Free Republic

<p>On paper, the job of San Francisco mayor is supposed to be nonpartisan. In practice, it's been more than four decades since voters elected anyone other than a Democrat to run the city, where the political spectrum seems to run from left-of-center to liberaler-than-thou.</p>

At the beginning of last week, with the Louisiana gubernatorial run-off election set for Saturday, Republican Bobby Jindal had a comfortable lead in the polls. Though his opponent, Kathleen Blanco, picked up momentum in late polling, many prognosticators (including Larry Sabato, RealClearPolitics, and your correspondent) thought that the 32-year-old, born in Baton Rouge to Indian immigrants and sporting an impressive resume, would still pull it off. He didn't. What happened? A Rhodes scholar, Jindal was Secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals at 24; he went on to stints running the state university system and shaping Medicare policy...

From the BushBlog 2003 Gubernatorial racesElection results Mississippi Sec. of State's office Kentucky Sec. of State's officeReal Clear Politics Polling/Profile informationKentucky - MississippiNews sourcesKentucky (Louisville Courier Journal) Mississippi (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)(Biloxi Sun Herald)

FROM HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARTICLE: Light rail leading in survey By John Williams Metro's transit referendum holds a solid lead heading into Tuesday's election, and Houston mayoral candidate Bill White appears likely to make a runoff with Sylvester Turner or Orlando Sanchez, according to a Houston Chronicle/KHOU-TV poll. Despite a heavy advertising campaign that has been building opposition in recent weeks, the survey shows that 44 percent of respondents in the Metro service area support rail while 30 percent oppose it. In the race to replace term-limited Mayor Lee Brown, White has 35 percent support while Sanchez has 25 percent and...

This weekend's infamous toilet seat incident provoked outrage and political cross-fire in East Hampton. Now it's turned into an issue in the race for Suffolk County executive. Republican candidate Ed Romaine today convened a news conference to denounce the people who bolted to telephone poles a half-dozen toilet seats featuring East Hampton Town Board member Diana Dominguez Weir's Latina surname, a photograph of her and the words, "FLUSH AWAY." Weir, a Republican of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent, says it was a race-based attack that went far beyond politics and is the latest sign of growing ethnic tensions in the...

Oct. 4, 2003, 1:34AM Scheme to confuse voters in mayor's race is thwarted By JOHN WILLIAMS Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Political Writer An aborted scheme to dilute support for a major candidate by putting another man with the same name on the Nov. 4 ballot has touched two campaigns and is roiling the rhetoric in Houston's mayoral race. It is a bizarre tale that includes a Democratic U.S. congressman, a secret tape recording, a $5,000 campaign check and a floppy straw hat sold for $1,200. And it is a tale that raises as many questions as it answers. At the...

In Search of Bogus Bill How a would-be dirty trick became campaign comedy BY TIM FLECK Even by Houston's offbeat political standards, it was a very strange meeting indeed. In Internet whistle-blower Brenda Flores's humble Spring Branch-area bungalow sat an unlikely confab of political power: Congressman Chris Bell, mayoral candidate and millionaire executive William H. "Bill" White and Metro board member Janie Reyes. They had come calling on a Sunday afternoon, the day before the municipal election filing deadline, to implore Flores not to follow through on her confessed scheme to recruit another Bill White to run for mayor. In...

<p>Howard Kurtz, writing in the Washington Post notes the sudden appearance of multiple stories critical of various conservative symbols and causes.  Liberals love it, and conservatives claim conspiracy.  Whatever.   A Wall Street Journal columnist notes that it represents ''an outsized, mad hostility that even the assault on Clinton, which was poisonous, does not match,'' she said. ''A bottom level of partisan craziness and zealousness has infected the media.''</p> <p>The Los Angeles Times dropped an October surprise on Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday, running detailed interviews with six women who say the actor groped them during the last 30 years.</p>

California Appeals Court - Recall should be blocked!!!

