Free Republic

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose signature manifesto swept Republicans to power in the mid-1990s, called Wednesday for conservatives to recruit Democrats who oppose tax increases and big government and form a coalition to do battle with President Obama's "fantasy wing of the American left." .................. "If you look at California on the recent vote against raising taxes or spending, when you get 64 percent of the state voting with you, it tells you that in the most Democratic districts of the state, there was a solid majority against raising taxes and spending," Mr. Gingrich told editors and reporters at...

Here’s a sure sign that commercial real estate broker Chris Riggs is planning to challenge Rep. Ken Calvert in the Republican primary next year: Riggs in recent days has launched Twitter and Facebook sites, and he has also begun to hire consultants and campaign staff. “This race will be a litmus test to see if all the millions of ‘tea party’ attendees across America are really serious about electing officials that run on a limited government, tax lowering platform, as this will be a perfect opportunity to pick off a big tax-and-spend incumbent,” Riggs told the Orange County Register this...

Democrats have remained coy on the idea of new taxes, but Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel last week that it is "not reasonable" for any legislator to rule out taxes . . .

Assemblyman Roger Niello, who cast a key vote to pass a state budget that raised taxes this year, has been replaced as the GOP's point man on the Assembly Budget Committee. The Fair Oaks Republican will hand his committee post to Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, who is a freshman in the lower house but served a dozen years in the Senate, leaving in 1990. The switch was made by the Assembly's new Republican leader, Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo, who has stressed that taxes cannot be raised again in tackling a $24.3 billion shortfall. "There is no doubt that...

... Republican attorney David Harmer – son of former California lieutenant governor and Southern California state legislator John Harmer – says he’ll be a candidate in the 10th Congressional District should Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, be confirmed to the State Department post to which she is nominated. .... Harmer, of San Ramon, said he believes the district’s voters share his commitment to fiscal responsibility. .... And although this will be an uphill battle for him – the district has an 18-percentage-point Democratic registration edge – Harmer said he already has raised more than $150,000 for this race. Spokesman Michael Caporusso...

Poll: Should the U.S. Treasury Bail Out California?

Just hours before budget negotiations begin at the Capitol, Republican state senators declined to specify today what big-ticket costs they favor chopping to solve a massive $21.3 billion deficit. Instead, gathered at a press conference outside the Capitol, the senators said the collapse of all but one ballot proposition Tuesday was a green light for long-range plans to cut public spending in the future. They unveiled a series of reform ideas to change school spending and hold state bureaucracies accountable for performance by imposing "term limits" on them or requiring them to "prove their worth" to be funded. "Solving the...

Just before state Sen. Roy Ashburn cast the vote that would subject him to a recall drive and cloud his political future, he recalled his hero, Ronald Reagan. He told of Reagan's painful decisions as California governor to twice abandon a no-taxes pledge. Then the Bakersfield Republican, who had promised never to raise taxes, voted for a state budget deal that included $12.8 billion in new taxes. "Ronald Reagan would vote 'yes,' " he argued. But invoking the GOP icon hasn't spared Ashburn and the "Republican Six" from the wrath of constituents. As California voters go to the polls May...

Setting the stage for what is expected to be one of the nation’s hottest Congressional races of 2010, Assemblyman Van Tran announced today that he will challenge seven-term Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Tran had been recruited heavily by Washington GOP leaders, who consider central Orange County’s 47th Congressional District one of their best chances for gaining a seat next year. “Both sides will be pouring resources into this,” Tran said in anticipation of a heavily funded drive. Democrats have a 12.4 percentage point advantage in the central county district and Sanchez is popular there, winning by 44 percentage points in...

When Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee speaks, everyone listens -- that was the message sent last year in one playful verbal volley. During contentious floor debate, Republicans complained that their policy views routinely are ignored. One Democrat, disputing the complaint, noted that a hush comes over the floor whenever Blakeslee talks. For the next few days, as a joke, legislators would demand silence throughout the Assembly chambers -- loudly murmuring "shhh!" -- whenever Blakeslee grabbed a microphone. The lighthearted wordplay was a symbol, perhaps, of the respect that the San Luis Obispo Republican has within both parties. A lame-duck lawmaker termed out...

Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee was elected Thursday as Assembly Republican leader, effective June 1. "Our team is looking forward to working with everyone in the Legislature to find responsible solutions that balance California's budget and returns prosperity to our communties," the San Luis Obispo Republican said in a written statement. Blakeslee vowed to fight for high-performing schools, safe streets, a healthy business climate, and for reform and streamlining of state government. Blakeslee will replace Assemblyman Mike Villines, R-Clovis, who held a news conference earlier Thursday morning to announce that he will step down at the end of this month. Villines, attacked...

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

The College Republicans student club set up a table on the San Francisco State University quad, offering information about and speaking out against the Fairness Doctrine, which would require broadcasters to provide balanced and fair views of an issue. Though the doctrine was eliminated in 1987, there is some talk of reinstating it. Conservative groups - like the College Republicans - oppose that move because the doctrine could curb conservative talk-radio shows. James Kincaid, president of the San Francisco State College Republicans, and three other club members were gathering signatures for a petition to stop the Fairness Doctrine when Jacob...

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...

Tom Campbell, the former state budget director and Republican congressman exploring a bid for Congress, recognizes that he's financially overmatched against his mega-rich opponents Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman. But, in an interview with ABC News, he sees a path to victory in the GOP primary. "A three-way race is exceptionally more achievable,

Republican politicians are afraid of their base. Very afraid. Press folks have categorized the April 15 TEA parties - TEA for "Taxed Enough Already" - as anti-President Obama, anti-government and even "anti-CNN." But it is GOP leaders who are scared senseless (for want of a better word) by the protests. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin posted reports of Republicans who got booed at TEA parties - including a video of GOP Rep. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina addressing protesters. Barrett told them, "I respect you," and that he had introduced friendly legislation. Folks didn't care. Many in the crowd booed or...

The California Republican Party's executive committee is expected to vote this weekend to oppose Proposition 1A, which would limit future spending while approving $16 billion in temporary tax hikes. The CRP will find itself in a tricky position explaining how it can oppose Proposition 1A after it already gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger $650,000, much of which is going toward the pro-1A effort. Schwarzenegger laid claim to that money in January and February ($1.3 million shows up on the secretary of state's Web site, but the transfers have been double-posted, according to Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Julie Soderlund). CRP spokesman Hector Barajas...

Republican State Senator Abel Maldonado isn't mincing words: he says that "hyper-partisan" events like Tea Parties and recall rallies being pushed by radio stars like KFI's John & Ken are a glaring example of a disturbing trend -- a rise in entertainment-driven, ratings-driven political gimmicks that don't provide real solutions for voters. "It's crazy. While my state melts and burns, these folks are making money selling ads,'' Maldonado told the Chronicle. "All they care about is money in their pocket.'' Maldonado last week launched his efforts with the Reform for Change Committee, to push for Prop. 1F -- which would...

On the night of our Presidential election in November, someone burned down our back fence. No one reported it that night. Our daughter asked us the next day who burned our fence. Our next door neighbor's garage, to which the fence is attached, was not burned. The fire department was called and came the next day. We wondered aloud to the fireman if it was burned because of our prominent yard signs for McCain-Palin and Bob Schaeffer. He thought not, yet we wonder... We were the only visually identifiable Republican on our block. Everyone else is a Democrat or Obama-voter....

I missed this last week, but multimillionaire financier Howard Ahmanson, one of the biggest early funders of Proposition 8, has left the Republican Party and become a Democrat. Kathleen Pender of the Washington Post spoke with Ahmanson for a column. In a rare interview Thursday, Ahmanson shared some of his thoughts about why he switched parties. In a word, taxes. Specifically, he was offended by the California Republican Party's insistence during a recent state budget battle that there would be no tax increases for any reason, no matter what. "They're providing one issue, and it's just a very silly issue,"...

