California Conservative

Blogger’s Note: For those of you not familiar with California Politics, the California Republican Assembly is the Conservative Grassroots Organization… we were called the “Conscience of the Republican Party by Ronald Reagan…)

Since John Fleischman was not here this weekend, your humble blogger has decided to take up the reigns of writing the Winners and Losers of the CRA Convention Report. (editor’s note, there will be some local flavor as I am a Northern California CRA Member.)

1.) Northern California: We are Chartering a real Nevada County Republican Assembly Unit with the purpose of building the CRA in Nevada County. The previous Nevada County RA was chartered to endorse specific candidates and it dissolved after a couple of election cycles. This will turn into a major victory if the Nevada County RA can develop into the force it is capable of.

1a.) Ted Gaines: The Political Gentle Giant of Placer County. I was informed that Ted drew a Primary Opponent at 8:30pm Saturday Night. By 9:00PM we had convened an endorsing meeting with the units of jurisdiction present and we Endorsed Ted Gaines Unanimously. Ted Gaines will be replacing termed-out Conservative Hero Tim Leslie who is being forced out of the legislature after 20+ years fighting for us. Tim will be missed, but Ted will make us proud.

1b.) Congressman John Doolittle: At the same time we endorsed Ted Gaines we decided to flush the media-driven Abramoff scandal and the ludicrious campaign of his primary challenger and we again endorsed Conservative Hero John Doolittle Unanimously.

1c.) Senator Sam Aanestad, look for him to secure his CRA endorsement, soon. Placer sent our recommendation up to the Butte and the Shasta Clubs who have jurisdiction as well as us. I know they will deliver for Senator Sam, soon. I am a constituent of Aanestad and I think Senator Sam is a righteous dude.

2.) Kevin Jeffries - Running in the Temecula Area in the 66th AD, the CRA looks to have cut this Chairman of the Riverside GOP a clear path to office. He has primary opponents, but given the strong record of the effectiveness of CRA endorsements, his prospects look good. (Okay, this is a So Cal race, but Bob Kowell and the Murrietta-Temecula RA are righteous dudes, so I figured that I’d give them some love.)

3.) Claude Parrish… after the CCR endorsed no one for state Treasurer, Claude came to the CRA and was at our convention most of the weekend. The Endorsement was unanimous. Claude’s run for Treasurer is going to be tough, I hope he can raise the money he needs to counter Lockyer… I also hope that this is a wake-up call to Claude about how he needs to campaign harder. The CRA has served as a wake-up call to many.

4.) Bruce McPherson - In a Major Statement by the CRA affirming the job he has done cleaning up the Kevin Shelley mess he inherited when he was appointed Secretary of State after Shelly was forced out in disgrace… The CRA put aside our differences with the Moderate Former State Senator and delivered him a Unanimous endorsement for re-election. Bruce is the most Likely to be re-elected incumbent officeholder. Mc Pherson told us at a meeting we had with him before the CRA Convention started that he has a good amount of money in the bank.

5.) Tony Strickland - No Suprise here, the CRA Golden Boy brings his Assemblymember Wife and Kid, melts everyone’s heart and wins a Unamious Endorsement. Tony’s issue is that he needs money and money fast. Abel Maldonado killed himself off with his carrying the Minimum Wage Hike bill. The Republican base is not going to support him after doing that.

The big issue is that Tony is going to have to spend his money telling Republican Primary voters about Maldonado’s Terrible voting record and his sponsorship of the Minimum Wage Bill. When he is done finsihing Maldo off, we he be able to replenish his resources? I think that he is going to be too dependent on Slate mailers and the CRP. I love Tony, as a fellow 30-something I can really relate to him well. Voters love him if he can get the exposure… while as not a long-shot as Claude Parrish, I have to rate his chances as low at this point. that being said, I am going to bust my tail to get him into office.

6.) Tom Mc Clintock was the star of our convention. While his endorsement was never in doubt, the fact that he came as spent political capitol attempting to fight for thoes he believes in is admirable. He took shots for being an Arnold sell-out, but they did not stick. Tom Mc Clintock has proven himself to be what the California GOP needs, a Conservative voice of reason. I predict that Mc Clintock is about as likely to be elected Lt. Gov as Bruce McPherson is to be re-elected Secretary of State.

7.) Chuck Poochigian won an unanimous endorsement from the CRA, and after winning a unanimous endorsement from the CCR… this primary is over. Add to this, the Steve Poizner-Essue endorsement list he compiled. The hope is that Pooch won’t have to spend too much money on the primary. Pooch has some 2.5 million in his account and getting bleeded by a primary challenger is not good.

Remember Pooch has an Uphill race against Jerry Brown. Yes THAT Jerry Brown whose policies as Governor gave us our infastructure problems we have today.

8.) Newly Chartered CRA Unit “Chatsworth-Northridge RA” Chaired by my fellow blogger Bear to the Right. It is gratifying to see my fellow bloggers joining forces with the CRA.

Losers:

1) Michelle Steele - Was she running a spoiled campaign aimed at messing over Ray Haynes? Her supporters successfully thwarted a CRA endorsement of Ray Haynes. Can she win that Board of Equalization Seat? Does the CCR endorsement mean anything to her, or is it just a slap at her proven conservative opponent?

2) Ray Haynes - Why didn’t he shut out the endorsements before Michelle Steele got in the race? He is a sitting Assemblymember and his connections should have assured him that seat. While the CRA delegates gave him a majority, he did not win 2/3 for the endorsement. With Shawn Steele and his Lincoln Club Donors to fight against, a race he should have locked up is now up in the air. As to the motivations of those in the CRA that turned on him, I don’t know.

3) Abel “Maldo” Maldonado and Keith Richman… while I saw their stuff all over the place at the California GOP Convention, there was no trace of them at the CRA Convention. Given that their Moderate Brothers McPherson and Poizner showed up at our convention, why didn’t they??? Richman is the biggest loser since he did not even get endorsed by the CCR for pete’s sake. Maldo could have at least showed up and explained why he is a better choice than Strickland for controller.

This leads me to believe that both of their campaigns are aimed at raising money to be diverted to attack Conservatives in the future. I can draw no other conclusion as Prop 34 prevents them from shifting money between accounts and therefore forces them to send funds that are raised to accounts of other PAC’s or Candidates… Things that make you go hmmm…

THE MAJOR-LEAGUE WINNER:

THE CRA as a whole…

While this convention was held in Bakersfield, the turnout was the biggest we in the CRA had seen in a while. We had 146 voting delegates while the CCR mustered about 50 at their convetion.

Witness the dignitaries the came to our convention… I met Assemblymembers I had not met before like Dennis Hollignsworth and Bill Maze. Almost every candidate on the Republican Ballot came. There is no other Statewide organization in the Calfiornia GOP the can boast that.

We had major-league debate that raged throughout the weekend… and again, I will say that it was that debate that was healthy and productive for our cause.

Finally, Past CRA President and United States Senate Candidate, Dick Mountjoy was the Biggest Winner of all. Dick Mountjoy was on fire all weekend and he let us see some of that fire from years past as he tore into Diane Feinstein. Remember that Dick is Younger and healthier than Diane Feinstein… California deserves better…

This is your humble correspondent, the Roseville Conservative Reporting after the CRA Convention…

Please come and join us as we support a new day for California, and since most other endorsing Organizations are in support of most of our endorsements, we look to charge on…

Posted by Aaron F. Park

The opinions expressed in this column represent those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, or philosophy of CaliforniaConservative.org

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 5th, 2006 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Author: Aaron Park, California, Op-Ed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.