GOP Itching For Another Dem Mayor’s Seat

SAN BERNARDINO — Republicans are looking to take care of business in the City of San Bernardino. That is, despite the fact that the local business community is largely favoring a Democrat Superior Court judge for Mayor on November 8, while fire, law enforcement and other unions are supporting a long-serving, controversial elected city attorney with no current party affiliation. The county party is targeting the Mayor’s race hoping to nudge an underdog Republican Councilman into a February runoff and add to its track record of success in local, "non-partisan" elections.

Chas Kelley, 36, is a Councilman representing the city’s affluent Fifth Ward. An electronics technician married with four children, he’s been a Republican Party activist since he was old enough to vote (he still barely looks old enough to vote). Kelley unseated an incumbent two years ago in a grassroots campaign. Despite the fact that he’ll… Read More

President Bush is coming into California to honor Ronald Reagan, and mark the addition of Reagan’s retired Airforce One plane to the Reagan Library’s extensive and tremendous facility. This trip and speech from the President are laudable, and commendable.

But, what should have happenned when the Reagan library event made the Presidential calendar was a call from the WH political operation to Governor Schwarzenegger’s political operation… Maybe the call would be like this: "Hello ‘Murph’ – it’s Karl. We’re going to be in your state right before the Special Election. The President believes strongly in paycheck protection, fair districts, as well as education and fiscal reform. We want to do a fundraising event for your measures while we are there."

Um….that call apparently did NOT take place. Instead,… Read More

That’s what the City of Tracy wanted to know from Delta College. The on again, off again love affair between the City of Tracy and Stockton’s Delta Community College dates back to 1999 when the Federal government transferred 150 acres to the City of Tracy for use as an educational business park. But as we all know, land in the Central Valley is plentiful…and towns grow as fast as planners can plan them and developers can build them.

Enter a placed callled Mountain House and a love affair gone sour.

Delta College, along with the Tracy Unified School District, and the City of Tracy once had a vision of providing a seamless education system from kindergarten through college in this soon to be sprawling southern San Joaquin county city. Heck, Delta already had a small cluster of class rooms behind the Tracy Unified Administration building, why not build a satellite campus to relieve the overcrowded Stockton campus?

Unfortunately, Delta’s affair with Tracy was short lived after encountering 36 inch PG& E high pressure gas pipeline and other issues…and… Read More

The waiting is over. Time to shut down the bandwagon and roll it back into the garage. Sen. Barbara Boxer apparently will not run for president in 2008, according a report in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper. Boxer deferred to her former in-law, the junior senator from New York (Boxer’s daughter was once married to Tony Rodham, Hillary’s younger brother). "Someone has to stay in the Senate," Boxer told the Times. "And the Senate i s not chopped liver." Or, in Boxer’s case, a load of bologna.… Read More

It appears George Bush doesn’t have enough problems with rank and file Republicans over the Miers nomination, government spending and immigration. Now his fundraising visit to California, two weeks before the special electionhas become a source of division. The official CRP spokesperson called the visit "ill-timed." Look for these fights to continue as issues like redistricting reform seperate California’s Republicans from the White House..

Read all about it in Jon Fleichman’s commentary here.… Read More

The generic images of smoky back-room party politics have not been a realistic depiction (at least not in CA) for decades. While the back-rooms are used for storage now since it’s illegal to smoke in them anyway, party politics is back, with a punch. Parties are getting keen to the idea of weighing at all levels of election politics, including endorsing and spending money on behalf of not just legislative candidates, but local races too. Read more in a column I wrote that was published today in Capitol Weekly.… Read More

BOXER’S NEW BOOK Barbara Boxer has two titles now – career politican AND author. That’s right, she has a new book out, entitled "A Time to Run" that is seemingly and interesting read. Apparently the scenario has a liberal female U.S. Senator from California opposing a conservative female appointee to the Supreme Court (shock). Fiction or non-fiction? I’m not really sure. The San Francisco Chronicle’s political writer/analyst has takes a quick peak at the book.

I’m not saying what Carla’s

priorities are here, but she did make it to the ‘racey’ parts of the book, like this excerpt: "… Her shirt was very short, and Josh found himself mesmerized by her pefectly shaped silken legs, with kneecaps that reminded him of golden apples … and her… Read More

I’m not one to fall in love with poll numbers, but here are some survey results that are worth a notice. They come from Stanford University-Hoover Institution-Knowledge Networks.

Two things worth noting: this is online sampling, with the wording from the actual ballot presented to respondents. These folks were closest to recall’s final results back in 2003, which might say something about Field and the LA Times revisiting their survey methods.

First, the Arnold slate:

Prop 74 trails, 49% to 51% Prop 75 leads, 70% to 30% Prop 76 trails, 30% to 70% Prop 77 splits, 50% to 50%

As for the other initiatives:

Prop 73 leads, 54% to 46% Prop 78 leads, 59% to 41% Prop 79 leads, 58% to 42% Prop 80 trails, 37% to 63%

If the Prop 75 and 79 numbers are true, what does that say about the power of negative advertising?

FYI – here’s a link to the survey.… Read More