Free Republic

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday plans to discuss his goals for political reform that may include a push to change California's primary election laws. The governor and those close to him who helped spearhead the recent change in the state's redistricting laws are expected to voice suport for open primaries, which would allow voters to cast primary ballots for any candidate, regardless of partisan affiliation. A ballot initiative could be before voters by 2010, perhaps even earlier, to change the state's primary laws. Schwarzenegger has already signaled his support of an open primary. That issue - and others - are...

Almost as soon as Republicans unveiled their $22 billion budget proposal – with more than $15.6 billion in budget cuts, and about $6.5 billion in new revenues – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders blasted its details. “It was not a solution. It was simply a rehash of all of the cuts that have been on the table for months,” said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear. The Republican plan – unveiled Monday in a press conference that included both Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill, R-Fresno, and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, -- relies on more than $10.5 billion in cuts...

Republicans have been the only party in Sacramento offering real solutions to our budget crisis to get Californians working again. While Democrats play political games, Republicans continue to show that we are prepared to give Californians the responsible budget solutions they deserve. Senate and Assembly Republicans yesterday proposed an honest and realistic budget plan that will allow California to solve its current budget crisis and invest in the priorities of working families, while also addressing the structural budget problems looming on the horizon. The Republican budget plan includes $22 billion in budget solutions – which is more than either the...

Reporting from Sacramento -- In private negotiations over the state's budget crisis, a top Republican legislator has broached the most dreaded idea in GOP circles: taxes. The leader of the Assembly's Republicans, Mike Villines of Clovis, has publicly maintained the GOP's hard line against any tax increases. But last month, he volunteered to other legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that he might support an increase in the vehicle license fee and persuade other GOP lawmakers to go along, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. Two of the sources were in the budget meeting where Villines spoke,...

With their registrations sinking and their political clout withering, California Republicans have come out of the November election in danger of slipping into political irrelevance across much of the state. "There's been a broad repudiation of traditional conservative Republicans in California," said Tony Quinn, a former GOP analyst and co-editor of the California Target Book, which focuses on political contests in the state. "There are almost no areas in the state that can be considered safely Republican anymore." Since 2004, Republican registration has dropped by more than 317,000 in the state, while Democrats have picked up 563,000 new voters. Five...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to get his reform mojo back. Buoyed by the passage of a redistricting overhaul he had sought for years, the governor who famously promised to "blow up the boxes" of state government is expected to press ahead next year with a broader government reform agenda ... . The goal: reverse the dysfunction of the Legislature, ... With many of his other policy ambitions stifled by the tanking state budget, reclaiming the reform mantle may be an opportunity for Schwarzenegger to burnish his legacy ... The narrow passage of Proposition 11, ... , gives...

The California GOP's stimulus dodge Republicans in Sacramento have been trying to change overtime and meal-break regulations long before the current crisis. December 7, 2008 One of the keys to finally closing a state budget deal may be a controversial package of economic stimulus measures, either in the form recommended by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the unsuccessful special session of the Legislature that came to a close after Thanksgiving, or with some tweaks here and there to satisfy various constituencies. Democrats are expected to come back with the same budget proposals they put forward last month, a call for Republicans...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opposed Proposition 8, has openly hoped that courts will now overturn it and has encouraged opponents to "never give up."In the process, he's ignited a battle within his own party. Christian conservatives are using him as a foil, to claim that they, not the Republican governor, represent the party base. That Schwarzenegger is "condoning street protests and supporting judicial activist scams to overturn a popularly approved state constitutional amendment approaches advocacy of anarchy," said an action alert from the Family Research Council, which urges conservatives to contact Schwarzenegger's office. With Republicans out of power in both houses...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially named San Francisco Democrat Carole Migden to a high-paying seat on the state's waste board on Friday. The job pays $132,178 per year. The first was ex-Assemblyman John Laird. Then came former Sen. Sheila Kuehl. All three are Democrats. All three also happened to be members of the LGBT caucus. A couple years back, she pressed the vote button of an Assembly Republican for her own legislation. Earlier this year, she paid a state record $350,000 fine for campaign finance violations. She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving after a 30-mile drive in her state-owned...

It isn't really clear if a candidate for Governor can suffer a "significant campaign setback" if they aren't even a candidate yet, but that is what has happened to ersatz Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who, relatively new to the GOP, has had high profile roles with the Presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney (with whom she was once a co-worker) and Senator John McCain - with the confirmation that her top two most prominent advisors are no longer engaged professionally on Whitman's behalf. --snip-- For most of this year, Whitman has been rumored to be looking...

