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The other day, I called a friend and interrupted her mid-cry. She'd just returned from putting her only son on a plane to China, where he was moving after giving up on getting a job here. The next day in the supermarket, I bumped into another friend, looking downcast. She told me her only son was planning his move to Hong Kong, after a fruitless year-long search for a job in the financial sector. "Obama's destroying the economy," she told me; then she looked nervously around at our hyper-Blue State neighbors. "I feel like I have to whisper, or they're...

A new Survey USA Poll shows President Barack Obama only leading Gov. Mitt Romney by four-points in the very blue state of Oregon. The new poll puts Obama ahead 47%-43% over Romney, in a state where Obama won in 2008 by 16%. In a Survey USA Poll done in Oregon in mid-March 2012, Obama held an 11-point lead, 50%-39%.

The redrawn congressional district that stretches along the Pacific Ocean from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border is a political world like no other. The open seat vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma is one of the few places in the United States where all but the two Republican candidates are running to the left of President Obama.For the eight Democrats and two left-leaning candidates who decline to state a party preference, the district is a progressive sanctuary where longtime Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart headlines a fundraiser and campaign trail visits from liberal icons...

Study Reveals Most Popular Cars Of Each Major Political Party Marketing research company Strategic Vision recently completed a study that sought to identify what new vehicles found the most favor with Democrats and Republicans. After 38,000 responses the study revealed some rather interesting results. The most popular vehicle of those who self identified as members of Republican Party was the not so conservative Ford Mustang Convertible, followed by the Audi A8, Mercedes GL, Ford Expedition and Ford F-150. In fact it seems convertibles are a big hit with members of the Grand Old Party, who were responsible for 69% of...

Surf. Sun. Disneyland. What’s not to love about California? Well, apparently, a lot of things. In a poll released Tuesday by the Public Policy Polling, California was the least popular state in the United States. Only 27 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the Golden State compared to the 44 percent who view it unfavorably. “There’s this arrogance about Californians,” said Patrick Dorinson, a radio host in California who refers to himself as the Cowboy Libertarian. “Californians still think it’s this great star. It’s a tarnished star at this point.” The gap of 17 points puts California far...

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,...

PEORIA -- Caterpillar Inc. will not be building its new North American plant anywhere in the state of Illinois, officials with the company told local leaders Tuesday, with part of the reason being continued concerns about the business climate in the state. The company will instead focus on a location closer to its division headquarters in Cary, N.C., Peoria County officials were told in an email sent to them shortly after the close of business and later obtained by the Journal Star. The plant stood to bring with it from Japan roughly 1,000 jobs manufacturing track-type tractors and mini hydraulic...

While blue California is almost certain to go for President Barack Obama come November, California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro sees opportunity for the GOP to be a major force from the presidential race down.Del Beccaro laid out his strategy and expectations for the 2012 election in a Wednesday interview with The Bee Capitol Bureau.>Can the Republican Party play at all against Obama in California? The Republican Party historically in California has sent money to other states. So we do have an impact, regardless of whether this particular state is in play. … It will look like a competitive...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said that “There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.” If so, he would’ve hated where the House is headed for the next decade, because by and large it likely won’t have all that many good fights. Instead of looking at the House through the competitive races, consider instead the uncompetitive races — the large number of seats that should be safe for one party or the other for the foreseeable future. Based on the latest Crystal Ball ratings, less than one in four of the 435 House seats will be competitive next...

The new congressional, legislative and Board of Equalization districts drawn by an independent commission made a long-evident political reality official: California, once a Republican bastion, is now solidly, even overwhelmingly, Democratic. Democrats will control the Legislature – with two-thirds majorities in reach – and the congressional delegation. And while it may not be impossible for a Republican to win statewide office, as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steve Poizner demonstrated, it's at best unlikely, even when lavishly self- financed, à la Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. California's most important political contests will either be over the state's biennial spate of ballot measures,...

For the first time in state history, an independent group of citizens has redrawn California's political districts, approving a set of maps this morning that are expected to help Democrats garner more power in the solidly blue state. The 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission approved new district boundaries for the state Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization on a 13-1 vote, with one Republican - Michael Ward of Anaheim - opposing the lines. Another Republican member, Jodie Filkins Webber of Norco, joined Weber to vote against the Congressional boundaries. In a written statement, Weber charged that the commission broke the law...

