Posted on 06/17/2009 7:30:36 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Republican activists may have breathed a sigh of relief today on learning that Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver has opted not to run for state attorney general.
Now they are working to recruit their own star candidate.
Their target is U.S. Atty. Thomas O’Brien. A recruitment effort is being spearheaded by California Republicans Aligned For Tomorrow, or CRAFT, a nonprofit focused on enlisting candidates for statewide office. The organization is bankrolled mostly by corporate leaders who have been seeking for years to move the party more toward the middle. Its chief executive is Duf Sundheim, former chair of the state GOP.
Sundheim said O’Brien "would be a fantastic candidate." He said CRAFT has approached the prosecutor, who told the group that "right now he is the U.S. attorney and that is what he is focusing on."
But O’Brien, who has been representing Los Angeles and six other counties as U.S. attorney since July 2007, doesn’t appear to be ruling anything out. Asked about his ambitions, he declined comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Thomas O’Brien’s resume is impressive, though I know little else about him. While this group may be nothing great, it sounds as if O’Brien would be a good choice, given the lousy state that California is in.
I guess this means that O’Brien must be defeated. Is there a conservative who has a shot?
Toward the middle?
They mean the left. RINOs.
As I said, the group is nothing great. I missed that when I first looked it up.
As for O’Brien himself, I don’t know his views. He is known as a crime-and-corruption buster. Also, he’s a former Top Gun pilot. That’s impressive stuff. Whether he’s conservative is unknown to me. I hope he is. Maybe the group is merely looking for an outsider.
Before making any judgements, I’d post this under the “need to find out more” catagory.
Yeah, I know what they mean.
If so-called Repub activists actually think we
want to go to the middle? They’re crazy.
So-called Repub activists that think like that
are not my friends.
I agree. Look into before judging...but if they’re looking for a middleman,
count me out on him.
I agree. The party has to get away from its current position on the FAR LEFT and move towards the right. Wait a sec... I'm guessing this isn't their goal ?
You’re probably right.
If they’re just looking for an outsider to help clean up the state, I’m open to O’Brien. That is possible. After all, there are enough RINO’s within state government for them to turn to.
Remember: Sundheim was our ex-GOP chairman who lauded Schwarzenegger’s “post-partisanship” and called for becoming the “Purple Party.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2196280/posts
CRAFT is a 527 committee launched by last year by Schwarzenegger donors Larry Dodge and Paul Folino, and former Gov. Pete Wilson to recruit the “next generation” of statewide Republicans candidates. It is run by former California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim.
... During the 2008 cycle, CRAFT raised $1.4 million and spent $1,005,383. Of that $1 million in expenditures, $880,000 was paid to Duf Sundheim.
... Duf invited me to breakfast year to explain CRAFT’s mission, which on its face struck me as beneficial to the GOP: meet with potential GOP candidates for statewide office and give them a reality check about whether their aspirations are realistic. If not, help them discover a more realistic level of ambition and assist them in succeeding. If they are high caliber candidates, CRAFT will train them for success. And no litmus test applied. At least, that’s it in a nutshell.
Bingo!
Attorney General Michael Mukasey was supposed to end the cynical politicization of the Justice Department. But the sudden disbanding of the United States attorney’s public corruption office in Los Angeles looks like business as usual.
There were a number of sensitive inquiries under way at the high-profile office, including an investigation of Representative Jerry Lewis, the powerful California Republican who directed hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to favored government contractors while chairman of the appropriations committee.
Representative Lewis denied any wrongdoing as investigators tracked ties between windfall government contracts and lucrative campaign donations. One former staff specialist on earmarks crossed over to become a potent lobbyist for contractors. The inquiry appears to have lagged during the administration’s strategic reshuffling of United States attorneys.
Thomas O’Brien, the United States attorney in Los Angeles, says the 17 lawyers in the unit will be transferred to other units without diminishing the anticorruption effort. He insists the revamping of his office will allow pursuit of more corruption cases, not fewer.
(snip)
Time to torpedo that CRAFT.
Yeah, see I’m smart, I’ve got more than two brain cells to figger that one out. And that’s two more brain cells than the CA GOP (if not the national GOP has).
At least Arnold’s brother isn’t running. Yuck.
He’s a fun fact Arnold’s pappy in law Sargent is allegedly pro-life and was the last pro-lifer on the national rat ticket.
Arnold more closely resembles Rosemary Kennedy.
Pre or post-op ?
Definitely post.
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