Free Republic

Bruce McPherson said Tuesday he is dropping his GOP party affiliation and listing no preference, joining a growing bloc of California voters who've renounced party identification... (snip) An abortion rights supporter who's willing to discuss new taxes, McPherson was known as a moderate during his 11 years in the Legislature. During the years, he has endorsed local Democrats such as Fred Keeley, Henry Mello and Sam Farr. (snip) McPherson said he did not consider registering as a Democrat. "No, because I think the far left of the Democrats is in the same situation as the far right of the Republican...

Ask people to name the most influential Canadians of the 20th century and they will throw out familiar entries from the centre-left political firmament: Pierre Trudeau, Lester Pearson, Tommy Douglas. Yet there was a woman who eclipsed all these men: a Canadian preacher who reinvented American Protestantism, starred in a crime sensation rivalling that of the Lindbergh kidnapping and helped fuse the alliance between evangelism and right-wing ideology that drives American politics to this day. And amazingly, I bet you've never heard of her. Perhaps a newly published biography will change that. Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy was born to a hardscrabble...

By the summer of 1862, George McClellan had come within six miles of Richmond and Union forces had obtained 50,000 square miles of key territory in the West. The Confederacy, a fledgling country then only a little over a year old, was an inch away from ceasing to exist. If it had surrendered then, the North would have allowed slavery to persist in the South, at least for a time. But the South was cursed by a hero named Robert E. Lee who took command of the Army of Northern Virginia. “[L]ee’s counteroffensive in the Seven Days battles and other...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ex-New Orleans Saints quarterback Adrian McPherson is suing the Tennessee Titans because the team mascot hit him with a golf cart before the second half of an August exhibition. McPherson is seeking $15 million in punitive damages. He also seeks $5 million in compensatory damages for what he called the Titans' negligence. A team spokesman said Monday the Titans are aware of the lawsuit but had no further comment. The quarterback was on the field Aug. 12 warming up when T-Rac, the Titans' mascot played by director of mascot operations Pete Nelson, hit him with a golf...

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

Sequoia touch-screen is California's most widely used Days before the election, state officials have learned that California's most widely used electronic voting machines feature a button in back that can allow someone to vote multiple times. Several computer scientists said Wednesday that the vulnerability found in all touch-screen machines sold by Oakland-based Sequoia Voting Systems was not especially great because using the yellow button for vote fraud would require reaching far behind the voting machine twice and triggering two beeps. "If the machine beeps loudly and someone has their arms wrapped around the machine, the poll workers are going to...

As Phil Angelides' hopes of becoming governor of California sink to zero, political junkies and interest groups are turning their attention to a handful of other statewide offices that, with less than a week of campaigning remaining, are still in contention. The big question is whether a very strong re-election vote for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, perhaps even a landslide, will translate into Republican gains in down-ballot contests, especially if Angelides' poor showing depresses Democratic turnout. As a new Field Poll underscores, Democrats have pretty much sewed up two of those offices, attorney general and treasurer. Former Gov. (and current Oakland...

THE TWO major-party candidates for California secretary of state could not be more different in style or in philosophy about the role of the office. Incumbent Bruce McPherson, a Republican, is an engaging, low-key centrist with great faith in modern electronic voting systems and great concern about the potential for shenanigans at polling places. Sen. Debra Bowen, a Democrat who brings a lawyerly edge and high-tech guile in her approach to public policy, is highly skeptical about the current safeguards on electronic voting systems. One trait these two veteran politicians share is a high level of competence. It's unfortunate they...

Incumbent McPherson defends reliability of the machines as challenger Bowen says they need stricter monitoring. In their only face-to-face debate before the November election, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson and his challenger, state Sen. Debra Bowen, on Wednesday sharply disagreed about the reliability and vulnerability of electronic-voting machines used by many California counties. Bowen, a Democrat from Marina del Rey, argued that electronic slot machines face greater scrutiny than machines that count votes in nearly two dozen of the state's 58 counties. If elected, she said, she would revisit the systems that have been approved by the state, and create...

Click Here To Watch Debate (CBS 5 / The Chronicle) SAN FRANCISCO--The San Francisco Chronicle Editorial board hosted a 60-minute debate between attorney general candidates Jerry Brown and Chuck Poochigian on Thursday afternoon at the CBS 5 studios in San Francisco. This was the first debate between the two candidates, and is the only one currently scheduled. The debate is presented via streaming video here on CBS5.com and is the first of several Chronicle Editorial board candidate debates that will be offered via live and tape streams here on CBS5.com. Other upcoming debates will include: Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2...