A federal jury in New Orleans on Friday handed down all guilty verdicts on 25 counts in the infamous Danziger Bridge shooting case, in which current and former New Orleans police officers were charged with civil rights violations, conspiracy charges, and weapons charges in the shooting deaths of unarmed civilians following Hurricane Katrina. In the infamous debacle in the chaotic days after the 2005 storm, police allegedly opened fire on a group that was crossing the bridge out of town, then lied after the fact, saying they had been fired upon and planting a gun on one of the victims....

Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature were frustrated this year in seeking a few Republican votes to close the state's budget deficit by asking voters to approve billions of dollars in tax extensions. Support from at least two Republicans in both legislative houses was needed for the two-thirds majorities required to pass the special election constitutional amendment that Brown and Democrats sought. As the months-long talks collapsed, the Democrats said they'd try to pick up enough seats in the 2012 elections to secure two-thirds margins, thereby cutting the GOP out of future tax issues. And the...

The Obama re-elect campaign has released a list of its top bundlers -- think big-money donors who also arm-twist their pals into giving -- and no surprise, roughly a quarter of the $34 miiiiiiiiiiiiilllion raised this way came from California. Of the 244 individuals who have harvested millions for The O re-elect, 56 were from California. Any wonder why the guy visits so often? And we thought it was because of the views...

....Four years ago, in an effort to increase the region's influence during the presidential campaign, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia held their nominating votes on the same Tuesday in February, creating what came to be known as the "Potomac primary." Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain won in Maryland en route to capturing their parties' nominations. But under pressure from the national parties, the Maryland General Assembly moved the 2012 primary back to April. The later date will also help elections officials comply with a new federal law giving military and overseas voters more time to receive and...

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris claimed victory in the hard fought race for state attorney general today, the deadline for counties to finish counting votes. "We did it," said the Democrat, who will be the state's first female, first African-American and first Indian-American attorney general when she is sworn in next month. Speaking in front of a room full of supporters in Los Angeles, Harris listed tackling mortgage fraud, the state's 70 percent recidivism rate, environmental issues and civil rights as some of her priorities.

Consider this factoid of California political history: In the last 70 years, just one governor finished his term of office and handed it off to someone of the same party. Voters' habit of switching parties in gubernatorial elections has created a cycle. While governors must work with the Legislature to achieve their policy goals, they can unilaterally veto bills and appropriations. Thus, while liberal interest groups can usually achieve their aims in a reliably Democratic Legislature, they are often thwarted by a Republican governor's vetoes, creating a pent-up agenda that bursts forth when a Democratic governor is installed. We saw...

Los Angeles Democrat and Assemblyman Kevin de León, who played a key role in galvanizing Latino voters for Jerry Brown, said this week he's expecting the new governor to be "honest, transparent with all of us. And I expect him to be compassionate." "On election night, the Latinos in California provided a huge lift to Jerry Brown," said de León, who's pictured at right. "And now Latinos expect him to help get California back to work. Latinos have been disproportionately hit by the recession." Then there's an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion budget deficit -- and what to do...

alifornia Republicans woke up Wednesday with a political hangover. Nationally, they celebrated the GOP's taking control of Congress, but their dismal showing in California gave them a lingering headache. Many of them wondered how they missed the national wave - and differed on which direction to go next. They lost nearly every statewide office, drubbed by double digits in most of the races. Meg Whitman couldn't win the governorship despite straddling the political middle and spending a record $160 million. Carly Fiorina couldn't roust Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, despite tacking right and exploiting Boxer's low approval ratings.For months, party officials...

Sacramento's Dave Jones emerged the winner Wednesday in a high-dollar battle to be California's insurance commissioner, becoming one of six Democrat victors in the seven down-ticket races for statewide offices. The seventh race is a political cliffhanger for attorney general hopefuls Kamala Harris, a Democrat, and Republican Steve Cooley. Hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots haven't yet been counted, and the race for the state's top law enforcer is tight enough that the late votes will determine the outcome. Regardless of that race's result, the down-ticket balloting confirmed that California is a solidly Democratic state. "The Republicans in California had...