SACRAMENTO — If Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan indeed decides to run for Congress — or even if she opts to run for what could be an open state Senate seat — it would be hard to blame Republicans for openly rooting for the Alamo Democrat to succeed. Or even secretly funneling contributions to her through a front group. It could mean grabbing back a seat that had been theirs for the last six years — and looked lost to Democrats for the next six. Buchanan is strongly considering but has not officially decided to run for the Congressional seat that will...

After last fall's elections, the Democratic leaders in the California Senate and Assembly were a mere five votes shy -- in both houses combined -- of a complete two-thirds governing supermajority. They've never come that close since. Vacancies -- created through members taking other offices and running for open congressional seats -- are likely to frustrate Democrats and empower Republicans for at least the rest of the year. "It does create complications," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "You want to have a full house." The two-thirds majority is a magical combination in California because that is the...

From Sacramento -- Up close, the state Senate's new minority leader is soft-spoken and seems perhaps shy. But he definitely is not shy. And through his soft voice, he is an outspoken advocate for a conservative ideology. Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, 42, of Murrieta is a hard-right Republican who gives every indication of being a legislative leader who won't budge on taxes. Not now, not ever. He could be Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's worst nightmare, not to mention the Democrats'. Hollingsworth says he and the governor have only chatted briefly, not substantively, since the senator landed his job in a February coup...

State Senator Abel Maldonado has issued a scathing rebuke to fellow Republican Steve Poizner, charging that the GOP gubernatorial candidate "would let the state fall into ruin just to win a political campaign.'' Maldonado's letter to the State Insurance Commissioner was just released publicly, and it's a tough critique from the Santa Maria lawmaker.Coming a week after Poizner sent a letter to the state Republican Party -- he urged the GOP formally oppose the May 19 special election budget ballot measures -- the State Senator accuses Poizner of grandstanding on the critical issue of budget reform. "Since the budget was...

Tom Campbell doesn't have the big guns of his GOP competitors in the 2010 governor's race - not $50 million of his own money to throw in, like former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, nor the pulpit of statewide office, like Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. But Campbell has something more than the label of dark horse in the primary contest: He actually understands - in painful detail - the seemingly intractable problems of the California budget process. Campbell, who has served as director of the state Department of Finance, dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and in...

What drove evangelical multimillionaire Howard Ahmanson—the man behind Prop 8—away from the Republicans? It wasn't Sarah Palin. He talks to The Daily Beast’s Kathleen Parker. Multimillionaire Howard Ahmanson, one of the nation’s top evangelical Christian philanthropists and one of three funders of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, recently joined the Democratic Party. Although Ahmanson’s support for Prop 8 earned him critics on the left, his many philanthropic interests funded through his Fieldstead Institute are most often nonpartisan and nonpolitical, from AIDS prevention to public transportation. In an exclusive interview with columnist Kathleen Parker, he explains why he switched political...

SAVING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF CALIFORNIAby Jack Lee Let's face it, the Republican Party in California has tanked and they didn't get that way in just the last election. This has been a long, slow process of erosion that can be traced to a lack of... action, vision and inspired leadership. In short the Republicans whimped out and failed to live up to their own idealism and it got em tossed! For too many years the GOP gambled that they could spend a little time doing minor tweaks on a few key issues, then spin this to the public as...

Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- A state assemblyman who was reprimanded by fellow Republicans for supporting a state budget package that included tax increases has resigned a local party leadership position. Assemblyman Anthony Adams of Hesperia told The Associated Press on Friday that he is resigning as chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Party.

Let the campaigns begin. First, Sen. Mark DeSaulnier got himself elected to the Assembly in November 2006. Then the Concord Democrat got himself elected to the state Senate last November when he and Tom Torlakson, now back in the Assembly, swapped seats. And now that Rep. Ellen Tauscher has officially announced that she's leaving Congress for a post in the Obama administration, DeSaulnier has decided to run for that East Bay seat. What about Torlakson? He's endorsed DeSaulnier for Tauscher's seat and says he's formally kicking off his state schools chief campaign on April 3.

