Free Republic

LOS ANGELES - Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and Linda McMahon had a lot in common. All sharp, successful businesswomen who made millions as executives in the private sector, they identified 2010 as an apt historical moment for a Republican candidate with no political experience to break into politics. In pursuit of higher office, each committed considerable resources - more than $200 million combined - to challenge seemingly vulnerable Democrats. Each risk taker came up far short of her goal. Whitman, the 54-year-old former chief executive of eBay, burned through more than $140 million of her own money in a colossal...

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...

In the springtime, strategists for Meg Whitman in her campaign for governor of California probably felt they’d died and gone to heaven in. In a state roiled in political in-fighting, effectively bankrupt, and a political atmosphere in which the electorate was sharpening pitchforks and boiling tar, you had a non-political woman, an internet legend, immensely successful, running as a moderate Republican, which all the pundits agree is the only way for Republicans to get elected in California. Meg Whitman, the first female billionaire in fact, with all the private money available one could ever hope to spend. And the opponent?...

19% in and FIORINA is AHEAD OF BOXER!!!

Senate candidate Carly Fiorina is in the lead in the California race. This comes as even FoxNews has projected the race for incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. Fiorina appears to have a solid chance of winning this race, as she is leading in heavily Republican areas with many precincts yet to be counted. Boxer is winning in San Francisco and Los Angeles, as can be expected but they appear to not be as wide as could be expected. According to Politico Fiorina has opened a .7% lead statewide over Boxer.

OAKLAND -- An Alameda County Superior Court election remained undecided Wednesday, with Victoria Kolakowski - who would become the nation's first transgender judge - holding a slight lead over John Creighton. Kolakowski, an administrative law judge for the state Public Utilities Commission, led Creighton, a deputy district attorney, by 50.22 to 48.77 percent, or 3,300 votes out of 230,000 total votes cast, the county registrar's office reported. All precincts have reported, but provisional ballots and late-arriving mail ballots were still being tallied.

Democrat Barbara Boxer survived the strongest challenge of her political career Tuesday, with Republican challenger Carly Fiorina conceding Wednesday morning. CNN, The Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times and The Sacramento Bee already declared Tuesday evening that Boxer had won a fourth term in the Senate, helping to ensure that Democrats maintained control of the upper house of Congress. “No surprise,” said Democratic supporter Jeff LeTourneau, 54, of Brea after hearing that TV news projected a win for Boxer. “I really thought Barbara would be fine all along.” Fiorina, after mulling overnight, finally admitted defeat. “This has been a great...

The 37th District Assembly winner is about to become the first California legislator in recent history to be deployed. Republican Jeff Gorell won more than 58-percent of the vote against Democrat Ferial Masry, that's after telling voters he would be deployed next year. In March, the Lt. Commander in the Navy Reserve will begin a 12-month tour of duty in Afghanistan. Gorell spoke with KEY News by phone on his way to Sacramento today, and said he is already working on a slate a legislative bills. Gorell said he will choose a staff that will give his district a voice...

In the gerrymander-gone-awry California 11th congressional district, sprawling across four counties from Gilroy to Lodi, incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney is ahead 121 votes to GOP challenger David Harmer: McNerney 82,124 votes, 47.5% Harmer 82,003 votes 47.4% A third party spoiler, Tracy's David Christensen of the conservative American Independent Party, has 8,809 or 5.1% That's with all precincts reporting as of 5:41 a.m. It would appear that Harmer would have won had Christensen not been in the race.

For me, the weirdest result of the night was the re-election as Governor of California of a man who first held the job when Harold Wilson was in Downing Street. Jerry Brown succeeded Ronald Reagan as governor (who himself succeeded Jerry’s father, Pat Brown, in the job) and went on to give Jimmy Carter a run for his money in the 1976 Democratic primaries. As a schoolboy, all I knew about him was that he was an ex-seminarian turned ultra-liberal Catholic, hung out with hippies and refused to live in the governor’s mansion. He was also very strongly opposed to...

