Huge GOP Congressional Primary In Utah Today

There is a very important primary in Utah today. The incumbent,GOP Rep. Chris Cannon is an open border radical. He is about to find out tonight the power of the immigration issue this year. The last poll done by the Salt Lake Tribune had Cannon leading 44% to 41% over real estate developer John Jacob. Usually the challenger gets most of the undecided votes in contests like these and Cannon isn't winning any new votes with his stance on this issue. Jacob is running hard on an enforcement only approach right now which is where the focus should be. If he wins, it should be the death knell for Bush's amnesty plan. We can all be thankfull for that.

Memo to open border/country club/cheap labor Republicans:

The road to being the minority party in Congress is paved by passing amnesty. So since the only thing you guys care about is power and how to keep it, you might want to take this under advisement.

I'm Back

I never really went anywhere, but I just needed a little break from posting stuff. I don't know how guys like Drudge do this hour after hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, etc. I guess it's their full time job, but it's a grind to try and constantly keep up posting with an ever growing list of clients to service at my job(a good problem to have). I'm sneaking in this post in the middle of a lull in the stock market right now. I hope to have a post up later today about all the goings on in Irvine the past week. That's one thing about Larry Agran & Co, they never cease providing fodder for us bloggers. Until then, stay tuned.

Irvine Republican Council Meeting Tonight

disclaimer: these are my own personal opinions and observations. My views do not necessarily represent the views of the IRC.

I have been waiting for tonight's IRC meeting a long time. We had Supervisor Bill Campbell and OC GOP party chairman Scott Baugh as guest speakers. I have been wanting to ask Supervisor Campbell to explain his vote to increase pension benefits/obligations ever since he and our other GOP Supervisor Silva sold us out to the unions on this issue last year. Scott had just got done telling us why it was such a great thing that we elected John Moorlach last week/kicked some union butt and I thought it was a great segway to ask Mr. Campbell why he voted for this dumb idea to obligate OC taxpayers for union pensions down the road when the actuarial projections never pan out like what always happens to these things(for some reason I always get stuck asking our guests the tough questions that need to be asked, but I digress). Supervisor Campbell said he was still very proud of his vote and proceeded to rattle off the reasons why he thought it was a good deal for taxpayers. He was very unconvincing to me and most others, but at least I finally got to hear him try to rationalize why he voted the way he did. He also mentioned to me that if Mr. Moorlach tries to revisit this issue, he will not support him. He thinks John lied in his recent campaign against Dave Shawver about the county possibly going bankrupt again because of the pension issue and he said "I will tell John to his face that he is wrong on this issue". I just basically wanted to know why my Republican Supervisor is siding with the unions over the taxpayers.

The next question to Scott and Bill was in reference to the recent Sheriff Carona debacle(I know, I know you're saying to yourselves...which debacle?). For the record I didn't ask the question, but I'm glad someone did. The question was about the Sheriff's decision to suspend Lt. Hunt over things that were said in the heat of a political campaign. I am glad to know that on this issue both Supervisor Campbell and Scott Baugh expressed how "uncomfortable" they were the next morning when they heard what the Sheriff had done to Lt. Hunt. It's a safe bet that this issue is not going away and Supervisor Campbell said that he and his staff are gathering all the facts and looking into what can be done to make sure this doesn't happen again.

All and all it was a great meeting. We have to keep holding our representatives accountable and especially our Republican elected officials.

OC Flag Day Dinner

Lynn and I will be attending the OC Republican Flag Day dinner tomorrow at the Hyatt. I'm looking forward to hear what Arnold has to say about the upcoming battle royale between himself and Phil Angiledes. I just hope someone reminds Arnold that this is a Republican gathering and not a Democrat one. He should be sounding off about Republican principles(I can't believe I actually need to say something about that). You know...things like lower taxes, free enterprise, rule of law(read that as illegal immigration), school choice, less beaucracy, less intrusive government, etc...these are the staple policies that drive our voters to the polls. I don't want him to rely on big monied slick consultants(you know who you are) telling him he needs to dance on the head of a political needle as a moderate. I want him to speak a message that will resonate with people and make them want to volunteer to actually help him instead of trying to be bribed to help. This is your chance Arnold to impress the county that could help you get across the finish line first on election day in November.

Mt. Carona Erupts

I'd hate to be a any person in the Sheriff's department who has criticized Mike Carona "aka the Big Sheriff" during this past campaign. Instead of "healing" the department like Carona said he was going to do on Tuesday night after his apparent victory, he has pushed the nuclear button. He has demoted people and put Lt. Bill Hunt into exile until a pending "internal investigation"...(read that as the Mike Carona doghouse) is completed. He did not turn the case over the the Attorney General like he should have if there was a legitimate reason, instead he has unilaterally suspended Lt. Hunt because he went through a rough campaign. Boo hoo. He may have the right to do this a la a recent Supreme Court decision, but I gotta say it's chilling as hell to anyone now who wants to criticize Carona for anything. It's Mike's way or the highway I guess.