OC Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh invited me to attend a small get-acquainted lunch on November 20 with Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. As readers know, Poizner is already running hard for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010. This was the first time I had listened at any length to Poizner, and I came away with an overall positive impression. Poizner brings a number of strong qualities to his campaign: he's energetic, articulate, personable and has a sense of humor. And let's face it: his ability to self-fund from his personal fortune is a tremendous asset for a Republican in a...

SACRAMENTO, California: Arnold Schwarzenegger still has two years left in his term as California's governor, but the Austrian-born Hollywood star already appears to be preparing for his next role — likely on the world stage. In January, he will address the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Switzerland. That event follows an international summit on reducing greenhouse gas emissions he convened earlier this month in Beverly Hills. Schwarzenegger also has been asked repeatedly whether he would entertain a position if offered one by President-elect Barack Obama, most likely focused on alternative energy or other environmental initiatives. He's been coy in...

There are plenty of good reasons why state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has the next Republican nomination for governor all but locked up. And there are a host of other reasons why the better-known Democrats now thinking of trying for their party's nod to run against him should not be taking victory for granted, despite the big Democratic voter registration edge that has made California a "blue" state in the last five presidential elections. Yes, two other prominent Republicans apparently intend to make serious attempts to deprive Poizner of their party's nomination. Those would be former Silicon Valley Congressman and...

An Alameda County judge has thrown out a lawsuit contesting the election to the county's Republican Central Committee of a handful of supporters of libertarian Ron Paul, a former presidential candidate. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch rejected a lawsuit by committee Chairman Paul Cummings of Oakland seeking to overturn the election to the committee of a group of Paul supporters and Minutemen. The opposition group won 12 of the committee's 30 elected seats in the June 3 election, and Cummings alleged that seven of them did not meet the party membership requirements for candidates. Rather than rule on...

As a gesture of good will and good politics, Democratic Assemblyman John Laird stopped by the offices of freshman Republican legislators in 2007. While Laird was speaking privately with Assemblyman Anthony Adams, an aide told Laird he had a phone call – from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "(Adams) offered to leave his own office for me to take the call, and I said, 'For God sakes, don't,' " Laird recalled. "The governor was thanking me for a comment made in public that was conciliatory. "Afterwards, (Adams) said, 'We just don't hear from the governor in the same way. I had to...

State lawmakers began moving toward a deal this week to close California's deficit with the help of steeper car fees that would cost many drivers hundreds of dollars annually, according to people involved in budget talks. Under the plan, GOP lawmakers -- most of whom have signed anti-tax pledges -- would vote to triple the vehicle license fee that owners pay when they register their cars every year in exchange for a ballot measure that would impose rigid limits on future state spending. Motorists' annual license fees would rise from 0.65% of the value of their vehicles to 2%. For...

In Sacramento, however, our attention is focused on the state's own troubled finances, only some of which can be traced to the mortgage meltdown and other factors that underpin the worldwide fiscal troubles. The specter of fiscal disaster has loomed large in California's budget wars for years, if not decades. Yet time after time, warnings were ignored and budgets were cobbled together with rosy projections and unrealistic hopes, when what was needed were sound, albeit difficult, financial decisions. Our primary problem in California is that the state continues to spend too much money on a government that is far too...

Mr. Villines opposes that sales-tax increase or any other tax boost. His reasoning is that higher taxes will weaken the economy further, because people will have less money to spend on goods and other services. The problem, he says, is spending. As an example, he cites the states' public schools, which keep getting more money each year, even as enrollment is declining in K-12 grades. "There is not a revenue problem in California," he says. "There is a spending problem." Mr. Villines's views are crucial because he has emerged as perhaps the most influential Republican legislator. Unlike his counterpart in...

"....My fellow imimgrants...my fellow Americans...how do you know if you are a Republican...I will tell you how...if you believe the governement should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government...then you are a Republican." -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2004 Republican National Convention Address (Full Speech   Partial) I am a Republican because... I believe the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person's dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored. I believe in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability. I believe free enterprise and...

Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, hasn't said whether she will run for governor of California in 2010. But the woman who guided the growth of one of the Internet's biggest success stories has run into an early online stumbling block: a cybersquatter has snatched up a series of potentially valuable domains such as whitmanforgovernor.com, meg2010.com and whitman2010.com. Now, the former eBay chief is petitioning the equivalent of an international Internet court to get those domain names back - a sure sign the potential politician who's played coy about her own political ambitions is taking a serious look at...

