In his first interview to the press, former State Senator Dick Mounjoy outlined the conditions and reasons for running for United States Senate. See the story by political reporter Mike Sprague in the Whittier Daily News here.. You can read my quick analysis here and FR contributer Phil Paule’s ishere.… Read More

John Myers is the State Capitol Correspondent for KQED public broadcasting in northern California. Myers operates his own blog, Capitol Notes. Myers produces the Capitol Report for his radio station, and often has interesting items on his site (you can always check it via my Blog Roll above).

Today, Myers has a post concerning Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s calendar, which the Governor started making available to public scrutiny last year. Myers takes not that despite the making public of the calendar, there are a surprisingly high number of meetings that are marked ‘private’ with no details about them. Myers goes on to note:

A seemingly slow day on the FR blog. The other correspondents must be Christmas shopping.

In the effort to post something of a holiday nature, how about the following missive from Richard Rider’s San Diego Tax Fighters … somewhat of a Christmas present to Faulconer and Acle, to go along with their Union-Tribune endorsement … as long as they don’t mind being the lesser of evils. It’s fun reading, however you look at it:

San Diego Tax FightersE-mail: RRider@san.rr.com 22 December, 2005

SDTF Announces San Diego City Council Endorsements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Richard Rider, author

San Diego – San Diego Tax Fighters has made its endorsements in the two January special elections for San Diego City Council. As is often the… Read More

You surf over 40 webpages each morning, and you are bound to miss something. I’ve always been annoyed that the Sacramento Bee carries one of their political columnists, Dan Walters, on their online politics page, but they ‘hide’ the other prominent political columnist, Dan Weintraub, over on their opinion page.

Well, today Weintraub has an excellent column that I totally missed. It will appear on the main page tomorrow, but it is definately worth a read. In it, he looks at whether the issue of reformining the abuses of the emminent domain system here in California (this is where government can take property from a private citizen over their own objection) will becom the next Proposition 13, in terms of being a rallying issue for property owners all around the state. The column takes a particular look at the efforts of State Senator Tom McClintock at putting forward a ballot measure that may appear on the ballot next year (coincidentally when McClintock himself will appear, as a… Read More

I’ve said before that I don’t see the world from the same perspective as columnist William Bradley, who writes for the Los Angeles Weekly. But I have also said that he is an extremely talented writer, who continues to produce some well-written and thought-provoking columns. I just read his latest one, and feel it is worth sharing. In it, he pens a version of how he believes Governor Schwarzenegger began his rightward/Republican shift (which, of couse, Bradley characterizes as "wrong"). Did it all happen the way Bradley pens it? Well, perhaps only the Governor, and advisors Mike Murphy, Pat Clarey, Rob Stutzman, and Richard Costigan know the answer. Nevertheless, fun reading:

SENATE GOP LEADER ACKERMAN ON 34TH SD: "THE LIKELY CANDIDATE IS LYNN DAUCHER" Yesterday it was announced that Assemblyman Van Tran (from north/central Orange County) would be forming an exploratory effort at a potential run for State Senate in the 34th District, currently held by Democrat Joe Dunn. This seat is in play because voter registration there has closed considerably (less than 2 points) thanks to the leadership of Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh, and heavy financing from The New Majority, an elite GOP funding group. You can read about Tran’s efforts (along with who is helping him) here where I spoke with him, as well as more analysis from FR Orange County Correspondent Matt… Read More

From today’s National Journal:

Rep. Campbell Begins To Fill Staff Positions The House’s newest member, Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., is settling in and recently filled staff positions in his Washington office. Jim Terry, Campbell’s campaign manager and spokesman, is now his chief of staff. Terry formerly worked for California Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, and as a National Republican Campaign Committee field representative in 2002. Before that, Terry was a caseworker in the district office of Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. Andrew Kiefer, formerly Campbell’s legislative director in the state Senate, is now Campbell’s senior policy adviser. Campbell’s legislative director is Julie Philp, former senior legislative assistant… Read More

Once sitting in a hotel room …right before I was offed as Christie Whitman’s press guy (it was understood that my job was to blow myself up) Lynn Nofziger told me "that anyone who can predict the outcome of an election 6 months out is a damn fool." Now I may not be the oddest duck around…but I play one on this site….but all of this public macanations about the 50th…struck me in an odd way….and I had to post this…my crux is that I think on all political posts..by those of us with clients…we all need to be carefulof the content ofposts…period.

Following Duane’s post….and as Morrow’s guy….and in my own way…I’d like to give my take on this goofy thing.… Read More