of the "safe" seats. They usually garner in the low 60 percentile, most came in just below 60%.

Bonnie Garcia pulled it out 51% to 49%. Steve Clute’s handlers are challenging it. Stay tuned. Myprediction is Bonnie stays as winner. Steve Clute was an Assemblyman and since leaving office has run against Sonny Bono for Congress, Jim Battin for Assembly, and now Bonnie. He lost them all.Give it up, Steve.

All Republican Congressional and State Assembly Republicans won handily. Mary Bono’s race was proven to never have been close, despite the Coachella Valley press trying to sell papers by hyping it.

Lyn Daucher clings to a narrow margin over Lou Correa in the 34 SD, and Danny Gilmore lost a close one by 4 points to Nicole Parra in the 30th AD. That was significant ,since former Highway Patrol Commander Danny was recruited and mentored throughout the race by our Assemblyman John J. Benoit, himself a… Read More

Contesting an election that you have apparently lost by a handful of votes is one thing, but apparently former Assemblyman Steve Clute, who just lost his attempt to take out incumbent Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia by a couple of percentage points, is apparently making the motions to start contesting the results of the election.

The outcome of this pouting-session is preordained — or is it? I have no clue about what the ‘politics’ are down at the Imperial County Registrar of Voters. Hopefully Secretary of State McPherson will dispatch some of his folks out to AD 80 to make sure that everything is handled on the up and up.… Read More

This morning, newly re-elected California Republican Congressman John Doolittle already sent out a press release announcing his candidacy for re-election to House Leadership, to the position of Conference Secretary.

John Doolittle’s release is long in terms of listing all kinds of administrative things he has done to make the life of Republican Members of Congress easier — but is completely silent in the area where it counts: an analysis of the GOP defeat, what the role of the House Leadership (of which is a part) was in that defeat (or conversely if he feels that the House Leadership was not to blame, then what was to blame).

In light of the drubbing that we just took in the last elections, John Doolittle (Californian or not) and every member of the House Leadership team that wants to keep their job need to articulate publicly what went wrong, and what they think needs to happen in the next Congress to regain the majority, and what they would do if they had it.

The launching of helpful… Read More

It is going to take some time to properly digest all of the results from yesterday’s elections and figure out what it all means. That having been said, I will share some general thoughts about the evening. Let’s see – on the the "good news" side of the ledger for the GOP: The healthy re-election of Governor Schwarzenegger, the election of Steve Poizner as Insurance Commissioner, and over on the State Legislative side of things, the fact GOP didn’t lose any seats, and looks poized to actually pick-up the 34th State Senate seat in Central Orange County with the election of Lynn Daucher. I suppose Republicans can take some satisfaction out of the defeat of the tax measure (86, 87, 88, 89) on the ballot, too. On the "bad news" side of things: the loss of Congress and the probable loss of the U.S. Senate, with the exception of Poizner the defeat of all down-ticket GOP candidates, the passage of 40 billion plus plus in ill-advised bond measures, and the defeat of Propositions 85 and 90. You’ll have to wait a day to get a more comprehensive analysis from me on what I think this all… Read More