Free Republic

Posted on December 11, 2006 Thank YouI cannot begin to thank you enough for everything that you did for me during this campaign. My gratitude to you for your faith and generosity and support makes it all the harder to accept the result. I was very much looking forward to delivering you a victory after all that you have done and sacrificed for my candidacy. By all accounts, we ran a solid campaign of which I am intensely proud. And according to all of the final polls, we were poised to win. But those polls were based upon normal voter...

Long Beach Press Telegram Endorses Tom McClintock Long Beach Press Telegram Editorial: For Lieutenant Governor, McClintock could elevate a job Bustamante lowered.Voters may best remember state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, from the surreal 2003 recall election in which voters removed former Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. McClintock, who many wags viewed as the most qualified candidate, came in a respectable third place behind Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and well ahead, we might add, of the likes of former child star Gary Coleman and porn king Larry Flynt. But instead of engendering bitterness, or disappearing...

Governor signs SB 1441. A great Victory for the Gay Lobby. by Mike Spence - Los Angeles County (print) 8-28-2006 5:16 pm The Governor signed AB 1441 minutes ago. SB 1441 extends so called anti-discrimination laws concerning sex, sexual orientation and one's perceptions about their sexual oreintation to ANY entity that receives any amount of state funding. Translation: Does your Christian school take any money for disabled kids? Does your Religious College takes students on Cal-Grants? Any relgious instituition that provides CALWORKS childcare or any service now must protect the jobs of any kind of sexual choice you can think...

Calif. candidate pulls Mel Gibson letter By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor said he no longer will use a fundraising letter sent on his behalf by Mel Gibson, who admitted to an anti-Semitic tirade after he was pulled over for speeding. Tom McClintock decided to pull the letter after the incident, his campaign spokesman said Tuesday. "Tom saw the news and the situation as it was unfolding with Mel Gibson and made a conscious decision to direct people not to use the letter any further. He was disillusioned by the situation...

July 24, 2006 Tony Strickland Jumps to Early Lead over John Chiang (Sacramento) – Former Assemblyman Tony Strickland begins the race for Controller with a 3-point lead over his Democratic opponent John Chiang, according to a recent California statewide survey by Public Opinion Strategies. In an initial ballot test, Strickland receives 26% of the vote, while Chiang receives 23%. More importantly, Strickland’s lead grows to an impressive 8 point advantage among high propensity “likely voters” at 31% for Strickland and 23% for Chiang. “California voters understand that the Controller is the taxpayers’ watchdog,” said Strickland Campaign Manager Paul Hegyi. “These...

McClintock Holds Big Fundraising Advantage; Garamendi Continues to StruggleSince he began his campaign for Lt. Governor, state Senator Tom McClintock has topped the $3 million mark in fundraising, and is closing in on having $2 million cash on hand, substantially increasing his fundraising lead over rival John Garamendi. As of June 30th, McClintock reported having more than $1.5 million cash on hand and $18,199 in unpaid bills. Garamendi reported having $408,238 with outstanding debts of $215,533. In real terms, McClintock has $1.5 million to Garamendi’s $188,000. “Tom McClintock is in a very strong position to become California’s next Lt. Governor,”...

Republican dreams of beating Feinstein Posted on March 30, 2006 San Bernardino Sun Republican dreams of beating Feinstein Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer VICTORVILLE - California has not sent a Republican senator to the nation's Capitol in more than a decade, and Dick Mountjoy acknowledged this week that his effort to oust Democrat Dianne Feinstein from the U.S. Senate will be a tough endeavor. "Dream the impossible dream, if that's what you want to call it,'' Mountjoy said during remarks to the Victor Valley Republican Club. Mountjoy, a former state legislator who represented the San Gabriel Valley, last served in elected...

Death Penalty ReduxThe execution of Tookie Williams has brought new life to efforts to undermine California’s death penalty law. AB 1121, a two-year moratorium on executions introduced by Assemblyman Paul Koretz will be taken up by the state Assembly on January 10, just a week before 75-year-old convicted killer Clarence Ray Allen is sentenced to die. Koretz argues that the moratorium is necessary to assure that innocent people are not put to death while the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice reviews California’s criminal justice system. But California’s death penalty review process is already the most rigorous and...

Great news as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday! Special Report by John Feliz, Campaign DirectorThe voter recognition and image ratings released this week by The Field Poll is great news. Some 53 percent of registered voters know the McClintock name and have a formed opinion of you. Your ratio of favorable to unfavorable is 2:1, with 35 percent favorable and 18 percent unfavorable. This is the strongest showing with the highest net positive number of all those surveyed. In short, The Field Poll is consistent with our own internal polling. I am both pleased and optimistic by the results...

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005 10:09 a.m. EST Tancredo Would Bring Border Issues to 2008 RaceRep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) has designs on running for president in 2008. Whether he hopes to win or not still remains a mystery. Tancredo, well known for his campaigns against illegal immigration, hopes to become active in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary to make sure immigration reform issues are prominent in the campaign regardless of the participants in the 2008 race. Tancredo told The New York Sun that he has not formally declared his candidacy for the GOP nomination, but he is already making...

