Next for the GOP
flashreport.org [1]
The GOP loss of the House, and most likely the Senate, is bad news for all of those who believe that our federal government is too fat and spends too much. Republican leaders need to make the case to voters in 2008 as to why the GOP should be given back the reins of leadership. The impact of the national GOP losses in Congress was given an emphatic exclamation point with the defeat of House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo. …
Let me try to cram the bad news into one paragraph: There are no words to express my personal disappointment at the losses of Senators Tom McClintock and Chuck Poochigian, former Assemblyman Tony Strickland and Secretary of State Bruce McPherson. These are all fine Republicans, and they presented a strong contrast to the liberal politicians who will now run much of our state’s bureaucracy. The failures of both Propositions 85 and 90 were a travesty and the passage of the bond measures were bad news for taxpayers, and will serve to exacerbate the financial woes of a state budget that is out of balance by billions, before these new bonds are even issued.
Gov. Schwarzenegger clearly has the starring role in the next four years in California government, and he is going to set the tone, both in terms of politics and policy, going forward. The governor’s favorite word these days is "bipartisanship." As the governor approaches using the "tool" of bipartisanship in his second term, he should be cautious that Democrats will be happy to give him aid and political help whenever he is willing to advance their agenda of increasing the role of government. …
I stand ready to support Gov. Schwarzenegger whenever he stands up for individual liberty and a limited role for government. But I’ll be the first one (no doubt) to speak up if he gets co-opted by those who would have him embrace big-government solutions for the challenges facing California.
What happened to Angelides?
bayneofblog.blogspot.com [2]
I agree with Democratic consultant Gale Kaufman. Angelides should have won, and he could have won.
"You had the national current, you had all the right national as well as state issues. [Angelides] had the experience, he had the understanding of the issues," Kaufman said. "So with a campaign that had a solid set of messages … not only do I think he could have won, but he absolutely should have won." Sacramento Bee, 11/08/06
Angelides worked too much at managing, or rather micro-managing, his own campaign. Having worked on campaigns for over twenty years, the one thing that will assure defeat is managing your own campaign. …
There were other factors that figure into Angelides’ defeat, though to a much lesser degree. First, labor didn’t get strongly on board until too late in the campaign, and when they did it was less than enthusiastic support. Secondly, the Democratic Party gave up on Angelides and showed nominal support. Seemingly more interested in 2010, some top Democrats failed to rally behind their candidate as strongly as they should have.
In the end though, it was still Angelides himself who lost this race. ...
Congratulations, Governor
fetchingjen.blogspot.com [3]
Congratulations, Governor Schwarzenegger! And to all of the other Republicans who won their races in California. Go figure. California picked up Republican seats while the rest of the country lost Republican seats.
I find it ironic that yesterday the Dems were poised to file lawsuits blaming voter machines, Republican voter suppression, even stupid voters, for their losses. But as soon as they realized they were winning, the defective processes and stupid voters were working just fine.
As Republicans, we blame ourselves when we lose elections. We know it is the fault of our elected leaders for not sticking to the party platform we elected them to uphold.
Ironically, even the Dems elected ran on more conservative platforms … pro-life, pro-gun, Christian … Only the libs on the coasts remain ultra-left liberal. Now we’ll have to watch to see if the conservative Dems actually uphold their campaign platforms.
Conservatism is alive. Liberals had no platform. The election was a vote of no-confidence for the current Republicans. Watch what conservatives do to our party.
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Have a blog or know a regional blog we should be watching? Contact John Hughes [3]