Monday Morning Quarterback

I made a lot of interesting observations this weekend at the CRP convention. One thing about Republicans, we know how to throw a good party. I always look forward to these bi-annual conventions. I remember when I first started attending these gatherings back in my college days. The goal back then was to hang out with my buddies and drink as much free alcohol as possible. It was always an easily obtainable goal with all the candidate/issue hospitality suites. These days I find myself heading to the conventions to network my business and hold our elected representatives feet to the fire.

I had a chance to speak one on one with State Senator & former Lt. Gov. candidate Tom McClintock for a few minutes about his new political organization, Citizens for the California Republic. I'm also happy that my Assemblyman Chuck DeVore is going to be on the Board of Directors. Tom doesn't want conservatives to abandon the fight here in California. He's modeled this new group after the one formed by Ronald Reagan after Jerry Brown was elected back in the 70s. I believe as Tom believes that California is a ticking financial time bomb right now. There's evidence pointing to declining revenues already. You combine this with a robust recession and you have yourselves a recipe for fiscal disaster. When this happens, the first thing the legislators will do is try to raise taxes. We would like to put in place an initiative that would require any tax increase to be authorized by the California electorate before any taxes are raised.

In talking with my Congressman John Campbell's District Director Lou Penrose, I found out that the Congressman is indeed a co-sponsor of a bill in Congress to pardon Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean & Ignacio Ramos. This makes me very happy. Keep up the good work Congressman. Even one of our US Senators, DIFi, wants an investigation into this messy issue. I have no hope at all for Barbara Boxer to care about this issue.

There were some great YAF flyers handed out as usual. The best was some fake money with Duf Sundheim's picture on the notes reading "In Duf We Trusted" and "This note is a $4.6 million dollar debt". Another was California Republicans writing an open letter to Hillary Clinton apologizing for Arnold stealing her idea for universal healthcare. There was also a fake marriage certificate handed out lampooning Rudy Guliani's support for gay marriage. I think they had the names "Adam & Steve" on it. Can't quite remember. It was funny though. I hope someone scans them and posts em' somewhere.

In the area of potential future candidates, my good friend Phil Paule introduced me to Riverside County GOP Chairman Jeff Miller. Jeff is thinking about a run for the soon to be open 71st AD. 40% or so of the district is in Riverside County. If Jeff can get his homebase GOP voters out to the polls, I think he has the inside track to the GOP nomination. He'a also been endorsed by the CRA which is always a good thing. One request Jeff....if you get elected, can you pass a law outlawing cow manure stink out there in Norco/Corona, LOL. The smell out there sometimes is unbearable. My mother and sister would also appreciate it since they just moved out there recently.

I ran into Mike & Susan Schroeder at the Sacramento Airport while waiting for our flight back to JWA. I had never met them in person before and found them to be very down to earth, unlike what some people try to make them out to be on the local blogs. We joked about our passions for rival LA higher education institutions. He's an SC homer and of course I root for the better school UCLA, LOL.

Lastly, I had a chance to talk to Diane Harkey for a few minutes while waiting for our bags to come off the carosel at JWA. She seemed really excited about her upcoming run for Assembly down in South County. I'm glad she has decided to run again for office. She came so close to being our State Senator. She'll be using the same campaign consultants as before...Gilliard for mail, Adam Probolsky for polling, and Scott Hart for her ground game. I think she'll be a shoe-in unless Cassie DeYoung decides to jump in the race. No one knows at this point what Cassie will do. My advice is for her to save her money. In fact, memo to Cassie: if you're really feeling like making yourself a few million dollars poorer, just give me a call and I can try to talk you out of it. In fact I can probably help you add to your wealth instead of enriching Forde & Molrich.