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Gun Owners of California Endorses Simon Simon Running up the Score on Key Conservative Endorsement FRESNO - Adding to a string of conservative endorsements, Gun Owners of California endorsed GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon today at a press conference in Fresno. "Bill Simon has a keen understanding of the 2nd Amendment, and will be a friend to California's law-abiding gun owners," said Executive Director Sam Paredes. "We are proud to endorse Bill Simon for Governor." "I support a moratorium on new gun legislation," said Simon. "Some of the laws we have on the books are unenforceable and do nothing to ...

Never underestimate the ability of unelected bureaucrats to overturn the expressed will of the people if it threatens their power. The latest example comes from Sacramento, Calif., where the unelected state Board of Education recently voted to nullify key provisions of a 1998 state constitutional amendment passed overwhelmingly by the voters. Fed up with the miserable failure rate of so-called bilingual education programs -- many were really Spanish-only programs masquerading as English instruction -- Californians passed Proposition 227 by 61 percent. The new law mandated that children be taught English immediately when they entered school and that only a ...

<p>LOS ANGELES - The television image of Gov. Gray Davis basking in chants of "four more years" offered no hint of the trouble he faced this weekend at a Los Angeles hotel crammed with Democratic Party loyalists.</p> <p>Davis has disappointed some Democratic stalwarts, and many delegates at the state party convention that ended Sunday were open about their lack of enthusiasm.</p>

Riordan Still Ahead of the Pack with Two Weeks to Go Until the Primary Richard Riordan still holds a sizeable lead in the Republican gubernatorial race according to the latest News10-Survey USA poll. Nearly half of those polled, 44 percent, are supporting Riordan versus 30 percent for businessman Bill Simon and 16 percent for Secretary of State Bill Jones. Only six percent of the voters polled consider themselves undecided. The poll of 605 voters has an error rate of 4.0 percent. In a match up with current Gov. Gray Davis, Riordan had been leading by as many as five percentage ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 19, 2002 Gun Owners of California Endorses Simon Simon Running up the Score on Key Conservative Endorsement FRESNO - Adding to a string of conservative endorsements, Gun Owners of California endorsed GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon today at a press conference in Fresno. "Bill Simon has a keen understanding of the 2nd Amendment, and will be a friend to California's law-abiding gun owners," said Executive Director Sam Paredes. "We are proud to endorse Bill Simon for Governor." "I support a moratorium on new gun legislation," said Simon. "Some of the laws we have on the ...

<p>Californians will be voting in a primary election two weeks hence -- three months earlier than decades-long custom -- because Democrats thought an early primary would help them overcome Republican resistance to a partisan redistricting scheme in 2001.</p> <p>Ironically, while Democrats concocted the early primary to thwart any GOP plans to challenge redistricting via referendum, it eventually gave a Republican attorney general authority to hold up new legislative and congressional maps, and therefore compelled Democrats to seek a bipartisan deal.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES -- Four years ago, Merle Davis ignored the odds and devoted her weekends to the volunteer campaign work that helped Gray Davis win a come-from-behind victory in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.</p> <p>This year, Davis said she doesn't plan to spend much time on the Democratic governor's re-election campaign. "Everybody expected him to go in and take charge," she said during a break in the state Democratic Party convention this weekend. "Then, all of a sudden, nothing happened any more. It was like a standstill."</p>

Courting the Gays Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan Talks About His Gubernatorial Bid and His Philosophy of Inclusion By John Caldwell &nbsp; PHOTO: EDGAR B. ANDERSON "Against political advice, I opposed Proposition 22 because I felt it was unnecessary. It was a divisive measure that singled out gays and lesbians." --Republican gubernatorial primary candidate Richard Riordan As he forays into a world of heavy-handed partisan politics, California gubernatorial hopeful Richard Riordan acts and sounds surprisingly nonpartisan. "I believe that I'm important," the former Los Angeles mayor says from behind the podium at a Jan. 9 breakfast hosted by ...

<p>Bill Simon Jr. had just finished touting his pledge not to raise taxes as governor when a questioner asked for some clarification: Did he mean to say he wouldn't raise taxes throughout his first term?</p> <p>"I made a pledge," said Simon, one of three Republicans seeking his party's nomination for governor this year. "Now, I don't know about my whole term, but I will not raise taxes to balance this budget."</p>

<p>Governor speaks on jobs, environment, power crisis and his Republican rivals.</p> <p>LOS ANGELES -- After three years of charting a politically centrist course as California's governor, Gray Davis officially kicked off his re-election bid Saturday with a muted but defiant speech that sounded like a rallying cry from an old-style populist Democrat.</p>

<p>On a sunny weekend morning, 150 Bill Simon fans were standing outside a San Jose hotel, waving signs, blowing whistles and blasting confetti into the air.</p> <p>It wasn't the usual greeting a lawyer and financier gets when he comes into town, but as Simon is learning, life is different when you're running for governor.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gray Davis appeared before an exuberant crowd of Democratic Party loyalists Saturday and warned his Republican foes that "you are in for the fight of your life."</p> <p>"You might think it's fun to castigate the governor, guys," Davis declared at the state Democratic Convention. "But you can't govern the fifth-largest economy of the world with warmed-over platitudes."</p>

Simon wants much bigger tax break for homeowners By Philip J. LaVelle and John Marelius STAFF WRITERS February 16, 2002 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon yesterday endorsed a plan to more than triple the property-tax break for homeowners, a proposal opponent Richard Riordan promptly branded as "irresponsible." A conservative Los Angeles businessman who has never run for office, Simon increasingly is making taxes the central issue of his campaign. Polls show him to be gaining ground on front-runner Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles. The third major candidate in the race for the GOP nomination for governor, Secretary ...

<p>LOS ANGELES — The state Democratic convention opened Friday amid promises from party leaders and loyalists that Democratic Gov. Gray Davis will cruise to re-election, even as some worried the governor hasn't done enough to solidify support.</p> <p>"He's got to get out among the working people more, because that's who put Gray in the first place," said delegate Linda E. Love, 49, of Sacramento.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- For Brandon Gesicki, working to help Auburn physician Bill Kirby in his uphill battle to unseat six-term Rep. John Doolittle in the March 5 primary is part of a broader calling.</p> <p>Gesicki, 29, is a lieutenant in the crusade of Republican moderates to wrest control of the state party from conservatives. And while he stops off in Placer County long enough to serve as Kirby's chief political consultant, he won't stay long.</p>

Three people hear candidate's speech POLITICS: Two reporters and a student see Secretary of State Bill Jones in Riverside. 02/16/2002 BY JOHN WELSH THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE RIVERSIDE - Three people showed up Friday to hear Secretary of State Bill Jones tout his plans for education should he win the governor's race. Two were reporters for The Press-Enterprise. The third was a high school senior who is too young to vote in the March 5 primary. The visit in front of Arlington High School in Riverside was a late addition to Jones' campaign schedule, a spokeswoman said. It was sandwiched between stops ...

Democrats begin 3-day convention, pushing Davis candidacy Rick Orlov Columnsit Coming to the home turf of the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, California Democrats began their three-day convention in Los Angeles on Friday with a staunch defense of Gov. Gray Davis. During the weekend event at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, the 1,800 delegates will hear from several 2004 presidential prospects, but are expected to focus their attention on Davis' prospects to win a second term despite some discontent over his leadership during the past year. State Party Chairman Art Torres acknowledged the difficulty Davis faces -- with questions over his handling ...

1. FR - The need to effectively communicate with Democrats. (pending) 2. Principles and Issues that need to be discussed in the Democratic Party. We need Democrat voters, leaders, and candidates who are willing to say that the Democratic Party is wrong on a number of important issues. 3. A Campaign - To Bring change to the California Demcratic Party The Governor's Race (and other Contests) - Is there an acceptable alternative to Gov. Gray Davis already on the ballot? Maybe Chuck Pineda? If not, it would require someone to be willng to run as a write-in candidate. This ...

<p>A country song -- "We're Walking in High Cotton" -- and the smell of alfalfa filled a dairy pavilion at the World Ag Expo Tuesday as Gov. Davis made his exit after reciting a laundry list of how his administration had helped farmers. The fact is that not many of the farmers and ranchers at this year's exposition in Tulare are walking in high cotton. Oh, it may have been taller. And the yields may have been better. But the prices for cotton -- as is the case for many farm commodities -- are low.</p>

Liberal Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan has accused California's bumbling governor, Democrat Gray Davis, of that favorite Dem pastime: buying votes. Riordan, a former L.A. mayor who has made a habit of contributing to Democrats, repeated his insistence that the governor should suspend fund raising during the fall when hundreds of bills affecting all manner of special interests come before him, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported today. "He has raised around $7.5 million in and around signing legislation," Riordan said Thursday in a speech to the San Fernando Valley Lincoln Club. "You can call this what you want. To me, ...