Now that California’s Prop 23 to suspend the AB32 global warming law has failed, you get some real clarity from the players. If you ever doubted that our current crop of “save the planet” bureaucrats think they are above answering to the very citizens that pay their salary, this quote should put any doubt you may have had to rest.From public TV station KQED’s “climate watch” blog: “They didn’t know who they were messing with,” said Mary Nichols, when the first numbers came in from the polls. Wow. Just wow. Hubris maximus. Lady, you need a reality check.Read the holier...

A late overnight surge in votes that carried San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris into the lead in the race for state attorney general has her campaign declaring victory today. With 100 percent of precincts reporting as of 12:39 p.m., Harris, a Democrat, led Republican Steve Cooley, the Los Angeles district attorney, 45.9 percent to 45.7 percent, according to the California Secretary of State's Office. Harris had trailed Cooley until the early morning hours. "In spite of Steve Cooley's Dewey-esque declaration of victory" late Tuesday night, a statement from Harris' campaign said, "San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris will be...

LOS ANGELES — California Democrats have increased their legislative clout despite a Republican backlash that prevented their capturing the supermajority they have long sought in the state Senate. Jerry Brown's elevation to governor and voters' approval of Proposition 25 Tuesday will further erode Republicans' influence. The ballot measure lowers the vote needed to pass a budget to a simple majority, down from the current two-thirds supermajority. . . . Sen. Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, won re-election in the heavily Democratic 28th Senate District despite her death Oct. 20, setting up a special election...

Saying "the outcome is clear," GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina conceded defeat this morning to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. Addressing reporters, Fiorina said she had called Boxer to express her congratulations. And she said it was time for Democrats and Republicans to set aside partisanship. "I hope all will come together," she said, adding that members of Congress should "redouble their efforts to make sure that all people have a chance to live the American Dream.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, deceased candidate, Democrat Jenny Oropeza, defeated Republican John Stammreich in the race for State Senate in the 28th district. Oropeza, 53, died on Oct. 20. Because her death was within 10 days of the election, her name remained on the ballot. The governor now has two weeks to declare her seat empty, and schedule a special election within three to four months. This allows Democrats a chance to find a new candidate to run for Oropeza's seat. A week after her death, Democrats sent out mailers to residents, calling for voters to still...

California voters have spoken -- and for the most part, they decided to stop the wave of anti-Democratic voting that swept the nation at the Sierras. Now California will have a Democratic governor, Democratic Legislature and with the passage of Prop. 25, Democratic budgeting process. For years now, the Dems have been blaming the Republican minority for the state's budget woes. That's over for the next two years. Whatever happens next with California -- it will be on Jerry Brown and his party. I sure hope Brown will prove to be the maverick he hinted he would be. Talk to...

I know that Free Republic is California based and do not wish to say you should abandon your families who might live locally etc...but something serious has to be said here. My advice to any Republicans/Conservatives who live in California. You have great numbers to you...about 3 million plus. Do us greater justice...if you want to stay on the west coast for the views...move up to Oregon and Washington State. Their elections are won by razor thin margins up there. Imagine...if 200,000 of you lived in Washington State right now...Dino Rossi would be a clear winner and we would have...

I wrote this on my 'alternate' Facebook page - where I keep my friendships with musicians and the like, who are generally good people but have no idea what the hell is going on. I never talk politics there, but what has happened today in CA is a travesty of such enormous proportion, it boggles my already heavily boggled mind. Maybe CA needs to be trashed completely before people wake up. Maybe if they go to the beach one hot summer day, and it's closed, they'll wake up. Maybe if they can't get on the freeway without paying by the...

Voters in the 28th Senate District have re-elected late Democratic Sen. Jenny Oropeza, setting the stage for a special election early next year. Oropeza, who had been battling illness much of the year, died unexpectedly last month at age 53. Because the Long Beach Democrat died so close to the election, her name remained on the ballot.

Proposition 20 came out on top on Election Day. Approval ratings for the California State Legislature have plummeted to an all-time low in recent months, and Prop 20 would allow voters to vote freely and fairly for their desired Congressional candidates by stopping politicians from gerrymandering voting districts. Congressional districts in California are redrawn every 10 years after the completion of the U.S. census. In 2008, Californians voted to give a 14-member independent citizen commission the power to redraw districts for local politicians as well as Congress. Prop 20 now grants this "Citizens Redistricting Committee" the power to draw congressional...