Free Republic

Former Los Angeles mayor has received more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from fossil-fuel interests during his decades in public life. His support of the oil industry illustrates a broader divide in the Democratic Party about wanting to fight climate change, but not to the detriment of low-income Americans. As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state’s struggling oil industry.Villaraigosa’s work to expand mass transit, plant trees and...

The Democratic Party’s symbolic dismissal of God with the removal and forced return of His name to its platform by party officials amid boos from delegates could be the turning point in the 2012 presidential campaign said talk radio-host Michael Savage. “This is a big moment,” Savage told his listeners after describing a remarkable divine encounter he experienced last night that has underscored for him the gravity of the moment. “America is disgusted with this party of atheists and America haters,” he said. At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte today, the Associated Press noted Democratic officials were embarrassed by...

Who needs God when you have Chicago Jesus?Via The Blaze: The Democratic Party may be getting a fair amount of attention this week — and not only because the political movement is hosting its national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Another point of focus has already been the contents — or the lack thereof — present in the 2012 Democratic Party Platform.Earlier today, we told you that the document fails to mention Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a proclamation that was previously touted by the party. And now, in an even more shocking revelation, CBN News is reporting that...

Former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee will attend the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in September, WPRI reports. Chafee is now the independent governor of liberal Rhode Island, and has been drifting away from the Republican Party since at least 2006, when he lost his re-election bid for the Senate. (In 2004, he withdrew his support for President George W. Bush's re-election.) Chafee backed President Barack Obama's 2008 run, and is a co-chair for his campaign.

h/t Roberto _____________________________________ More fun-n-games at Reaganite Republican

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) will run for governor of California in 2026 after current Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his two-term limit. The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday: Villaraigosa, who has been out of elected office since leaving Los Angeles City Hall in 2013, joins a crowded field of high-level Democratic candidates that includes Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former state Controller Betty Yee, state Sen. Toni Atkins, and state schools Supt. Tony Thurmond. All are vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is serving his second and final term in office.

After the motion was met with resentment, Democratic National Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa had to call the vote three times to reinstate language into their party platform that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as well as the words "God-given" in a passage about employment

​Over the course of the pandemic and two years of prolonged school closures, public school students experienced historic ​setbacks in math and reading progress. California’s Smarter Balanced test showed that less than half of California students met the standard for English language arts, and fourth- and eighth-graders suffered the sharpest decline in math scores since 1990. The losses were most dire among Black and Latino students. It is abundantly clear that prolonged school closures were catastrophic to the academic progress and wellbeing of K-12 students. We now have the test scores to prove it.

Notorious Cardinal Mahony ResurfacesThe retired prelate who covered up abuse has resumed his left-wing lectures.Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles, is notorious for his role in the Church’s abuse scandal. In 2013, he was “removed from all public duties by his successor, Archbishop José H. Gomez, as the church complied with a court order to release thousands of pages of internal documents that show how the cardinal shielded priests who sexually abused children,” reported the New York Times. “The documents, released as part of a record $660 million settlement in 2007 with the victims of abuse, are...

In a bid to capture one of the most quickly growing segments of American voters, American Latinos United has launched a new political action committee focused on defeating President Donald Trump in the upcoming 2020 presidential election. Led by former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and entrepreneur Fernando Espuelas, the committee will specialize in Latino voter engagement in key swing states in hopes of propelling the Democratic nominee, whoever that turns out to be, to victory. "President Trump captured about 30% of the Hispanic vote in 2016. If he falls under that threshold in 2020, key battleground states will be...

California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters is certainly no stranger to controversy and scandal. In fact, she wallows in it. Waters strikes me as someone who believes she is above the law and can get away with whatever she wants. It’s one of the reasons she is seen as one of the most corrupt politicians in Congress. A new complaint has been filed against Waters and it and the new unfolding scandal surrounding the complaint has the potential to finish off her career. The complaint involves an obscure fundraising tactic that has raked in thousands of dollars from state politicians in...

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is facing scrutiny from a conservative watchdog group for possibly violating fundraising rules in a slate mailer, with the group requesting that Waters’ campaign committee be audited as a result. The Federal Election Commission received a complaint Monday from the National Legal and Policy Center claiming that Waters, her campaign, and a pro-charter school group called Families and Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa violated federal election law. The complaint claims the group paid $25,000 for Villaraigosa to be featured in the Waters mailer when he was running for governor in the Democratic primary earlier this year. Although...

Hundreds of thousands of voters’ names have been accidentally left off the rosters in Los Angeles County because of a printing error. About 2.3 percent of registered voters in the county — or 118,522 voters — were missing on the lists for Tuesday’s primaries, according to The Los Angeles Times. But those voters are still able to cast provisional ballots, though they won’t be verified right away. This will have an impact in more than a dozen House districts, but will likely have the most dramatic effect on the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce, where Democrats are...

CNN projected Republican John Cox will finish in the top two, and advance to the general election in the California governor’s race. Cox, a San Diego businessman, was endorsed by President Trump. Republicans feared they could be shut out of the governor’s race in November, which could have depressed GOP voter turnout and adversely affected the party's congressional candidates. Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was attempting a political comeback in the race, but will fall short of making the general election.

The California Democratic Party will not endorse Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s re-election bid this year, with delegates at the party’s annual convention giving the majority of votes to her top primary challenger, progressive State Sen. Kevin de Leon. De Leon got 54 percent of the vote, compared to 37 percent for the more moderate Feinstein, according to results released Sunday. But neither Democrat will receive the state party endorsement because they failed to reach the 60 percent threshold. The vote totals were not a surprise, considering the state party’s liberal leaning. And Feinstein leads de Leon by 29 percentage points in...

The California Democratic Party decided not to endorse in the U.S. Senate contest on Saturday, an embarrassing rebuke of veteran Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein, who has represented California in the Senate for a quarter-century, is facing an insurgent bid by a fellow Democrat, state Senate leader Kevin de León. He earned nearly 500 more votes than the senator, who was first elected in 1992. De León has cultivated relationships with the party’s delegates. He still faces a significant challenge in trying to topple Feinstein, who trounces De León in all public polling and fund-raising. The party also did not endorse...

The Public Policy Institute of California poll revealed a tight race for governor between Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with nary a Republican in sight. Yet, in the end it may be Republican voters who could choose the next governor because of California’s top two primary system. With the June primary four months away, Newsom tops the PPIC poll with 23% support from likely voters with Villaraigosa closing in at 21%. Third position also belongs to a Democrat with state Treasurer John Chiang claiming 9% just ahead of the first Republican in the poll,...

A statewide survey released by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) on Thursday shows Democratic gubernatorial candidates Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom just five points ahead of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, tightening the race for who will replace soon-to-be termed out Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018.

Former Los Angeles mayor and potential California gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa told the Democratic National Convention the party "must stand up and fight for these 11 million" illegal aliens in the United States, "for we are our brother's keeper." "These 11 million people have no credentials to this hall," Villaraigosa said, "they don't even have a vote."

The newly released documents buttress a report issued late last month detailing how an immigration director was swayed with respect to hundreds of millions of dollars in film and TV investments under the EB-5 visa program. The U.S. Department of Homeland SecurityÂ’s inspector general has released hundreds of pages of emails plus other documents in support of its investigation of improper influence on the EB-5 immigration program. Many of the documents discuss hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for film and television productions from Sony Pictures and Time Warner with prominent politicians including former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendall and...