I have spoken to Republicans over the past few days who voted for Carona and even they raised their eyebrows when they found out about this latest episode of "As The Little Sheriff Turns". I'm glad Supervisors Correa and Norby are demanding Carona answer questions about this decision at the next BOS meeting. I plan on emailing my Supervisor Mr. Campbell as well to tell my displeasure about this.

So Much For Fast Election Results In OC...

This is ridiculous. It's almost midnight and only about 20% of the precincts have been counted so far here in OC. I am happy to see John Moorlach kicking Dave Shawver's ass by a very wide margin. The Sheriff's race is still a tossup. Carona must be sweating bullets right about now. The Sheriff is at 52.1% with only about 30% of the precincts counted and the trend has been down for him on every update. This last update saw him lose seven tenths of a percent of his total and we still probably haven't counted the strong Hunt areas...i.e South Orange County. Anyway it's late and I have to get up early. I'll have to see what the results are when I get up at 4:45am tomorrow.

Turnout In Irvine

I just voted at 4:30pm over at the Turtle Rock Community Center. Turnout is light. This was a precinct that was consolidated from two normal sized ones into one bigger one. So far 120 people had voted out of about 1100 registered voters in the precinct. That gives about an 11% turnout so far. My guess is that the absentees will be around 50% of the vote taking into acount the turnout numbers from the recent special elections. This is pathetic people. Get of your asses and go vote!

Predictions For Tomorrow

There really is nothing on the ballot tomorrow that energizes me to vote, but I always make sure to do my civic duty and cast my ballot. Let's start on the other side of the aisle with the Democratic nomination for governor. It's a tossup. The latest Field poll and Survey USA polls show basically a dead heat right now. I think Angiledes will edge out a victory over Steve Westly, but it won't be by much. In the end I think the Dem establishment will have the better ground game for Angiledes and he will go on to get his ass kicked by Arnold in November. I like Garamundi over Liz Figeroa for Lt Gov, Jerry Brown over Rocky Delgadillo for AG, Joe Dunn for Controller, no clue who is running for Dem Treasurer...Lockyear I guess??? Oh well.

On the GOP side, Arnold faces token opposition for his renomination for governor, but I will not be voting for him tomorrow as a protest against his Democrat values. Nevertheless, he will win big tomorrow IMO. For Lt. Gov I love Tom McClintock and what he stands for. I wish he would have been at the top of the ticket. Chuck Poochigian has no opposition and will skate to the GOP nomination for AG. I like Tony Strickland over Abel Maldanado. Steve Poizner will win the nod for Insurance dude/czar. I think Claude Parish will prevail over Keith Richman. I like Michelle Steel to upset Ray Haynes for Board of Equalization.

Locally, the most important race in the county is also the most interesting IMO. I think Mike Carona will win a plurality of the vote tomorrow, but he will fall short of outright victory. Bill Hunt I believe will outpoll Ralph Martin for second place and then it will be a battle royale in November for who will be Sheriff. I think Lou Correa will get the nod over Tom Umberg. I'll be voting for Chuck Devore for 70th Assembly, John Campbell for 48th CD...speaking of who was in the OC Register Business section over the weekend pictured looking at Ferraris with his son down in Newport Beach(pssst hey Congressman...is that you I hear screaming out of the Shady Canyon gates every now and then LOL). I'm abstaining in the special election for the 35th Senate District(I may write in Phil Paule....who knows). I will absolutely not be voting for Tom Harmon period. Mike LeBeau will win for Assessor. I think John Moorlach is going to mop the floor over Dave Shawver(I wish I could vote for John, but unfortunately Bill Campbell is my rep on the BOS. You know, the guy that sold out to the unions along with Jim Silva!). Speaking of Jim Silva, I think Mike McGill will win the nod in the 67th AD over union lackeys Jim Silva and Diane Harmon. Even though he has no chance against DiFi in November, I will be voting for Dick Mountjoy for US Senate.

Lastly, I have a lot of friends running for Central Committee here in the 70th district. There is a record number of candidates running in this race. I think 12 or 13 overall and the GOP voters get to pick up to six of them. In no particular order, I will be voting for Chris Vliss(great guy), Jon Fleischman, Tom Fuentes, Tim Redwine, Lee Lowrey, and Jeff Corless.

Brian Bilbray Gets Lucky

I haven't been following the special election for Duke Cunningham's seat in Congress real closely. I know that Bilbray is a wrong fit for this conservative district and that he was behind in most polling that I have seen the last few weeks. Having said that, I think he just caught a tremendous break in this campaign. His opponent, Democrat Francine Busby was busy telling Latino voters yesterday that "they don't need papers to vote"! DOOOOOOOOO. It will be hard to unring that bell. I think for most undecided voters in the 50th, these comments should put Bilbray over the top. We've known for years that Democrats don't support things like mandatory ID checks at the voting booths, but they never really come out in the open and advocate that the laws be broken. I gotta hand it to Francine Busby. Way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I hope the voters will vote for Bilbray in the special election and Bill Hauf for the full term.