A record number of Californians has registered to vote in the run-up to next week's general election, with voter rolls surpassing 17 million for the first time. The secretary of state's office said Friday that the state has 17.3 million registered voters. That's up from the previous peak in February 2005, when California had 16.6 million voters.

The Republican push to reclaim the House seat occupied by Democrat Jerry McNerney has led to a no holds barred battle in the district that encompasses Fremont and the Central Valley. Ads by GOP challenger Dean Andal accuse the freshman McNerney of pork-barrel spending. “We need to stop this practice of Congressmen selling earmarks. It's just outrageous,” Andal told KCBS reporter George Harris. McNerney, a 57-year-old former wind energy consultant who unseated veteran Richard Pombo two years ago when the Democrats took majority control of Congress, defended his record. “I'm not an expert yet, but,” he said, “I've learned how...

Schwarzenegger, Shriver Oppose Marriage Amendment Sunday, October 26, 2008 11:36 AM California's first lady says she is voting against a ballot initiative that would prohibit same-sex couples from getting married in California. Maria Shriver said in an interview with KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that she is voting no on Proposition 8. Shriver said, "I believe in people's right to choose a partner that they love, and that's a decision that I have come to, and I have felt that way for a long time." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also opposes Prop. 8.

Why Republicans should vote no on Prop 8 Republicans often say that courts should apply the law, not create it. It was really quite a stretch for the California Supreme Court to say that the Constitution of California already contains a right for same-sex marriage, when the Constitution doesn't say a word about it. The truth is: It's a new issue. To those who say the Court got it wrong, I say: I agree. It's for us to decide. Now, let's make the right decision. And that right decision, in my view, is to allow same-sex marriage in California.Republicans believe...

Talk about your Western states shoot-out. The California Republican Party is sending $3 million to neighboring states of Nevada and Colorado to help in last minute get out the vote efforts in the critical battlegrounds. That's $2 million to Colorado and $1 million to Nevada, we're told. The latest polls from RealClearPolitics.com show Democratic Sen. Barack Obama holding a lead in both states, ahead in Colorado by an average 5.4 percentage points, and leading in Nevada by an average of 3.3 percentage points. Here's the official statement from the state GOP:

Talk about your Western states shoot-out. The California Republican Party is sending $3 million to neighboring states of Nevada and Colorado to help in last minute get out the vote efforts in the critical battlegrounds. That's $2 million to Colorado and $1 million to Nevada, we're told.

SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was in southern California last night, attending a pair of fundraisers in Beverly Hills. In attendance was the usual crop of Hollywood political activists, but also former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan. He told KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde why he’s not supporting fellow Republican John McCain. Richard Riordan: “We want the best person to be president of the United States, whether they’re Republican or Democrat, and now I think clearly Obama is the best candidate. But I’m still basically a Republican, I’m supporting Republicans in the Senate and Assembly, everywhere else.” Kitty Felde: “Well, it...

San Bernardino County Democrats, who have been working aggressively to register new members accused paid signature gatherers Tuesday of fraudulently registering voters as Republican. Democrats said they complained Friday to the voter registrar after interviewing 27 people who said their registration was switched to Republican against their will. Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil said Tuesday she has no evidence of fraud but forwarded the information to the secretary of state and to the San Bernardino County district attorney. Doing so is standard practice, Verjil said, since those agencies investigate voter fraud. Susan Mickey, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Mike Ramos,...

Democrats are demanding an investigation into a recent surge of Republican registrants in San Bernardino County, claiming voter registration fraud belies the numbers. Members of the San Bernardino County Democratic Party are holding a news conference today to discuss their claims and urge authorities to take action. Mark Kirk, an executive committee member of the county's Republican Party, denied his party was involved in any illegal or unethical action. "Their claims have more to do with their disappointment in the registration numbers than anything," he said Tuesday. "It still wouldn't make a difference. We'd still be a red county." The...

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner made official Monday what's been expected for months: He's running for governor in 2010. The state's only Republican statewide officeholder besides Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he will file paperwork today to open an exploratory committee to succeed Schwarzenegger in two years. The move is the first formal step taken to enter the race. "I am taking the first formal step toward running for governor in 2010 because I believe in California and I understand that meeting the challenges of the 21st century requires new and innovative ideas," Poizner said in a statement. Poizner, 51, sold a...

