Free Republic

California Republicans Get Behind Mitt Romney The national front-runner has a substantial lead in the state over Rick Santorum, with other rivals trailing in the distance. But there's little enthusiasm for the GOP field overall. By Seema Mehta March 25, 2012 Republican voters in California have swung behind Mitt Romney, with the national presidential front-runner crushing his rivals by double digits and substantially expanding his support in the state, a new poll has found. Romney won 42% of registered Republican voters, with his closest rival, Rick Santorum, trailing by 19 points, according to the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. Newt...

I see Gov. Jerry Brown took some backhanded swipes at our lieutenant governor in a visit to The Chronicle the other day. No surprise there. Even in his "do-nothing" job, Gavin Newsom is still a challenging figure for politicians throughout the state. He's articulate. He has movie-star looks. He has a great eye for issues, and he's young enough to be Jerry's son. That's also why Newsom strikes fear in other politicians. He has the potential for being a favorite of the Google generation. Brown has a special grudge against Newsom, of course, because Gavin tried to run against him...

California Could End Up Deciding Republican Presidential Nomination Megan Goldsby, CBS Local - San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – The Republican presidential contest remains unsettled, and California could be the state that finally decides it. Super Tuesday turned out much like a children’s birthday party – everybody left with a prize, according to former California Republican Party chair Ron Nehring. “Everyone is going to stay in this contest throughout the month of March,” said Nehring. “I’d be very surprised if anyone dropped out.” KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports: Republican Presidential Nomination Could Be In California's Hands Even though he didn’t land...

Ron Paul revels in the fact that he is the presidential candidate of America's small donors, receiving more contributions under $200 than any other Republican seeking the White House in 2012.But, like every other GOP presidential contender, he also has a mega-millionaire "sugar daddy" helping to fund a super PAC that is promoting Paul's candidacy.Yet while Newt Gingrich underwriter Sheldon Adelson and Rick Santorum super-supporter Foster Friess have shared the campaign stage - and the national political spotlight - with their candidates, Paul's benefactor, San Francisco entrepreneur Peter Thiel, has never met the Texas congressman he's aiding.Who is this mystery...

California Republican Elizabeth Emken, who is challenging 20-year incumbent Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein for her seat in November, told The Daily Caller that her opponent is “protecting Washington insiders” with regard to Operation Fast and Furious. “Rather than Feinstein trumpeting her own gun control agenda here, she should be working to the get the truth out to the American public,” Emken said in a phone interview. “And, I think [House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell] Issa is very meticulous in ensuring that this is a fact-based investigation. Where will it end? I think you and I both have a pretty...

With the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in increasing disarray, Democratic President Obama has significantly strengthened his hand in California, where his margin over his strongest GOP challenger, Mitt Romney, has doubled in the past three months, a new Field Poll shows. Obama leads the former Massachusetts governor by 20 percentage points, 55-35, in the nation's most-populous state. Independent voters, who will be critical in the November election, prefer the president 59 to 27 percent, the poll found. The president has an even more commanding lead - of 28 points - over former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania,...

A succession of high profile left wing decisions and initiatives of recent weeks drive home the extent to which the left is changing the face of America. Notable among these are the decision of a federal appeals court in California to uphold a prior court decision finding California’s Proposition 8, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, unconstitutional; the reversal of a decision, due to a tsunami of left wing pressure, of the Susan G. Komen Foundation to withdraw its funding to Planned Parenthood; and the Obama administration rulemaking refusing to grant a religious exemption from the new...

Barack Obama held a fundraiser last night with 2,900 adoring fans at the Nob Hill Masonic Center. Hundreds of tea partiers and Catholics lined the street to protest his visit. By the way… The LA Times forgot to mention the hundreds of anti-Obama protesters outside the event.

LOS ANGELES – When Newt Gingrich announced he would be spending the majority of the week in California it was assumed the candidate, who is low on funds, was heading west to collect money. While Gingrich’s California political director said fundraising this week likely pushed the campaign to its $2 million goal in the state since the beginning of the campaign, there is another strategy is in the works to rack up votes as the state awards proportional delegates for the first time. -snip- Gingrich has long said he’s in the race until the convention, even saying Thursday his goal...