The California Republican Party has been pummeled by some tough body blows in recent years - and results at the ballot box have been just part of the pain. Now, at a time when the national GOP is trying to find its voice and cultivate new candidates, California GOP activists have begun engaging in a new pastime: issuing "fatwas" to punish state Republican legislators deemed too moderate on tax issues. This circular firing squad was on display last week at a "Tax Revolt" rally that drew 8,000 people to a Fullerton parking lot. It was organized by popular conservative talk...

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer has a comfortable lead over potential Republican challengers for her job in 2010, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, though voters are divided in their enthusiasm for her re-election, according to a Field Poll released Thursday. In a hypothetical matchup against Schwarzenegger, who will leave the Governor's Office in January 2011, Democrat Boxer leads by 54 percent to 30 percent, the poll found. The Republican governor has never said publicly that he plans to run for another political office. That marks a drop for Schwarzenegger from the October 2007 Field Poll, when the governor had a 44 percent...

It was a busy weekend on both coasts for California Republicans. Fresh from raising taxes and slicing the budgets of fellow consitutuional officers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger headed to Washington, D.C. to attend a National Governors Association meeting and take a bow before the national media. Likening California's budget troubles to an earthquake, the governor defended his decision to raise taxes and said his party's leaders in Washington should be "team players" with President Barack Obama. And if that means violating the GOP's principles, he said, so be it. Grand Old Party members with another point of view, meanwhile, were wrapping...

Sacramento -- With their love affair with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially ended, Republicans in the nation's most populous state feuded over the weekend in a long, hard debate about their party's future - and it wasn't pretty. On Sunday, with more than 1,000 Republicans convening at the Sacramento Hyatt Regency for their spring state convention, delegates approved a watered-down measure aimed at chastising the six Republicans who broke ranks to vote last Thursday for a new state budget package, which included $12.5 billion in new taxes. Although the original resolution called for censuring the six legislators, the final version says...

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 FlashReport Web letter, claimed credit for passing "a stronger message that...

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.

You have got to believe that the California Republican base is dispirited when a delegate at this weekend's state party convention is circulating a resolution to apologize to former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis for recalling him from office. But that is exactly what party delegate Alex Burrola is suggesting. The resolution, underscoring some party activists' seething displeasure with "post-partisan" GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, reads as follows: "Whereas, in 2003 a grassroots effort was begun to recall then-Governor Gray Davis from office on grounds which included gross mismanagement of the budget and finances of the State of California; "...Whereas, candidate Arnold...

Rep. Darrell Issa fired a shot across the GOP bow Friday night at state Sen. Abel Maldonado, who cast the deciding vote in favor of a budget deal raising taxes. Starting out by lampooning the Obama administration for appointing Democrats with tax problems to administrative posts, Issa poked fun at Maldonado in a speech at the opening dinner for the California Republican Party's three-day spring convention in Sacramento. "Do you think Abel will have to pay those taxes now that he is an honorary Democrat?" Issa said.

SACRAMENTO -- A historic loss in last fall's presidential election. Declining party registration statewide. A shrinking minority in the Legislature. You'd think the annual gathering of the California Republican Party would be filled with long faces and head-scratching anxiety. Not so. Party activists are buzzing after a dramatic week that saw most GOP lawmakers hold out against a state budget deal that will raise $12.8 billion in taxes - although it also cuts $15.1 billion from state programs, most of which come from schools. The few Republicans who did support the plan could face a verbal firing squad from activists...

Budget hero – or turncoat? Sen. Abel Maldonado has staked his political future on being the final piece of California's budget jigsaw puzzle. The $40 billion package to ease the state's budget crisis had been stalled, a single vote short, until the moderate Republican flipped to cast the decisive vote early Thursday morning. To secure his support for higher taxes, the Santa Maria lawmaker wrung concessions from resistant Democrats that could launch his ascent via a mixture of populism and tilting the political playing field to his advantage. Those victories, however, came at a political cost. Maldonado had to abandon...

Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams cast his "aye" budget vote at dawn today with full knowledge that, as he has said, "this will probably be the end of a political career for me." But that doesn't mean the Hesperia Republican plans to go down without a fight. The second-term assemblyman spent much of Wednesday trolling the Capitol corridors, folder in hand, gathering endorsements from his caucus for his 2010 reelection. "I think it's important that people know that my caucus is supportive -- that I'm not making any decision lightly," Adams said on his way into a GOP member's office Wednesday....