Something about speaking in the native language loosens the lips, which just might explain the freewheeling interview that Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Austrian-born governor, gave recently to the German language publication Der Spiegel. So freewheeling, in fact, that the governor’s office is casting doubt on the accuracy of the interview until it can verify the translation. In a transcript published in English of an interview conducted at least partially in German, Schwarzenegger called the leaders of California’s Republican Party -- his own party -- “so out -there” politically, saying he has no almost no contact with them. The comments strained his...

In an interview published Sunday with the German mag Der Spiegel, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he didn't miss going to the GOP national convention because it lacked "bipartisanship." He compared the "hard core" who run the national party to California's GOP leaders: "I have almost no contact with them – none. Because they're just so out there." That should help round up those GOP votes for his budget proposal …

"The audacity - it's a word that's somewhat in vogue now, along with 'change' and 'hope' and 'unity' - the audacity that Barack Obama is offering to us and to our children, the change that he is offering ... quite frankly, is socialism," Wilson told the breakfast crowd. Individual judgment is to be replaced with central planning. Taxes will skyrocket, and money will be taken from people who work for a living and given to people who don't. "One thing we know for certain is that Barack Obama is going to have a massive tax increase were he elected president,"...

SACRAMENTO – Anti-tax Republican legislators, blamed for what will soon be a record two-month state budget deadlock, answered their critics yesterday, proposing an alternative budget balanced without a general tax increase. The Republican plan replaces a one-cent sales tax increase backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate Democrats with $2 billion in lottery-backed bonds, $1.5 billion in spending cuts, and $1.5 billion in new tax revenue. The Republican plan, unlikely to quickly end the deadlock, was criticized for making painful spending cuts and failing to end years of state deficit spending. “We believe our plan is the responsible way to...

Don't read their lips when California's Republican lawmakers say 'no new taxes' – they've put it in writing, signed their names, essentially inviting their own party to oust them if they renege. Every GOP lawmaker except Fair Oaks Assemblyman Roger Niello has signed the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" this year, casting a shadow on budget talks by making any vote to raise taxes a potential career killer. "If you break the pledge, the people who voted for you will say, 'Excuse me, not only did you raise my taxes but you lied to me,' " said Grover Norquist, president of Americans...

SACRAMENTO – Seven years of deficits have left the state budget so far out of balance that a Republican legislative leader is saying that closing a huge budget gap with cuts alone is unworkable. Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto said he remains staunchly opposed to tax increases and is now proposing that the state borrow – possibly from funds for local government, transportation and other programs – and quickly repay the loans with money from bonds backed by the lottery. “What we would like to do is see the state get its spending in line with its revenue,”...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Sen. Tom McClintock are California's best-known Republicans. McClintock is the quintessential Republican candidate for statewide office. He is a middle-aged, upper-middle-class, white, male career politician. He currently serves as state senator for the 19th District, where he hasn't lived in years, and is running for Congress in the 4th District, where he not only doesn't live, but can't even vote. McClintock is completely inflexible and incapable of compromise, and as a result, receives little to no Republican support in Sacramento. He regularly gets beaten in statewide elections, having lost races for state controller, lieutenant governor...

Ernie Scherer of Pleasanton, who was found brutally murdered with his wife on March 14 in their home, has been elected posthumously to the Alameda County Republican Central Committee. Scherer had received 4,758 votes as of Monday’s tally at the Alameda County election web site. Voters were to choose six people among nine candidates and Scherer came in third place behind David Latour and Douglas Miller.The Central Committee must now vote to appoint someone to fill the vacancy.In order of votes, the other candidates were: Brian Eschen, Deslar Patten, Christopher Kuhn, Daniel Byards, Andrew Latour and Gregg Byars.The police still...

The California Republican delegation to the national convention in Minneapolis selected its leadership over the weekend. [My summary from short article below] Chairman: Former Secretary of State Bill Jones, who chaired GOP nominee Sen. John McCain's California campaign Honorary Chairman: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Co-chairmen: former Gov. Pete Wilson, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and state party chairman Ron Nehring Committee reps: • Rules: Bob Laurie and Jill Buck• Credentials: John Peschong and the Hon. Rosario Marin• Platform/Resolutions: Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Jennifer Russo• Permanent Organization: Sonia Denham and the Hon. Van Tran

Should they decide to enter the 2010 race for governor, former EBay CEO Meg Whitman and State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will likely have to explain to Republican voters why in recent years they have donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates. Contribution reports show that Whitman gave former State Controller Steve Westly, with whom she worked at EBay, $20,000 in combined donations for his 2002 run for controller and 2006 campaign for governor. In 2005 she contributed $1,000 to state Sen. Joe Simitian’s 2008 reelection campaign. She made contributions to candidates for national offices as well: $1,000 to U.S....