San Francisco philanthropist Susie Tompkins Buell, one of the Democratic Party's most generous benefactors, is keeping her checkbook closed when President Obama holds high-priced California fundraisers this week."I want to look him in the eye and say, 'Thank you so much' " for his work, said Buell, who expresses deep disappointment in the president's leadership on environmental issues, especially climate change. With Obama's 2012 re-election campaign in full swing, "I would just love to write my big check ... or have a high-dollar dinner here" on his behalf, she said. "I can't."Buell, a co-founder of the Esprit clothing company, has...

4 months to the California Primary, but fresh after caucus wins in Colorado and Minnesota and in Missouri's non-binding primary, Rick Santorum draws to within a whisker of nominal frontrunner Mitt Romney, 33% for Romney, 31% for Santorum, effectively even, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KGTV-TV San Diego and KFSN-TV Fresno. Santorum leads Romney among seniors, among evangelicals, among pro-life voters, among Tea Party members, among those who say they are "very conservative," and in the Central Valley region of California.

LOS ANGELES — On a day packed with California fundraising events to refuel his campaign, Newt Gingrich insisted Monday that he would not drop out of the GOP presidential contest even though polls show he is not now winning the argument against Rick Santorum that he is the best conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. The former House speaker also appealed specifically to California conservatives, promising to make the state competitive in the general election and pledging to take on the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled against the state’s same-sex marriage initiative. “This is a consistently bigoted, anti-religious...

ALLEN, Texas — After the appeals court ruling banning same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, Rick Santorum on Wednesday pounded President Barack Obama for being anti-family values. Santorum attacked the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse Proposition 8, the ballot measure passed by California in 2008 that outlawed same-sex marriage. “Look at the 9th Circuit decision, which said the people of California said, in a constitutional amendment, that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Santorum told a women’s group in North Collin County. “And they found the constitution unconstitutional. Imagine that. The constitution...

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Roseanne Barr's name is on California's primary ballot as a Green Party candidate for president. Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Monday that Barr is among 24 candidates she intends to place on the June 5 ballot.

Former California Gov. Pete Wilson today endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, part of a rising move within the party to rally around the frontrunner. Romney has made a big effort to line up high-profile endorsements, although several notables, such as former Florida Gov. and conservative darling Jeb Bush, have remained neutral. Wilson, although considered a conservative in California, is viewed as fairly moderate within the current GOP. In his endorsement statement, Wilson called Romney “an enthusiastic believer in American exceptionalism” and called him “a spectacular example of it.” (American exceptionalism is a term traced back to Frenchman Alexis...

California has moved its presidential primary to June, consolidating trips to the poll to save money in an election that most voters in the Democratic leaning state see as a foregone conclusion. Governor Jerry Brown signed the move into law on Friday. The state for years tried to raise its profile in the national presidential race, but its efforts have been diluted as other states have made similar moves. California spent nearly $100 million for its presidential primary on February 5, 2008, when 24 states, nearly half the nation, held nominating contests in a battle known as "Super Tuesday". The...

California’s next presidential primary will be one of the last in the nation thanks to a measure signed Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown ...

Mitt Romney holds an eight-point lead over his Republican rivals for the White House in a survey of California voters released Monday by the Field Poll... Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani... second with 17 percent... Sarah Palin came in third... with 10 percent support. Fifty-four percent of registered California voters approve of President Obama's job performance (37 percent disapprove). Further, nearly half (49 percent) of voters there support his re-election bid...

Republican Craig Huey, an advertising executive, could make a surprise advance in California's Democratic-leaning 36th District special election, according to initial results in Tuesday's race to replace Democrat Jane Harman. Due to the Los Angeles County district's Democratic lean, two Democrats were expected to top last night's "jungle primary," which featured 16 candidates of all parties running on a single ballot. But Huey narrowly edged out California Secretary of State Debra Bowen (D) by 206 votes for the second-place spot, according to preliminary results. Staff for Bowen on Tuesday night noted that 9,811 votes remained to be counted. "We are...

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who made her first foray into politics with a bid for California governor last year, said that after losing that race, she’s probably out of politics for good. “I doubt it,” she said Wednesday on Fox Business Network when asked whether she’d run for elected office again. Some had speculated that Whitman, who lost to Democrat Jerry Brown by 13 points in November, might consider a run for Senate. Last month, she said she was “definitely not” plotting a 2012 Senate bid challenging Democrat Dianne Feinstein.