A $37-billion package of proposed public works bonds that has strong bipartisan support in Sacramento is in some peril among voters, along with ballot measures dealing with alternative energy and a cigarette tax, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll. The vast majority of likely voters knew too little about the infrastructure bonds — backed by both Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators — to express an opinion. After poll respondents were read a ballot summary of each measure, none of the items generated much enthusiasm. Only two eked out a bare majority: those on housing and disaster...

SACRAMENTO—The race for secretary of state this fall could be the Republicans’ best hope of retaining a statewide office, and it has left the Democratic challenger struggling to find a weakness she can exploit in her moderate opponent. Incumbent Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has steered a centrist course since being appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in March 2005 after Democrat Kevin Shelley resigned amid allegations of financial impropriety. That has helped him win over many Democrats and left-leaning organizations. He has received the endorsement of groups such as the California Teachers Association, an influential player in statewide political campaigns....

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

SACRAMENTO — California's top elections official Thursday said he has a remedy for voters who say they are sick of being propositioned endlessly by everyone from governors to masked interests, using everything from twisted ads to flurries of fliers. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson and lawmakers, backed by the League of Women Voters, pitched a bipartisan package of initiative-revamp bills that would let the Legislature adopt a proposition, avoiding a nasty, costly campaign. McPherson said at a Capitol news conference that the legislation would "provide greater access for all Californians, strengthen the integrity of the initiative process and result in...

(Someone sent this to me via Email. Looked interesting). Protest of California Secretary of State: Decision To Hold A "No Hearing Hearing" On November 21, 2005, citizens may voice their concerns about what voting system will record their votes, but thanks to a decision by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, there's absolutely no guarantee that anyone with the authority to certify voting systems in California will hear those voices. California law requires the Secretary of State to conduct a public hearing as a condition of certifying any voting systems in the state. The Secretary of State has scheduled a hearing...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Secretary of State Bruce McPherson on Monday proposed changing the state's election process so state officials and initiative sponsors would have more time to review petitions before seeking voter signatures. The change is designed to prevent problems that arose earlier this year when proponents of Proposition 77 discovered they had used two different versions - the one they circulated to voters differed in 17 places from the one they had submitted to the attorney general for review. The disclosure prompted a court fight that ended Friday when the state Supreme Court allowed the measure on the Nov....

A three judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals may have a decision next Tuesday as to whether the initiative to change political redistricting is on the November ballot. But while today's two hour hearing focused on legal and constitutional issues, it also shed some light on what might become a political powderkeg: who knew there were problems with the initiative's language, and when? In particular, Dan Kolkey, the attorney representing the authors of Proposition 77, was asked when he knew of the language differences between what was circulated for signatures, and what was submitted to the Attorney...

AG Files Lawsuit To Remove Redistricting Initiative From Ballot Lockyer Says Ballot Differences At Issue SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit Friday to remove Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting proposal from the November ballot. At issue is whether backers of Proposition 77 made a mistake that could invalidate the 951,000 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the ballot. Organizers gave Lockyer one version of the measure, but provided a different version for the signature gathering, according to the attorney general (pictured, left). Prop. 77 would move redistricting power from the Assembly to a panel of retired judges....

When Secretary of State Bruce McPherson addressed the Sacramento Press Club last week, Steve Maviglio listened closely. Maviglio was the press secretary to ex-Gov. Gray Davis and now flacks for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. A couple of hours after McPherson finished his speech, Núñez declared that he was "pleased that the Republican secretary of state has joined the chorus of other Republicans and county election officials who believe that the governor's redistricting plans are ill-conceived and unworkable." Sell It Yourself McPherson did not, however, say that the redistricting measure that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting, and that will likely appear...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Secretary of State Bruce McPherson cast more doubt Tuesday on the need for a special November election, saying the new legislative and congressional districts sought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can't be in place for elections next year. "There's no way I can see that we can make 2006," McPherson, California's top elections official, told members of the Sacramento Press Club. "Maybe 2008, but that's a question mark." Schwarzenegger announced in January that he wanted to take the power to draw the districts away from the Legislature and have a panel of retired judges draw new lines in...