Free Republic

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...

A Recap Of the CRP Platform Committee Activity At the Convention There is much to be said about the California Republican Party’s Fall Convention held in downtown Los Angeles last weekend. Presidential candidates and a straw poll, great workshops and townhalls, tributes, speeches and more. The better part of a thousand GOP activists, donors and leaders descended on the L.A. Live! Marriott-Ritz hotel, across from the Staples Center (we were the pre-show for the Emmy Awards, I guess). This column, however, is devoted to only one aspect of the convention – the ongoing process of the quadrennial adoption of the...

Lost amidst all insider bickering, Haley Barbour question-dodging, press-banning and John Bolton sabre-rattling at the weekend California Republican convention was a bit of history: The party elected its first openly gay board member. And we didn't see a hoot of protest about it. "Well, openly gay," quipped Gregory Gandrud, who just took his seat on the 23-member board. The 50-year-old Carpinteria (Santa Barbara County) resident is a longtime party activist, and Capinteria council member from 2002-2006. So about being "the first" -- a caveat: The California Log Cabin Republicans believe he is the first California Republican Party board member. Gandrud...

The Republican Party in California: Where Do We Go from Here? (7/10/09) Abe Maldonado, California State Senator Joe Tuman, Professor of Political and Legal Communications, San Francisco State University Tom Del Beccaro, Vice Chair, California Republican Party Carla Marinucci, Political Writer, San Francisco Chronicle In the wake of significant Democratic victories in the congressional and presidential elections, Republicans are divided over the best way to move forward and regain political ground. The debate is playing out on both the national and regional stage: In California, the months-long budget showdown revealed a split among Republican officials. Join us to hear from...

... 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...

Ron Nehring, a conservative from San Diego County, was elected chairman of the California Republican Party Sunday at the close of its state convention in Sacramento. Nehring, who works with the national conservative activist Grover Norquist, succeeds chairman George "Duf" Sundheim, a Silicon Valley attorney, who was a close ally of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tom Del Beccaro, a conservative attorney from Contra Costa County, was elected vice chairman. Two resolutions aimed at the new fees included in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan for universal health care failed to get out of a committee because there was no quorum.

Judge tosses suit against Jerry Brown Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Saturday, February 10, 2007 (02-10) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- A Superior Court judge tossed out a lawsuit Friday claiming Jerry Brown was not qualified to serve as state attorney general because he had not practiced law for all of the five years prior to his election in November. Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian rejected the lawsuit, saying that while Brown had chosen to let his membership in the State Bar of California be "inactive" from 1997 through April 2003, he was still eligible to practice law and had been...

Two Northern California county Republican chairmen intend to sue today to disqualify Democrat Jerry Brown from serving as state attorney general, but Brown's campaign calls it the last gasp of a desperate campaign. "I can't tell you the nuts and bolts of what's behind it but we will have the news conference" at 10:30 a.m. in Sacramento, Contra Costa County GOP chairman Tom Del Beccaro said Wednesday; Yolo County GOP Chair Mark Pruner is involved, too. A posting on Del Beccaro's Web site, www.politicalvanguard.com, said Oakland's mayor "is ineligible to serve as attorney general, because he does not meet the...

In 2005, Arnold identified the problems facing our State and courageously confronted those problems. Many of us worked tirelessly for those reforms because reform is sorely needed in this State. For the various reasons I explained in my column, “Why the CA Reform Bid Stumbled” the election was not successful. The lack of success, however, did not mean that his ideas were wrong or to be shelved. Indeed, Reform is often a function of patient resolve not instant reception. For the volunteer, the truth still can be seen amidst the lingering smoke of doubt that blankets many a defeat. In...