It's November 3, 2010. You think you are waking up to a sunny California morning only to realize it's a dark, dark day. Jerry Brown is governor, Gavin Newsom is lieutenant governor, Kamala Harris is attorney general, and the rest of the Democrat ticket has prevailed. California is going to be controlled by San Francisco politics. Got your attention now? Tea Party folks have brought a refreshing candor to the conservative scene, demanding from conservative candidates a return to conservative principles. But we don't live in a perfect world. And in California, we live in a deeply skewed political landscape...

Blue-state Connecticut has undergone a jolting metamorphosis over the past three years, with potential ramifications for the Senate contest between Linda McMahon and Richard Blumenthal. Many residents have become a lot more like red-state Texans than blue-state New Englanders. Now, they're enthusiastic supporters of the death penalty and are fond of handguns and shotguns. It's all due to a horrific home invasion in 2007 in the affluent town of Cheshire, a New Haven suburb. Chilling details of the "Cheshire Murders," as they're known, have played out in a New Haven courtroom this fall during the first of two trials. Now,...

A Democratic representative from New York has fired his campaign spokesperson after she gave a newspaper a list of what she called "Jewish money" going to his Republican opponent. In an effort to show that Republican challenger Mike Grimm has received most of his financial support from donors outside of New York's 13th district, Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon's re-election campaign gave the New York Observer a list of more than 80 Jewish donors to Grimm. The list was entitled "Grimm Jewish Money Q2." At least half a dozen of the donors on the list live on Staten Island, which is...

WOW: California Now One Of The Top 10 Government Default Risks In The World Gus Lubin May. 12, 2010, 4:36 PM Per the credit default swap market, California cracked the top ten for highest default risks yesterday -- overtaking Iceland and Iraq (via Ed Harrison):[snip]

April 1 is Census Day. Evidently Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann have been encouraging Americans to boycott the census — to refuse to fill out the whole form. This protest follows from their small government ideology. I am not always sure what they, or Republicans, or Tea Party participants mean by small government. They say they want a government that intervenes less in the economic sphere. Perhaps they don’t like the idea that the census numbers are used, among other things, to determine the allocation of federal spending across states, because they don’t think it is the business of the...

Do you live in the happiest state in America? Well if you live in New York, you're in the least happy state according to the Huffington Post article. The top thing on the list that made the Empire State the least happy was the government. One resident described the government as “…corrupt, self-dealing and too quick to increase taxes.” It is no secret that New York has had a troubled government for sometime now. Constantly cutting well needed programs for children and the elderly. Not being able to pass a budget in a timely fashion or one that works for...

WASHINGTON — People in sunny, outdoorsy states — Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida — say they're the happiest Americans, and researchers think they know why. A new study comparing self-described pleasant feelings with objective measures of good living found these folks generally have reason to feel fine. The places where people are most likely to report happiness also tend to rate high on studies comparing things like climate, crime rates, air quality and schools. The happiness ratings were based on a survey of 1.3 million people across the country by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It used data collected over...

Barely a year after the historic election of President Obama, Republicans are talking up 2010 as the "change" election. In blue-leaning California, the dangers for Democrats are becoming evident as the GOP works to fire up voters with issues like budget deficits, health care reform and the costs of curbing global warming. "California is ground zero for many of these debates because the problems are bigger and more outside than just about anywhere else," says Andrew Moylan, director of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union in Washington, which plans to underscore the conservative message on issues like health care,...

Students at the University of Colorado are being told by campus police that their planned game of "Humans vs. Zombies" must be canceled because of a campus ban on toys that look like guns. The planned game would divide participants into "humans" and "zombies" with the human team defending themselves with NERF guns. Campus police "[fear] they could be painted to look like a real weapon and someone could become alarmed and notify authorities, who would have to respond." "If we have people playing a game and someone happens to be walking and sees someone crouched down with something that...

"Bruce Walker recently wrote a piece in American Thinker with the memorable title 'Of RINOs, Moderate Democrats, and Men.' In it, he argues the G.O.P. should target red-state RINOs, while giving blue-state RINOs a pass. His premise is familiar--in a blue state, a RINO is the best we can do. And as always, this premise is dead wrong. The danger to Walker's line of thinking--if we apply no pressure from the right, our RINOs will only feel pressure from the left. And we simply can't afford to cede our people to the left, no matter how liberal their constituents are...

