Free Republic

As a Regional Vice Chairman of the California Republican Party, I take seriously my commitment to stay out of contested Republican primaries for partisan office. As such, it has been difficult for me to sit on the sidelines during the epic battle in the 4th Congressional District, because that primary is really all about defining the heart and soul of the GOP. I will leave it to the Republican voters in this large Congressional District in North Eastern California to decide for themselves whether they want to elect former Congressman Doug Ose or State Senator Tom McClintock. All that said,...

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...

SACRAMENTO - Despite his rocky relationship with the White House, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has surrounded himself with a team of former Bush aides to run his re-election campaign. The latest addition came this week with veteran Republican ad man Alex Castellanos, a master of political attacks who helped Bush's 2004 campaign team transform Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., from a war hero into weakling in the eyes of many voters. Choosing such a partisan team might seem an odd fit for a candidate like Schwarzenegger, whose re-election hopes rest on winning back the very voters who have turned so sharply away...

As dismay grows in his own party and among many observers over Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s seemingly surprising embrace and defense of left-liberal Democrat Rob Reiner and his tenure as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, it is becoming evident that some of Schwarzenegger’s highest ranking appointees and advisors have long been involved with the controversial commission and the movie director/initiative promoter himself and have played key roles in the direction the program has taken. “The First 5 Commission,” says one Schwarzenegger friend using the Reiner commission’s nickname, “and Reiner himself have been much closer to the governor...

The allegations against former Enron Corp. chairman Kenneth Lay and others involved in corporate scandals, such as WorldCom, generally revolve about creative accounting - hiding liabilities, inflating revenues and assets, etc. One specific charge in the Enron trial now under way in Houston, for example, is that it cooked the books one year to add a penny to the company's per-share earnings and thus meet Wall Street analysts' expectations. What's striking about the allegedly illegal corporate accounting is its similarity to the gimmicks that California politicians have employed in two state budget crises over the past 15 years. --snip-- Here's...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Members of a key GOP conservative group said Saturday they are reconsidering their call for the California Republican Party to withdraw its endorsement of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in this year's election. Despite ongoing differences with the governor over issues such as the minimum wage and his reliance on Democratic staff members, the Republican Assembly is reevaluating its position based on assurances from party leaders that its concerns will get a full airing at the upcoming party convention. "We want to make sure our views on specific policy issues are openly discussed," said Mike Spence, president of the...

California Republican leaders are struggling behind the scenes to quell an insurrection by angry conservatives who want to strip Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of the state party endorsement if he doesn't drop his Democratic chief of staff, Susan Kennedy. The conservative California Republican Assembly's demand for a vote on its "Susan Kennedy Resolution" has tossed a firebomb into efforts to shape the party's agenda at its Feb. 24-26 winter convention in San Jose. On Dec. 15, two weeks after Schwarzenegger hired Kennedy, Sundheim said he and other Republican leaders emerged satisfied after meeting with the governor. He said the GOP leaders...

Among tax experts and policy wonks, there has always been a debate about what constitutes a "fee" as opposed to a "tax." The general public might have some vague notion of a difference between the two but, more times than not, they just don't care. If a citizen pays a $10 "fee" for something, that $10 has left his or her wallet just as surely as if they had paid a $10 tax. However, ever since 1978 with the passage of Proposition 13, the distinction between "fees" and "taxes" has had a significant legal consequence. Certain vote requirements -- either...