Eminent Domain Press ConferencePosted on July 15, 2005 Remarks by Senator Tom McClintockThe purpose of this press conference is to announce the introduction of SCA 15 and ACA 22 to restore the original property rights protections of the American Bill of Rights that were ripped out of the Constitution by the Kelo decision of the U.S. Supreme Court two weeks ago. That decision breaks the Social Compact that gives government its legitimacy and opened a new era when the rich and powerful can use government to seize the property of ordinary citizens for private gain. It may now literally take...

A Gray Davis kind of budget Posted on June 21, 2005Democrats act as if spending $5 billion more than you take in is responsibleWhen a state gets itself into a fiscal pickle the size of California's, a helpful bit of advice is the First Law of Holes: "When you're in one, stop digging." Unfortunately, that little wisp of wisdom is entirely wasted on the majority of California's legislators. Not only are they still digging, they're digging even faster. Witness the budget that was voted on with great fanfare on June 15, the constitutional deadline (last met in 1986) for the...

SB 77 – Democrats Budget Senate Floor Speech by Senator Tom McClintock June 15, 2005We have once again been assured that this is a balanced budget. I remember the same assurances from the same quarters last year and the year before that. They have no credibility. Here is what the Legislative Analyst's Office reported on Monday regarding the state's general fund. The LAO estimates that we'll close the current fiscal year having spent $82 billion and received $80 billion, ending that year $2 billion in the red. This budget, they estimate, will spend $89 billion and receive $84 billion, ending...

Speech by Senator McClintock Regarding SB 77 (Budget) May 26, 2005May I ask that we take a step back and consider what is going on – not as Republicans and Democrats – but as Californians. Today we’re taking up the shell of a budget bill. The Senate Budget committee has not completed its work. There has been no Senate debate on the budget. There is no Senate version of the budget. And yet, we’re taking up an empty bill. And that empty budget bill will be filled – not through the careful, public and thorough deliberation of the legislature –...

Tancredo: immigration reform may push him into presidential race June 12, 2005 NASHUA, N.H. --U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo says he is so dissatisfied with the pace and direction of immigration reform, he is considering running for president to deal with it himself. "If no one is willing to pick up the banner... yeah, I'll run," the Colorado Republican said Saturday during a visit to the state with the earliest presidential primary. "Though I say that with a great deal of trepidation. It seems like a daunting task. But we need to get a president in there who will support this,"...

Dutch town bans public swearing 2 June 2005 AMSTERDAM — The municipal council in the Bible belt town of Staphorst in the east of Holland has voted by a large majority to ban swearing in public. The ban has immediately added to the town's public ordinances, Staphorst Council announced on Thursday. Staphorst has a population of 15,000. The motion calling for the introduction of the ban was a joint effort by local branches of the Christian parties, ChristenUnie and SGP. The local authority passed the measure by 13 votes to four. Only the two representatives of the Labour PvdA and...

Fewer jobs for teens this summer - Unemployed less prepared for real world, report says 2005-06-03 by Jamie Swift Journal ReporterThe scarcity of summer jobs for young people in King County and across the country has reached a crisis level, according to a report on youth employment released Thursday. Nationally, less than 37 percent of teenagers are expected to be able to find jobs this summer. That's down from 47.5 percent in 1989 and last year's 42 percent, the lowest in the 57 years such data has been collected. In King County, employment among teens 16-19 dropped 28 percent from...

Statement by Senator Tom McClintock in Opposition to SB 60 Senate Floor, June 2, 2005Mr. President: Let’s make one thing very clear from the outset. The new federal law DOES NOT require states to give driving-only driver’s licenses to foreign nationals illegally in this country. The new federal law DOES NOT in any way sanction states that do not give driving-only driver’s licenses to foreign nationals illegally in this country. This bill does many other things that are NOT required by federal law: California currently requires every applicant for a driver’s license to prove they are legally in this country....

No more delays Governor must seek 2006 redistricting, not wait until 2010 5-2-2005California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest backtrack concerns his redistricting plan that would make congressional and legislative races more competitive by eliminating the current gerrymandered system. During a visit to Fontana last week, the governor announced that he might be willing to wait until 2010 for this reform rather than 2006, which calls into question whether he will now bother calling a special election for the fall. One of the backers of the redistricting plan, Los Angeles businessman Bill Mundell, expressed anger in a Los Angeles Daily News interview....

Gregoire: 'No meek and mild' for this embattled governorBy DAVID AMMONS AP POLITICAL WRITER OLYMPIA, Wash. -- In recent days, Gov. Christine Gregoire has signed a passel of "sin taxes" and the largest gas-tax hike in state history. She has sacked 1,000 middle managers and sent a number of Gary Locke's appointees packing. The activist rookie was an unexpectedly effective dealmaker in the Legislature, showing the timing and finesse of a seasoned card sharp, even her critics said. On a parallel track, she was prodding the bureaucracy and looking for concrete ways to hold agencies accountable. She threw some sharp...