Former Gov. Pete Wilson has lashed out at GOP state Sen. Tom McClintock, saying McClintock couldn't be counted on in the Legislature and should not go to Congress. Wilson, a fellow Republican, made the remarks during a campaign event for the 4th Congressional District GOP primary organized by McClintock rival Doug Ose. The two are battling to replace incumbent GOP Rep. John Doolittle, who is retiring. McClintock was in the state Assembly while Wilson was governor. Wilson said McClintock was the first to criticize but the last to help his own team. McClintock's campaign did not immediately respond to a...

A former California Republican Party official's false-arrest lawsuit against U.S. immigration authorities has been thrown out of court. A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., ruled last month that immigration officers did nothing wrong when they jailed Michael Kamburowski, 35, on a deportation warrant in 2004, three years before he was hired as chief operating officer for the California GOP. Kamburowski, an Australian citizen, had sued in 2005, seeking $5 million damages from the government. The lawsuit was pending when state party chief Ron Nehring hired him in March 2007 to oversee the state party's finances, but party officials said they...

It has not been easy being a Republican in Los Angeles - or California - for quite some time. Even with the election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - a nominal Republican, at best - the GOP has had hard times for nearly 20 years in the state. And now it looks even more bleak. "This is the worst time for Republicans than at any other point than Watergate," said Allen Hoffenblum, a GOP consultant who publishes the Target Book, a compendium of how political races stack up throughout the state. "We always go through cycles where one party is up...

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, 43, a prolife freshman Republican from California, will chair the platform committee for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., The Washington Times has learned today. Steven J. Duffield, former aide to conservative Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, will be the committee's executive director. In his first year in Congress, Mr. McCarthy had a 100 percent prolife voting record, according to the National Right to Life committee. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has let it been known through associates that he will not work to "soften" — even behind the scenes — the...

Sacramento Republican Activists Launch Effort to Support the Republican Wing of the Republican Party (Sacramento) - Limited government, lower taxes and family values are just a few things that voters usually associate with the Republican Party. But recently, elected Republican officials have been actively taking positions against these bedrock Republican values and have supported efforts to increase minimum wage, driving up unemployment; proposed a tax increase on homeowners to pay for fire protection that they are already paying for; and fighting against an effort to protect the definition of marriage, as between a man and a women. Some say you...

Governor Schwarzenegger is barnstorming the state telling everyone that he's ready to sign off on a budget deal that includes higher revenues combined with budget cuts. All of that is code for raising taxes. The danger in this talk is that some Republicans could end up following his lead. If Governor Schwarzenegger can convince enough Republicans to go along it would be fatal to legislative Republicans. Legislative Republicans have one thing that makes them relevant to policymaking and that is the 2/3rds vote requirement to pass a budget, increase taxes, enact urgency statues and put measures on the ballot. If...

LOS ANGELES, (AP) -- A splinter group of Republicans with ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and financed by six-figure donations will recruit candidates with hopes of reversing the party's disappointing record in recent statewide elections. Disclosure of the group Tuesday — California Republicans Aligned for Tomorrow — comes at a time when the California Republican Party has been struggling with financial and management problems and factional strife between moderates and conservatives. A list of supporters comes from across the party's political spectrum, but the organization appears geared to promoting Republicans who can compete statewide in a state that leans Democratic....

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sidestepped the superdelegate controversy as she opened the California Democratic Party convention tonight in San Jose, instead taking aim at likely Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. Pelosi noted that McCain campaigned alongside Governor Schwarzenegger during the polarizing special election the governor called in 2005. Schwarzenegger tried to pass ballot measures aimed at weakening the power of public employee unions, changing teacher tenure rules and clamping down on state spending. Californians rejected those reforms and she predicted they'd reject McCain as well. The gathering at the San Jose Convention Center continues through...

At a time when the GOP presidential nominee will need more assistance than ever, a number of state Republican parties are struggling through troubled times, suffering from internal strife, poor fundraising, onerous debt, scandal or voting trends that are conspiring to relegate the local branches of the party to near-irrelevance. In some of the largest, smallest, reddest and bluest states in the nation, many state Republican organizations are still reeling in the aftermath of the devastating 2006 election cycle, raising questions about how much grassroots help the state parties will be able to deliver to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain....