Free Republic

Cassandra Lieurance runs a home-based business using eBay. But, she’s no fan of Meg Whitman , a former CEO of eBay and Republican candidate for governor. Frustrated with Whitman and Democratic rival Jerry Brown, Lieurance decided to run herself. On Friday, the Escondido mother was certified by the secretary of state as an official write-in candidate for governor of California. She is one of eight hoping voters pencil in their name next to the governor’s spot. “It seems to me like no regular people run for anything. I am tired of having poor choices,” said Lieurance, who is making her...

Yesterday the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation bestowed four California state legislators – Senator Dave Cogdill, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assemblyman Mike Villines, and former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass – with the JFK Profile in Courage Award. It turns out it’s “courageous” for politicians, despite a recession and rising unemployment, to impose the largest state-level tax increase in history. At least, that is what the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation would have you believe, as the instrumental role played by the aforementioned four in passing last year’s tax-hike laden budget was the cause for their award. It also...

On the Propositions: Prop. 13. Seismic Retrofits. YES: Earthquake proofing your house shouldn’t trigger a tax increase until you’re ready to sell. Any questions? Prop. 14. Distorted Primary. NO: This was the result of the corrupt deal for the tax increase engineered by Abel Maldonado that included this measure to by-pass party primaries in a manner Maldonado believed would enhance his future election prospects. Instead of voters of each party putting their best candidate forward, this jerry-rigged system is designed to disguise the difference between the parties and force those pesky third parties off the general election ballot entirely. Prop....

Saying it is time for new leadership, Assemblyman Mike Villines announced his resignation Thursday as head of the house's GOP caucus, effective June 1. Villines' replacement, expected to be Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo Asked about Blakeslee, Villines called him "one of my best friends" and described him as "thoughtful, pragmatic but also very focused on conservative economic issues."

Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines of Clovis is expected to resign his leadership post tomorrow. . . . Villines has caught the wrath of anti-tax conservatives ever since negotiating a budget deal in February with Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that includes temporary tax hikes

Days after a Republican congressman asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to step down, Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines has a target on his back. Shawn Steel, a former California Republican Party chairman and one of two representatives to the Republican National Committee, on Wednesday told Rob Johnson of Modesto's KMPH 840 that he and other Republicans plan to ask Villines to step down from his Capitol leadership post. Steel said Republicans are angry that Villines helped approve billions in temporary taxes during the latest budget agreement and that he is now advocating passage of Proposition 1A, which contains a spending limit...

This just in from friends on the scene... California Republican Party (CRP) opposes Prop 1A-1F Mike Villines & Tom Campbell had spoken in favor of 1A and Steve Poizner against.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by The Chronicle this week and made it clear his future is wide open. Asked if he has taken a position to ''never again'' run for political office, the Republican governor told us that if he can finish the job by delivering on tough issues like the state budget, the water supply and then environment, then ''I think I can do anything I want.'' But one thing he won't do -- even in light of his current friendly relationship with Democratic President Obama and harsh criticism the state GOP is leveling his way -- is...

The fallout from the state budget mess continues for Republican lawmakers. Two more GOP legislators are being targeted for a recall by fellow Republicans, not because the lawmakers voted for the budget that included tax increases (they didn't), but because they didn't support the attempted ouster of the Republican Assembly leader who helped broker the deal. The Republicans are mad at Assemblymen Jeff Miller of Corona (Riverside County) and Jim Silva of Huntington Beach (Orange County) because they wouldn't go along with the bouncing of Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis (Fresno County). Villines survived the coup attempt. Over...

State GOP won't pay to support tax backers By Peter Hecht California Republican Party delegates passed a resolution Sunday to deny funding for campaign mailers for six state lawmakers who voted for a budget with tax increases. But the party action, approved in a voice vote at the Republican's state convention in Sacramento, didn't include a formal censure of the lawmakers as originally drafted. The vote may be mostly symbolic because only two of the six targeted legislators are eligible to run for re-election in 2010. But Jon Fleischman, a state party officer and a conservative firebrand who publishes the...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A California Republican Party committee has voted to reprimand six GOP lawmakers who voted for a compromise budget plan that boosts taxes. The measure, which was endorsed Saturday during the party's spring meeting in Sacramento, also denies the lawmakers any financial support from the party during the 2010 elections.

The first GOP leadership challenge resulting from the budget negotiations came and went Saturday night as Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, moved unsuccessfully to unseat Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines. In a closed-door Republican caucus before the marathon floor session, DeVore made a motion to remove Villines as GOP leader (known as "vacating the chair" in Capitol-speak). None of the other 28 Republican Assembly members seconded the motion. "The discussion was a credit to the caucus. Nobody raised their voice, everything was logical, people made their case and I lost," said DeVore, who is plotting a 2010 run for U.S. Senate....

California legislators trudged through a second day of trying to close a $40-billion hole in the state's budget this afternoon, still one vote Republican vote short of approving a package that contains $14.3 billion in tax increases. State Sen. Abel Maldonado, a moderate Republican from Santa Maria, indicated in an interview with The Bee that he was willing to consider casting the decisive vote if he was satisfied with the final version of the tax proposal. "I'm very concerned with the tax package, said Maldonado, who in the early morning hours had been quoted as saying he was adamantly opposed...

"Fresno, Ca.-Dozens of out-of-work construction workers picketed outside the offices of state Senator Dave Cogdill and Assemblyman Mike Villines to encourage them and other California lawmakers to resolve the budget crisis before its too late."

Taxpayers increasingly are told that state government is going broke, and vital services must be drastically slashed unless new taxes are imposed. Here's the truth: Even with tax revenue falling below projections, even in an economic downturn, state government will have more money to spend next year than it has this year – about a billion dollars more, ... --snip-- It bears repeating: Sacramento will have more money to spend next year than it had this year. This is vital because Democratic legislators insist taxpayers must make greater sacrifices, even though every dollar counts more than ever for most Californians...

In fact, the Assembly Republican leader chimed in hours before the governor even released his plan to cover the state's 6.5 million uninsured residents. Villines criticized a core element that the governor's plan shares with Democratic plans: a requirement that employers cover workers or pay a fee."Health care is just one more big, big burden put on the back of a small-business owner," he said, labeling the employer mandate a "jobs tax." How Villines wields his newfound power could determine the course of negotiations this year in the Capitol. "We've just been abused up there and we just need to...

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won re-election by courting independents and Democrats, but his biggest problem in 2007 may be finding common purpose with his own party. Although Republicans are the minority in the Legislature, party leaders do not plan to be passive partners as Schwarzenegger contends with a projected $5.5 billion budget gap and a dangerously crowded prison system while planning to extend health coverage to millions of uninsured Californians. With the election behind them, Assembly Republicans have installed a new leader, Mike Villines, R-Clovis, a conservative known to be unafraid of confrontation. In the Senate, Minority Leader Dick Ackerman,...

The bipartisan glow that swathed the Capitol this year may give way to partisan rancor, as combative conservative Michael Villines prepares to lead Assembly Republicans in the next legislative session, political observers say. Villines, a Clovis Republican who was raised in San Jose, seized power by riding the support of conservative lawmakers, who rejected the more accommodating leadership of former minority leader, San Diego Assemblyman George Plescia. But the move may end up marginalizing the Republican caucus.Jim Brulte, a former Assembly Republican Leader and a key architect of the Poizner campaign, said Republican anger simply ignores the reality that California...

SACRAMENTO — As Gov. Schwarzenegger cut deal after deal with the Democrats this year, Republicans in the state Assembly watched with frustration. The tension grew when the governor's chief of staff compared their leader, George Plescia, to a startled deer."It upset a lot of people," said Assembly Member Mike Villines, R-Clovis. The administration, Villines said, "basically viewed us as being irrelevant. The fallout continued last week when Assembly Republicans ousted Plescia as their leader, replacing him with Villines. Villines, 39, is an unabashed fiscal and social conservative who represents a heavily Republican district. "I don't think it's so much a...