Some FR readers have been watching a coutroom in Ventura County where prosecutors from Attorney General Jerry Brown's office have been trying to convince a jury that Joel Angeles, Chief of Staff to Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, had committed crimal battery against some protesters at a local Republican political event. Imagine this — all of the witnesses of this “alleged” incident were the protesters!

Just minutes ago, the jury found Angeles innocent on all counts! Yeeah! Congratulations, Joel!

A hearty congratulations as well to Joel's attorney, Steve Baric. Baric, a former career prosecutor heads up the California Lawyers Association and Secretary of the California Republican Party.… Read More

I am on the road to Indian Wells where I will convene with fellow Republicans at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort. It’s a stunning location offering many amenities. But members of the California Republican Party have little time to play and instead must stay focused on outlining the party’s strategy and goals if we are to make inroads in 2010. California is in crisis. That’s not news to anyone. The GOP must move forward with plans to shift our great state’s economy from gasping on life support to one that is healthy, robust and thriving once again. Our goal is to make sure California voters put more Republican leaders in Constitutional offices and Legislative seats. The laws coming out of Sacramento simply don’t reflect the values that most Californians hold, and the GOP is in the position to bring positive change to the Golden State. To successfully achieve our goal, we must stay focused on important issues, such as creating jobs and strengthening the economy, as well as holding the line on taxation, addressing our water needs , and providing safe neighborhoods for our families. We must work as a unified team, not subsidiaries… Read More

From today’s San Diego Daily Transcript:

Job Creation is Job No.1 By Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher

California has always been synonymous with the American Dream. "Go west, young man, go west," they said, and people did. From the Gold Rush until today, California has been the place people aspired to achieve their dreams. We have been the global center of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

In the Golden State everyone had a shot at making a better life. The hardest working and most creative people found success here and made California their home. They established the nation’s best schools and universities, built cutting-edge infrastructure and revolutionary high-tech, biotech, entertainment, agriculture and defense industries. Californians made our state the envy of the world.

Unfortunately, those accomplishments are becoming distant memories. Today, California is renowned for record unemployment, budget deficits, and a massive job… Read More

(Blogging from Indian Wells, where Republicans will gather for the State GOP Conventions which begins today…)

At some point in the middle of the day yesterday, I actually looked at the date on my Blackberry just to confirm that it was in fact mid-September of the “off year” and not late May of next year, the election year. It was that crazy yesterday trying to keep up with some of the back and forth between GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner yesterday.

Actually (and I apologize for which invariably will be a bad analogy – I’m terrible with my analogies) as I looked from my backyard in South Orange County yesterday into the very dry Cleveland National Forest, with particular focus a small plume of smoke from a not-so-distant wildfire, I thought about the political goings-on of the day, and I realized that tensions are so high between these two campaigns that the GOP primary for Governor is like a dry forest in fire season – one little match can set the whole thing ablaze.

**There is… Read More

(Blogging from Indian Wells, where Republicans will gather for the State GOP Conventions which begins today…)

At some point in the middle of the day yesterday, I actually looked at the date on my Blackberry just to confirm that it was in fact mid-September of the “off year” and not late May of next year, the election year. It was that crazy yesterday trying to keep up with some of the back and forth between GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner yesterday.

Actually (and I apologize for which invariably will be a bad analogy – I’m terrible with my analogies) as I looked from my backyard in South Orange County yesterday into the very dry Cleveland National Forest, with particular focus a small plume of smoke from a not-so-distant wildfire, I thought about the political goings-on of the day, and I realized that tensions are so high between these two campaigns that the GOP primary for Governor is like a dry forest in fire season – one little match can set the whole thing ablaze.

Yesterday that match was struck by Andrew McIntosh, a reporter from the Sacramento… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

Are Whitman and Fiorina California Dreamin’?

… Read More

Dear California Republican Party Leaders, We, the undersigned Board of Directors of the Veterans for Good Governance, know that you support our troops. You might wear a yellow ribbon in their honor, and if you see an active duty military member in uniform you likely thank them for their service to our country. Each time you cast a ballot, you might remember that it is because of their sacrifice that you have the freedom to vote in safety and in liberty. And now, we ask you to ensure that our troops are allowed the same voting rights that you … Read More

The Meg Whitman for Governor campaign is engaged in creating a professional "videography" of the entire campaign — a big endeavor which involves a lot of work. We see some of the work of these professional video folks when they roll our in-house videos here and there.

One can only hope that they were allowed to do video and audio taping of Whitman’s campaign team folks as they have been dealing with the results of an investigation undertaken by the Sacramento Bee, released today, that looks both at Whitman’s extremely poor voting record as well as the sparse and inconsistent statements coming from the Whitman campaign on the issue of Whitman’s past voting (or lack thereof) record. I just think it would be fascinating the see the back and forth that lead to this, her official statement (thus far) on this controversy:

MEG WHITMAN STATEMENT ON HER VOTING RECORD … Read More