Free Republic

At his post-victory news conference Wednesday morning, Governor elect Jerry Brown showed why he won the election with a million votes to spare. He's steeped in the issues, he listens to what is happening on the ground, and he's not afraid to mix it up. Now, I don't agree with Brown on a number of issues. But in the course of the campaign, I rarely got the feeling that Meg Whitman was listening to anyone other than her consultants or that she was even curious. California needs a strong governor; Whitman showed them a wind-up doll. Worse, the former eBay...

After defeating Steve Poizner in the Republican primary, it looked as though Meg Whitman would simply steamroll the Democrat candidate. Meg Whitman had been the CEO of e-Bay and became a billionaire in the process. The idea of a successful businesswoman running California had a strong appeal, but an over-managed campaign by inept advisers and Whitman’s inability to take a stand on key issues of the greatest importance to California doomed her campaign to failure. The individual running against Meg Whitman is none other than aging hippie retread, Jerry Brown, the same bungler who allowed California state workers to unionize,...

LOS ANGELES -- Democrat Jerry Brown has moved into a narrow lead over Republican Meg Whitman in their fractious contest for California governor, while his party colleague Barbara Boxer has opened a wider margin over GOP nominee Carly Fiorina in the race for U.S. Senate, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has found. The Democratic candidates were benefiting from their party's dominance in California and the continued popularity here of President Barack Obama, who has retained most of his strength in the state even as he has weakened in other parts of the country. Support for Obama may play a...

Move aside, Michael Bloomberg. California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has just surpassed your record in personal spending on an election. After giving her campaign another $15 million Tuesday, the Republican former eBay Inc. chief executive has now spent $119 million in the Golden State race. (You can view her campaign-finance records here.) Bloomberg spent $110 million of his own money to win a third term as New York City’s mayor last year. Whitman’s Democratic opponent, former California governor and current state attorney general Jerry Brown, has attacked the Republican’s lavishness. Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford said Whitman is running a...

Young voter trends have fascinated me ever since the Obama-McCain bloodbath of 2008. As bleak as the statistics were two years ago, I've been building a case that Obama's youth landslide did not, and will not, guarantee permanent electoral or ideological doom for conservatives among Millenials. Virginia offers a case in point. In 2008, voters 18-29 in Virginia backed Obama over McCain by a 21-point margin. One year later, the same cohort supported conservative Republican Bob McDonnell for Governor by ten points--a 31-point (D) to (R) swing. Last week, the New York Times ran a piece describing younger voters' disenchantment...

The tie is broken for now, with Republican Meg Whitman, coming off last weekend’s state GOP Convention, moving out to her best showing yet in the race to be the next governor of California. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in California finds Whitman earning 48% support, while Democrat Jerry Brown picks up 40% of the vote. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided. When leaners are included in the new totals, Whitman posts a 51% to 43% lead over Brown. Leaners are those who initially indicate no...

Since Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown won their parties' nominations in June, tens of millions of dollars have been spent trying to break the statistical tie that's gripped the race for months. Whitman, in particular, has blanketed the state in radio and TV ads touting her corporate experience and depicting Brown as a failed career politician. Brown hasn't spent anything on advertising yet, but his union allies have aired commercials attacking Whitman as the heartless former CEO of the online auction firm eBay. With the general election season now at its halfway point, 10 weeks from the primary...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The chairman of the Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele pledges big bucks to support Carly Fiorina's senate campaign against Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. Steele was in San Francisco Thursday morning, talking about California politics and the money it will take to win in November. Show me the money, but of course he wouldn't -- to ABC7 anyway. The question is will he show Fiorina the money? The two are scheduled to sit down together on Friday. Steele told reporters financial help for GOP candidates is coming. "We're going to be in play here, big time...

The Republican candidate for the Senate from California, Carly Fiorina, was excoriated in the media for an off-microphone comment about the hair of her Democratic opponent, long-time Senator Barbara Boxer. In fact, Fiorina was recounting the comment of another person, who said that Boxer’s hair was “yesterday.” Nevertheless, the mainstream media depicted Fiorina as petty and catty. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate for Governor of California, Jerry Brown, compared his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman, to Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was Hitler’s minister of propaganda. He was such a devoted Nazi that when Hitler committed suicide, Goebbels and his wife did the same...

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.