Thought you might want to see the red/blue divide in New Jersey, comparing the 2008 and 2009 elections. Red/Blue NJ, 2008 presidential Red/Blue NJ, 2009 gubernatorial

For the past decade a large coterie of pundits, prognosticators and their media camp followers have insisted that growth in America would be concentrated in places hip and cool, largely the bluish regions of the country. Since the onset of the recession, which has hit many once-thriving Sun Belt hot spots, this chorus has grown bolder. The Wall Street Journal, for example, recently identified the "Next Youth-Magnet Cities" as drawn from the old "hip and cool" collection of yore: Seattle, Portland, Washington, New York and Austin, Texas. It's not just the young who will flock to the blue meccas, but...

Jaycee Lee Dugard: Inside the secret world where she was kept captive for 18 years For 18 years, this was the chilling secret world where Jaycee Lee Dugard was held captive and gave birth to two daughters - fathered by her abductor. Philip Sherwell 29 Aug 2009 Chilling message hung on a tree Photo: NICK STERN / [Pic in URL] But the ramshackle sheds and tents dotted around the compound behind the home of Phillip and Nancy Garrido in the middle of a working-class Californian district are now yielding their squalid secrets. Extraordinary pictures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph allow...

The sustainable city of the future will rest on the revival of traditional institutions that have faded in many of today’s cities. Ellen Moncure and Joe Wong first met in school and then fell in love while living in the same dorm at the College of William and Mary. After graduation, they got married and, in 1999, moved to Washington, D.C., where they worked amid a large community of single and childless people. Like many in their late 20s, the couple began to seek something other than exciting careers and late-night outings with friends. “D.C. was terrific,” Moncure recalled over...

Millions once moved to California for its boundless promise, but time has not been kind to the Golden State. Twenty-five years ago, along with another young journalist, I coauthored a book called California, Inc. about our adopted home state. The book described “California’s rise to economic, political, and cultural ascendancy.” As relative newcomers at the time, we saw California as a place of limitless possibility. And over most of the next two decades, my coauthor, Paul Grabowicz, and I could feel comfortable that we were indeed predicting the future. But much has changed in recent years. And today our Golden...

This should be the moment the Blue Man basks in glory. An urbane president sits in the White House and a San Francisco liberal runs the House. But blue states are undergoing a meltdown. On the surface this should be the moment the Blue Man basks in glory. The most urbane president since John Kennedy sits in the White House. A San Francisco liberal runs the House of Representatives while the key committees are controlled by representatives of Boston, Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Bay Area—bastions of the gentry. Despite his famous no-blue-states-no-red-states-just-the-United-States statement, more than 90 percent of the...

Here’s a quick and dirty guess: Upper-middle-class families in blue states–those President Obama calls “the rich”–will soon be paying 20% more a year in state and federal taxes. If you pay $100,000 off of a $300,000 income now, look for $120,000 in a couple of years. Federal income taxes are going up, and deductions are going down. That much we know. What we don’t know yet–but I would bet money on it–is if the 7.65% Social Security and Medicare tax ceiling will be lifted from $102,000 to $150,000 or so. Taxes are headed up at the state and local level...

Well, it's done. The American people have elected, selected and stolen an election. The full force of socialism and Marxist dogma will now become part of every day American life.No need to remain in a state that has been going downhill for the past ten or twelve years. No need to listen to the liberal hate spewed by so many in Columbus. No need to continue to pay taxes to support the low-lifes who supported racist, Marxist and possibly a foreigner for President.I'm looking to move to real America. Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, here I come.And to George Bush, thank...

I just voted straight Republican ticket, including John McCain and Sarah Palin, in one of the bluest States in the Union. Some of you may be saying, "Why bother?" The fact of the matter is that my vote matters in this election more than other races in the past. Here is why: Imagine if John McCain wins the electoral college, but loses the popular vote. The ramifications of that happening, which is very possible, would be devastating. There really would be riots in the streets. People and the media would think McCain was an illegitimate President. That is why my...