The Republican Party needs to abandon the pro-life plank. Let us fact it, the unborn do not vote, and it is not the pro-lifers who have abortions anyway. However, every newspaper columnist in the state agrees that pro-life Republicans can not be elected into statewide office. Reducing taxes and spending to get California moving again is a noble goal. Therefore, since electing Republicans will reduce taxes and spending, electing Republicans is justified by the nobility of the goal. Since abandoning the pro-life plank and leaving the unborn to the mercy of their mothers will help get Republicans elected into statewide...

It's almost done. State senators were approving a deal to close the state's $40 billion budget deficit this morning after agreeing to give Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, most of the changes he demanded in exchange for providing the crucial 27th vote. Here's what he got: * A constitutional amendment establishing an open primary system. The measure will place on the June 2010 ballot an open primary proposal affecting congressional and state races in 2012 and beyond. Under the plan, the top two candidates in a primary would face off in a general election. Candidates would not participate in partisan...

Republican Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield is invoking the memory of the man conservative love to idolize -- Ronald Reagan -- as he prepares to vote for a budget package that includes more than $14 billion in new taxes.

In what could be a break in state budget talks, legislative Democrats are contemplating a firm offer -- approval of three constitutional amendments -- from Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado as a means to closing the state's $40 billion budget shortfall. Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, could provide the crucial 27th vote necessary to pass a budget package that has been stalled since Saturday. In a lunch meeting at Spataro with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maldonado asked for ballot measures to create an open primary system, prohibit legislative pay raises in deficit years and stop legislators from receiving salaries if they do not pass...

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....

Republicans at this week's state GOP convention in Sacramento will have plenty to talk about - and the discussions won't be happy ones. The party is coming off a record pasting in November's election, when their presidential candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, got only 37 percent of the California vote. Republican registration in California is shrinking, and the voter gap with the Democrats is growing. Democrats picked up more seats in the Legislature in the last election, moving them closer to the two-thirds majority that will allow them to ignore the Republican minority completely. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is...

Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, has joined a growing list of Republicans to denounce the tentative budget deal reached by legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. What makes Dutton's decision significant is that, as vice-chairman of the budget committee, he has been widely viewed as a potential support of the compromise. "I, in good conscience, can not look in the mirror and raise the taxes on the average family of four by more than $1,000, as the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has estimated. I can't ask that family to go 10 weeks without groceries," Dutton wrote in an op-ed his...

In an effort to ramp up pressure on Republican lawmakers who might agree to a compromise budget deal, a top GOP official has submitted a resolution for the party's convention later this month to formally censure any Republican who votes for new or higher taxes. "If the Republican party loses the ability to say that we're the party against higher taxes than we've been dealt a grievous blow," said Jon Fleischman, the author of the resolution and a Southern California vice chairman in the California Republican Party. Fleischman, who publishes the conservative FlashReport Web site, said the resolution is meant...

A Democratic district plagued by low turnout winds up going to a Vietnamese-American Republican. It happened in New Orleans in 2008. Could it happen in Garden Grove in 2010? Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.) shocked everyone last month by winning a heavily Democratic seat in New Orleans, becoming the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. But before that, many thought that distinction was tailor-made for California Assemblyman Van Tran (R), who had been the highest-ranking Vietnamese-American in U.S. politics. Tran has been eyeing a bid for Congress for a while now, and in 2010 many expect him to make a run at Rep....

WASHINGTON – Tom McClintock arrived in Washington last week, ready to say no. He'll say no to President-elect Barack Obama's plan to spend roughly $800 billion to rev up the economy. He'll say no to spending billions to bail out the auto industry. And he'll say no to his home state of California and others looking to Congress to get out of their budget messes. He said the federal government doesn't have the money and needs to spend less to avoid "the same folly" as California, which is projecting a $40 billion shortfall in the next 18 months. "My state...