Zeitgeist Surfing In 1977 Arnold Schwarzenegger thought of himself as a swinger. In 2003 he thinks of himself as governor. By Michael Kinsley Posted Thursday, September 4, 2003, at 9:00 AM PT Just a zeitgeist kind of guy If sexual intercourse, as the poets tell us, began in 1963 ("Between the end of the 'Chatterley' ban/ And the Beatles' first LP."—Philip Larkin), it was another decade and a half before the American political system began to take notice. In those days, the late 1970s, one of the leading politicians was a soon-to-be uncle by marriage of Arnold Schwarzenegger, named Ted...

Schwarzenegger Creamed With Egg; Talks to Himself Wed, Sep 03, 2003, 05:09 PM PT LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, action hero-turned political wannabe, was creamed with an egg at a campaign rally as he walked through a crowd Wednesday (Sept 3) at California State University in Long Beach, CA. "You have such a fantastic life, Arnold, you make millions of dollars to do movies and all those kinds of things, why do you want to do this?" Schwarzenegger asked himself. He answered his rhetorical question with, "You know something, because everything that I've gotten my career, my money, my...

<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger, skipping the first debate of California's recall election, was egged Wednesday on a university campus but went ahead with a speech in which he said he is running for governor to give back to a state that is responsible for all his success.</p>

You MUST see this!!! In today's Fresno Bee, a truly odious attack on Arnold Schwarzenegger. I haven't the skills to do a direct paste, but click on the link above, to see for yourself, how low the Bee (in Fresno or Sacramento) will stoop, to protect Gray-out Davis...BTW, they also printed nearly a full page of puff-piece, to show Davis as "taking responsibility, and confessing that he's "made some mistakes."God, I despise liberals..... (((shaking head in disgust)))

You may remember the Chicago-based Islamic website Soundvision.com which hosted messages celebrating and applauding the suicide bombing in Israel last week, such as these highlighted by Daniel Pipes: ************************************************************************** SoundVision.com Visitors Applaud Jerusalem Suicide Bombing. The murder of 18 bus-riding Israelis by a militant Islamic terrorist on August 19 met with the expected joy in the Palestinian and Lebanese street ("Several hundred young men poured into the streets of a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon on Tuesday and handed out sweets to celebrate a suicide bomb attack on a Jerusalem bus," reads one account). More noteworthy is the public, English-language...

FRANKFORT, Ky. - If money spent during the primary is an indication, some candidates featured in this November's general election undercard may be facing expensive races. Democrat Russ Maple of Louisville is coming off a primary race for secretary of state in which he raised more than $300,000 and spent more than $230,000. Maple said he expects to end up spending at least that amount for the November election. "I don't have a clue as to what it will take. I plan to raise and spend whatever I need to at least try to win," Maple said. "I would say...

Three states are electing state officers (governor, attorney general, et al) in 2003, and so far Republicans are fielding a more ethnically diverse slate of candidates than are Democrats.  Currently no ethnic minority holds statewide office in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky, but Republicans have the potential to put forward four nominees and Democrats two, both in Mississippi.KentuckyRepublican Osi Onyekwuluje is a (black) Nigerian immigrant seeking the office of state auditor.  Onyekwuluje (pronounced On-yay-kool-oo-jay) came to the United States as a teenager, obtained a law degree in 1987 and has served the public as an assistant state attorney general, Kentucky...

Holmes rules out mayor bid, pins hopes on Sanchez Ex-Port chairman to spearhead former councilman's campaign Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Political Writer Former Port of Houston Authority Chairman Ned Holmes ended speculation about a mayoral run of his own Thursday when he announced that he'll be campaign chairman for Orlando Sanchez. Sanchez, a former City Council member and 2001 mayoral candidate who now works for an investment firm and an accounting firm, is expected to kick off his second mayoral run later this spring. Holmes is a local investor who has played an important role in raising money for the...