Free Republic

Carly Fiorina is gearing up to run for president. National Journal reports she already has begun hiring staff. Fiorina has run for office only once, as the Republican challenger to Sen. Barbara Boxer of California in 2010 -- and she lost. Still, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO won prime attention by running and losing. She's on "Meet the Press" all the time. She's still rich and still good-looking. (In 2010, Fiorina and husband Frank claimed a combined net worth of $30 million to $120 million.) Insiders think she's probably running for vice president; if Hillary Clinton is the Dems' nominee, the...

Former staffers for defeated California candidates Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have an urgent message for fellow Republicans: Their political future depends on Latino voters, and the Obama administration may be providing an opening. (snip) Mr. Wilson, managing partner at Wilson-Miller Communications Inc. in Sacramento, said that if the topic of immigration arises, Republicans should avoid anti-immigration rhetoric meant to stir up the conservative base. "We're on safe ground when we say, 'We have to secure our borders and get a guest-worker program, then work on a pathway for citizenship for people who are already here'—and then quickly pivot off...

Backstage at the Debate: Wilson v. Campbell Posted on March 6 2010 by Eric Hogue The past week was a busy one; I like it this way. I filled in for Dennis Prager’s national show on Thursday and Friday and then shuffled down the hallway to handle “The Capitol Hour” each day; with Friday’s noon hour becoming election central for the first California Republican U.S. Senate debate. The week – and the past few hours – has produced a collection of thoughts that I haven’t had the time to share in a long form column here at HOGUE NEWS. In...

San Francisco -- Days after a controversial organization began collecting voter signatures for a ballot measure to change California's winner-take-all primary, a founder of the GOP-backed group says its major players are resigning - and the group will fold - due to lack of funding and support. "The levels of support just weren't there," said Marty Wilson, the Sacramento-based fundraiser, in a telephone interview Thursday. Wilson was among the founding members of Californians for Equal Representation, the group led by Sacramento attorney Thomas Hiltachk that intended to collect roughly 434,000 signatures to qualify the Presidential Election Reform Act for the...

Scaredy cats Business fights Prop. 90 in self-pity and cynicism saying it must submit to survive in corrupt, socialist California. Assemblyman Ray Haynes represents California’s 66th Assembly District. In 1922, Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian free market economist, wrote: “It is not the business of entrepreneurs to lead the political fight against Socialism ... It follows, therefore, that neither associations of entrepreneurs, nor those organizations in which entrepreneurs’ support counts, are inclined to fight on principle against socialism.” When I first joined the Legislature, I could not understand why the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Manufacturers Association, the California...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A consumer advocacy group called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fire his chief fund-raiser and campaign consultant Wednesday after learning he helped win a no-bid contract for one of his firms to promote the governor's trip to Japan last year. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said Marty Wilson should be fired for irreconcilable conflicts of interest because companies he represents could benefit from decisions by Schwarzenegger, who also pays him for advice. Documents disclosed to the foundation through a public records request revealed that Wilson helped one of his firms win a $212,000 contract for...