Free Republic

The stakes may be high for the six candidates vying for the District 15 Assembly seat of termed-out incumbent Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, but there may be more on the line for the four Republican candidates. With three-termer Houston being the only Bay Area Republican serving in Sacramento, the region's Capitol contingent could become GOP-free if the Democrats win District 15 in November. Four Republicans and two Democrats have been campaigning hard for the June 3 primary, each hoping to earn their party's nomination for the November general election. Both parties recognize the need for a candidate who can appeal...

Peninsula GOP leaders asked Atherton Republican Greg Conlon "to take a bullet for the party," he said, and run against Jackie Speier in the special election to replace the late Rep. Tom Lantos earlier this month. The 75-year-old Conlon played the good soldier, dutifully finishing second with 9 percent of the vote, as Democrat Speier grabbed 79 percent for an easy - and expected - victory. Across the Bay Area, more Republicans are being asked to face that same electoral firing squad, marching into legislative contests where they have little or no chance of winning behind an increasingly tattered GOP...

BERKELEY, Calif. -- A bill punishing the City of Berkeley for its "anti-Marine" actions is scheduled to come up for a hearing and a vote Monday afternoon before the Assembly Transportation Committee at the Capitol.Bay Area Assemblyman Guy Houston's measure would suspend $3 million in transportation funds slated for Berkeley.The money is usually spent to fix potholes and other road problems, NBC11's Mike Luery reported.Scores of activists have poured into the city for protests in recent months as the City Council prepared to consider rescinding a letter it drafted to the recruiting center telling Marines they were not welcome in...

Bill would hold funds from city unless it retracts Marines remarks SACRAMENTO — The lone Republican Bay Area lawmaker wants to withhold state transportation funding from the city of Berkeley until it rescinds a resolution that grants protesters a parking space in front of a U.S. Marines recruiting office. Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, said the Berkeley City Council is making a political war zone out of what should be a public right of way for those who want to join the military. His bill, Assembly Bill 2615, would suspend $3.3 million in Local Road and Street funding over...

SACRAMENTO -- Republican Assemblyman Guy Houston of San Ramon announced plans today to punish Berkeley's stance against Marine recruiting by withholding $3.3 million in state road funds, atop a $2.3 million federal allocation that's being challenged. Meanwhile, Move America Forward -- which calls itself the nation's largest grassroots pro-troop organization -- scheduled an all-day demonstration against the Berkeley City Council on Tuesday, until the council meeting begins at 7 p.m. The council voted last week to tell the Marines that a recruiting office is not welcome in their town. Move America Forward today asked Berkeley to rescind its action and...

So far, two Republicans have emerged as likely challengers: Dean Andal, a former state assemblyman, and Guy Houston, a current assemblyman. Andal served in the legislature in the early 1990s and gained a reputation as a hardline conservative. Wysocki, who is working with Andal, called him "one of the most conservative members who ever served in the state legislature." He is expected to announce his campaign kickoff May 1. With Pombo's loss, Houston is the only elected Republican left in the Bay Area. He has a reputation as a pragmatic conservative. He is term-limited for 2008, and his local state...

When voters swept U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo out of office in November, that left Assemblyman Guy Houston the last Republican left standing.The affable, athletic 46-year-old legislator laughs when asked what it felt like to be the only Bay Area Republican in an elected, partisan seat.But the pragmatic Houston doesn't complain about his party's paltry Bay Area numbers.Instead, he points out the advantage: He can raise money without fear of treading on fellow Republicans' territory."I have more license than my Democratic colleagues," Houston said. "I can raise money all over the Bay Area."It's a classic Houston response, say those close to...

California's first-in-the-nation law to curb greenhouse-gas emissions is developing behind the scenes differently than the Schwarzenegger administration's public pronouncements would suggest, with as much emphasis given to corporate economics as to scrubbing the air. That focus was not contained in the original law that ordered cuts in carbon emissions--a law that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed last year to international acclaim. Rather, it was part of the executive order he signed three weeks later that rearranged the chain of command over emission regulation; ordered a new, high-level advisory panel to develop a marketing scheme in which the polluters themselves determine emission...

Assemblyman Guy Houston planned to campaign on what he's done for his district, not fight accusations he says are false. But the race between the Livermore Republican and Democrat Elaine Shaw took an unexpected turn this month when four Bay Area investors filed a lawsuit accusing Houston of cheating them out of $306,015. Shaw and Houston are running in the 15th Assembly District, which is largely in Contra Costa County but extends into Stockton, Galt and Elk Grove. Houston considers the lawsuit political sabotage and said it stems from the collapse of his father's firm, Winning Action Investments. The lawmaker...