Free Republic

(Santa Clarita, CA) – Today Mike Garcia, the Congressional Candidate who had the courage to face the challenge against Katie Hill in early 2019, announced that he and his team have blown past fundraising goals to win back the 25th Congressional district. His momentum and support continue to accelerate and grow while all 3 of his previous opponents have either resigned or dropped out over the last 3 weeks. Here are the facts: Garcia leads the field in fundraising – having raised $750,000 by the end of November, from over 6,000 contributors. There is a path to win more than...

With the California primary fast approaching, the media are rolling out their favorite fairy tale about how Republican Pete Wilson’s support for Proposition 187 in 1994 was a historic, game-changing error for the GOP, driving Hispanics from the party for good! Both CNN and MSNBC retold this completely bogus narrative this week. NPR rolls it out once every two weeks. I — along with other people capable of reading election returns — have written about this forever. I did most recently in “Adios, America,” in a chapter titled, “I Wrote This Chapter After Noticing How Stupid Rich People Are,” inspired...

Former Gov. Pete Wilson of California used a surprise appearance before the state’s Republican convention on Saturday to endorse Senator Ted Cruz, warning that the nomination of Donald J. Trump could lead to political ruin for the party’s candidates this November. “My friends, we cannot afford a Republican nominee that brings us down-ticket decimation,” said Mr. Wilson, pointing to Mr. Trump’s weakness among women voters. He also used his remarks to argue that Mr. Trump could not be trusted with Supreme Court appointments, an issue of great importance to the highly engaged conservative activists gathered in a hotel ballroom here...

Mary Kay Henry, the head of the Service Employees International Union is very nervous about the amount of popularity GOP front-runner Donald Trump has garnered. She recently said her organization is going into "hyperdrive" to stand up against Trump, because she saw him as a real threat. Henry was interviewed by David Axelrod for his podcast, "The Axe Files" on Thursday, when she admitted that her organization was worried about what Donald Trump was stirring up in the SEIU's 2.1 million members. She was worried because she believed Trump has the ability to win the White House in November. During...

Let's start with all the things San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi did wrong: 1) Mirkarimi bullied his wife, Eliana Lopez, when he grabbed her right arm and bruised it Dec. 31. 2) When police first contacted Mirkarimi about the episode, the sheriff did not cooperate with the investigation. Instead, he circled the wagons. 3) He hired a small army of attorneys for himself and his wife, which slowed the legal process. He's the elected sheriff of San Francisco, and he tried to move his trial outside the city. 4) When Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment,...

Former California Gov. Pete Wilson today endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, part of a rising move within the party to rally around the frontrunner. Romney has made a big effort to line up high-profile endorsements, although several notables, such as former Florida Gov. and conservative darling Jeb Bush, have remained neutral. Wilson, although considered a conservative in California, is viewed as fairly moderate within the current GOP. In his endorsement statement, Wilson called Romney “an enthusiastic believer in American exceptionalism” and called him “a spectacular example of it.” (American exceptionalism is a term traced back to Frenchman Alexis...

Boarded-up shops and a nearly empty parking lot provided the backdrop for former Masschusetts' Gov. Mitt Romney’s visit today to a struggling shopping center near the intersection of Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards. Romney, presumed to be among the leading Republican contenders for the presidency in 2012, said President Barack Obama’s economic policies have contributed to the decline of this and many other malls across America. “Proposing raising taxes did not put people back to work. Obamacare made it less likely for employers to want to hire people. The talk about cap-and-trade and higher energy costs made it less likely...

The quest was a noble one: To develop, and help bring to market, new energy technologies that are better for the environment, provide greater system reliability and lower system costs, while furnishing “tangible benefits to electric utility customers.” Well, electric utility customers, you’ve shelled out $700 million for this noble effort since 1996, and what have you gotten? Precious little that could be even loosely interpreted as “tangible benefits,” concludes a report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office. TENUOUS CONNECTIONS Meet the state’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, built into your electric bill as a “public goods” charge. It has...

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to decamp from Sacramento on Jan. 3, he has displayed zealous determination to complete what critics say will be among the worst deals the state has ever made: the sale of 11 premier state office complexes to a group of politically connected private investors. ...California would pocket about $1.3 billion after debt is paid off, but would then be a tenant in the same buildings. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, the deal would cost taxpayers $6 billion over 35 years. ....Two prominent Bay Area lawyers sued to halt the sale, and the state...

Former Gov. Pete Wilson is the only politician to have beaten Jerry Brown in an election. In 1982, Wilson, then-San Diego mayor, trounced Brown, then California's bigfoot governor, in the race for U.S. Senate 51 to 45 percent. Now Wilson serves as Meg Whitman's campaign chairman. On Thursday, he told me not to believe polls that show Whitman losing by as much as double digits. Whitman, he says, has a real shot at beating Brown. Polls that show Whitman losing, Wilson said, "are greatly underestimating the enthusiasm on the part of the Republicans and pretty much a lack of it...

Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown blames much of the state's budgeting chaos on weak leadership, inexperience, a lack of collegiality and too much reliance on legislative aides -- all of which might be blamed on the state's 1990 term limits law. He and former Gov. Pete Wilson -- both shown right in a 1992 file photo -- discussed the state's budget problems Thursday at a downtown Sacramento luncheon hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California. Brown, who served as Assembly speaker for nearly 15 years and was an assemblyman for three decades, was a chief target of the term-limits...

California gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown debated tonight at Dominican University in San Rafael. The moderator was Tom Brokaw who raised the 'whore' comment with Brown.Video of the exchange at Bay Area NBCTransription by Kristinn.BROKAW: Mr. Brown you did attempt to reach out to the police union. The telephone message was left on. It's now a notorious part of this campaign. In which somebody in your campaign referred to Ms. Whitman as a "whore." A campaign spokesman then described that as "salty language" and apologized after a fashion. We've heard no outrage from you about the use of...

California's Joe Shumate, who left an indelible mark on the politics of the Golden State and spun his magic around the globe as consultant to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, has died at the age of 69. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, and we'll be hearing and writing much more on this in days to come from friends and associates. Shumate, the former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Pete Wilson, was advising the GOP campaigns of U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina and also Attorney General candidate Steve Cooley.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson provided Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman a valuable endorsement in the GOP primary, when he declared she would be "tough as nails" on illegal immigration. But what made that recommendation resonate for many conservatives – Wilson championed Proposition 187, the 1994 initiative that sought to deny public services to illegal immigrants – has become a liability now that Whitman is trying to win over Latino and independent voters. Not surprisingly, Wilson, Whitman's campaign chairman, has all but disappeared from public view. "Pete Wilson was important before June 8," conservative talk show host Ken Chiampou said in...

When California faced a major budget crisis in the early 1990s, thanks to what was then the worst recession since the Great Depression, a Republican governor – Pete Wilson – and the Legislature enacted a big, albeit temporary, increase in state taxes. Despite the boost in sales and income taxes, however, state revenue continued to decline as the recession deepened, touching off years of political debate over causes and effects. Those on the right contended that by increasing taxes, Wilson and the Legislature depressed economic activity, thus causing a further decline in revenue. Those on the left argued that if...

Meg Whitman, the billionaire former eBay chief executive who poured tens of millions of her own fortune into her first-time bid for political office, easily won the Republican primary for California governor Tuesday, advancing to face a Democratic icon, former two-term Gov. Jerry Brown.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman received high-profile support in appearances in Escondido and Fullerton Saturday, with former Gov. Pete Wilson and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney stumping for her. In Fullerton, Whitman appeared in the courtyard of the mission-style Villa Del Sol complex where she made her candidacy official in September. Like that event, several hundred people stood under the baking sun to listen to the candidate. Wilson preceded Romney and called Whitman a threat to public employee unions, warning, "They have a very good reason to be scared to death of Meg Whitman." Whitman has pledged to cut state...

You know the GOP race for governor is tightening when Meg Whitman brings out the big gun -- former Gov. Pete Wilson -- to defend her position on illegal immigration. Wilson, chairman of Whitman's campaign, is now appearing in a radio ad arguing that Whitman will be "tough as nails" on the issue. "This is former Gov. Pete Wilson. I know how important it is to stop illegal immigration and I know Meg Whitman," he says in the spot. "Meg will be tough as nails on illegal immigration. She'll fight to secure our border and go after sanctuary cities." It's...

You know the GOP race for governor is tightening when Meg Whitman brings out the big gun - former Gov. Pete Wilson - to defend her position on illegal immigration. Wilson, chairman of Whitman's campaign, is now appearing in a radio ad arguing that Whitman will be "tough as nails" on the issue. "This is former Gov. Pete Wilson. I know how important it is to stop illegal immigration and I know Meg Whitman," he says in the spot. "Meg will be tough as nails on illegal immigration. She'll fight to secure our border and go after sanctuary cities." It's...

Meg Whitman Supports $112 Billion In Higher Taxes On Californians Meg Whitman has embraced former Governor Pete Wilson, tapping the man she described as the greatest California governor in memory to be her campaign chairman. Unfortunately, she has also embraced the billions of dollars in higher taxes that Wilson championed as governor. As governor, Wilson championed a 1.25% increase in the sales tax, which has directly resulted in at least $112 billion in higher taxes for California. Whitman has not distanced herself from these higher taxes. Instead, Whitman has defended them, saying she trusted Wilson’s judgment and that “every time...