Amazon.com has found a way to capitalize on one of the most interesting presidential elections in U.S. history. The Seattle-based retailer introduced an interactive map of the U.S. showing which states are "red" or "blue" based on their online book purchases. Although it's not meant to predict the next president, it suggests that the right's slant on the Obama-McCain matchup is more widely read than the left's. For now, 36 states are pink or red. Six are blue. And eight, including Washington and Oregon, are purple, meaning residents are virtually split in their political book purchases between Republican and Democratic...

What 'culture war'? At the conventions, they'll try to stir up red-blue divisions. But most Americans hold un-partisan views. By Dick Meyer August 27, 2008 As the nation's attention reluctantly turns to the political parties' conventions, with their scripted suspense and stage-managed sentiment, it is important to keep in mind that these are phony representations of American political life. But the slick video profiles, the teary appearance of a beloved party elder -- these are not what is most phony about the conventions. This gathering of America's civic tribes -- and the reporters who love them -- in separate cities...

An East Boston sicko is facing up to 25 years in state prison for stomping a neighborhood cat to death, lighting its carcass on fire and nearly burning down an apartment building into which he threw the torched tabby. Luigi Epifania, 25, will be sentenced Monday for last year’s death of “Nunu,” in what Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley called “a cruel and cowardly act.” A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Epifania yesterday of arson and killing a domestic animal, but that’s just the beginning of his troubles. He still faces trial on a separate charge of attempted murder for...

Without a doubt, all politically alert Americans are aware of the Red State, Blue State color scheme that's used to describe the voting patterns of various constituancies in the U.S. In it, Red states are conservative Republican, Blue States are liberal Democrat. There are some marginal states, which have become known as Purple States. But, on Free Republic, I've noticed some Freepers complain about the colors that are applied. I personally never felt strongly about it, but others seem to, and they have a point. The term became fixed into our conciousness on election night in 2000. The networks chose...

Has Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's chances of landing the coveted spot as Obama's Veep risen? According to stories at both The Politico and the Washington Post Kaine has risen to the level of serious contender, along with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. The WaPo story has close Kaine associates acknowledging that Kaine has told them that he has had "very serious" conversations with Obama about joining the ticket.

The Sen. Barack Obama campaign held a conference call this morning on one of the key battleground states in this race: Pennsylvania. Team O, led by Gov. Ed Rendell, stressed the importance of registering and winning over the one-million-plus, un-registered voters spread out over the Keystone State.

It's complicated. Pennsylvania is a "purple" state that must go Democrat blue instead of Republican red for Barack Obama to win the November election. John McCain does not need Pennsylvania to win the White House, but Obama sure does.

Just before and just after California's Feb. 5 presidential primary election, polls of voters indicated that Sen. John McCain would have a fighting chance to recapture a state that Republican presidential candidates had owned for decades after World War II, only to see it taken away by Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992. McCain trailed Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton by single digits in the January and February polls. As he locked down the GOP nomination, he visited the state frequently, both for fundraising and public appearances, and vowed to mount a full-fledged campaign here. "There are 53...

When asked about the state of the U.S. economy, Hillary Clinton first takes the opportunity to imply some similarity between John McCain and Herbert Hoover. At the same time, Senator McCain delivers a speech addressing, “Senator Obama's fantasy plan for making us safer." Meanwhile, Barack Obama compares Senator Clinton to Walter Mitty, in responding to her "mistake", in recounting her visit to Bosnia, as First Lady. I understand that these tactics are common, for providing political leverage but how do they help our nation? None of the three current Presidential Candidates mentioned are perfect but, though their approaches differ, I...

An army of star spouses and entertainers - propelled by a down-to-the-wire struggle for the trove of California's delegates - turned the final weekend before Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary into a fevered showdown between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. The candidates themselves were stumping for votes in other Super Tuesday states Sunday, but neither campaign slowed efforts to seize victory in the nation's most populous state. "The symbolic nature of who carries California will ring throughout the nation," said pollster Mark DiCamillo. At Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus, California first lady Maria Shriver appeared alongside media mogul Oprah...

In the 2008 Virginia Senate race, the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Democrat Mark Warner leading Republican Jim Gilmore 53% to 38%. Both men are former governors of the state of Virginia.