Cause Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut...

Boi from Troy posted that Mike Spence, head of the uber-conservative California Republican Assembly wants to audit the California Republican Party. Spence seems to claim that with the millions and millions of dollars spent, we shouldn’t have lost.

Over at FlashReport, Spence gave his views:

Was Victory '06 a success? After over 20 million dollars spent that is an open question for me. I have my doubts. The Governor was on the way to victory long before the GOTV operation was needed. Maybe Poizner benefited. Although he really benifited from Bustamante.

First, I want to point out that I know something on this scale has not been tried before. I know many Victory '06 staffers. Many of them are great operatives. People can work hard and effectively in campaigns and still not achieve objectives. To be successful in the future requires us to take a hard look at some of these things.

I admit to only knowing a few things. Turnout in GOP areas was lower than four years ago. Imagine that. A "GOP" Governor is winning by 17% and turnout is worse than when we lose by 5%. What gives?

Then, Spence goes on to blame the National GOP collapse, the Governor for not extending his coattails further, and a lack of enough GOTV efforts by the party. In fact, he does his best to place the blame on everybody and everything that went wrong.

Except of course for what the real problem was.

He placed no blame on the far right of our party for alienating voters. California voters are not excited by right-wingers like Dennis Mountjoy, Mike Spence, Dick Mountjoy, and the like who grandstand and give our party at bad name. Chuck Poochigian, Tony Strickland, Tom McClintock, and Claude Parrish are all too conservative for our state.

If the California Republican Party wants to succeed, it must take a page from Schwarzenegger's playbook. It must learn that California wants to embrace economically conservative candidates so long as they are socially moderate.

Instead of auditing CRP and blaming them for the great loss, we should be dumping people like Spence as fast as we can.

Endorsements!

While I understand that many political crackheads have already submitted their ballots for the November election (I submitted mine almost a week ago), the elections are coming up. But you probably already knew that, unless, of course, you have been living under a rock for the past few months.

Here in the Land of Fruits and Nuts, we have a super-sized ballot full of ballot initiatives and statewide candidates for office. To help you make sense of the madness, allow me to give you some brief advice on your ballot.

GOVERNOR- Arnold Schwarzenegger
My endorsement absolutely goes to the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has a brilliant record on Gay rights and the economy and has proven his moderate credentials. Phil Angelides is a hack that would overtax the state and drive business away without providing any substantial improvements on Schwarzenegger's social policies.

Lt. GOVERNOR- Tom McClintock
What does a Governor Lite do anyway? Since this is a post primarily concerned with waiting for the real governor to leave the state, die, or otherwise vacate his office, it is hard to come up with a good reason to have a Lt. Gov.

A harder question to answer is who is Garamendi? McClintock is a proven conservative. While I definitely disapprove of his views on Gay rights, he is a fiscal watchdog that would do a fine job...if that had anything to do with the office of Lt. Gov. I will endorse him anyway because I really don't like the idea of a no-name Democrat keeping the seat of the Governor-in-Waiting warm.

ATTORNEY GENERAL- Chuck Poochigian
I have already posted on the reasons I am not supporting Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for Attorney General. Despite the impact the office can have on Gay issues in California, Brown won't be tough on crime. Poochigian would be. It's that simple.

SECRETARY OF STATE- No Endorsement
I heavily considered giving my endorsement to Bruce McPherson, but he doesn't excite me. After former SOS, Kevin Shelley screwed up and was forced into resignation from office in a cloud of shame, McPherson stepped up to the plate to be appointed SOS. Well, sort of.

I think somebody forgot to tell him he was named Secretary.

His term was marked, well, by nothing. Granted that Secretary of State is not the most exciting office in Sacramento, but he seems to have kept things going as business as usual without any remarkable innovation.

Bowen, on the other hand, is a rebel rouser that seems to want to go totally back to paper ballots. While it is good to have a healthy fear of electronic voting machines, her fear of technology borders on paranoid.

CONTROLLER- Tony Strickland
Who would be a better person to elect as the official fiscal watchdog of the state than the man who successfully sued Gray Davis? Strickland was the youngest person to ever serve in the Assembly, was a powerful force in YAF, and would be a strong leader to preside over the Board of Equalization. And his opponent? Some Democratic unknown.

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER- Steve Poizner
I won't even pretend to have a rationale for why I am endorsing Poizner. Really, I just have a great disdain for Cruz Bustamante and his greedy ways. Cruz has spent the greater part of his adult life "earning" a paycheck in elected office. In his most recent gig, he didn't even have to do anything to keep making six-figures except wait around for a Governor to leave office...and he managed to do a poor job at that! Even more recently, Bustamante got caught taking large amounts of money from insurance companies in the form of campaign contributions. While this normally wouldn't be a big problem, he is running for a job that's sole purpose is to oversee regulations on those same companies. If that doesn't reek of impropriety, I don't know what does.

US SENATE- Dianne Feinstein
DiFi is one of my favorite politicians alive today! Sure I hate her history on gun rights and dislike her position on abortion, but she has managed to carve herself a niche as a pragmatic problemsolver. She has been a great representative of California in the US Senate to date, and I expect her to have several more good years in office. This Republican proudly supports DiFi for office.

DiFi v. Mountjoy

DiFi v. Mountjoy

This November, California will barely notice as many Republicans cross party lines and vote for a Democrat likely to get more votes than Arnold could ever dream of. It is already a foregone conclusion that Dianne Feinstein will return for another term in the US Senate.

Opposite DiFi, the most popular politician in California, the GOP has endorsed former California State Legislator Dick Mountjoy. Despite the funny jokes we can make about his name, little good has ever come from this man. In fact, this man characterizes everything that I believe to be wrong with my party.

Mountjoy is most notable for writing Prop 187 to deny all government services to illegal immigrants. Fortunately, that proposition was overturned by the courts before it prevented innocent children from being denied an education or service at public hospitals.

Further, Mounjoy is Dubya's ideological twin. He is against Gay rights, maintains that we are doing a wonderful job in Iraq, and claims to be a veteran. However, President Bush has a less dubious military record than Mountjoy's.

However, the worst product of Mountjoy is his own son, termed-out Assemblyman Dennis Mounjoy. Assemblyman Mountjoy, who bears a strong resemblance in appearance and mannerisms to the late Chris Farley, made headlines earlier this summer when he offended several of his colleagues by calling all Gay people sexual deviants and related his views that we deserve fewer rights in this society.

On the other hand, DiFi has been a remarkable voice of reason in the Senate. Far more moderate than her colleague, Babs Boxer, Feinstein has been a critic of the war in Iraq insofar as we must develop an exit strategy and eventually leave. Further, she is a notably strong supporter of Gay rights and of equal marriage. But she is no liberal!

Feinstein is well known for working both sides of the aisle to get the good work of the Senate accomplished. She has no fear in antagonizing her Democratic base by pushing for a more moderate agenda and criticizing the harsh and quick politics typically played by the Democrats (a la Kennedy and Boxer). Also, you would be hard-pressed to find somebody who would really call her a fiscal liberal.

In short, my Grand Old Party is crazy for even trying this year against DiFi. Worse, my party's leaders should be committed to a mental health hospital for trying to run Mountjoy against the most popular politician in the state. At least the GOP donors aren't wasting much money on him--his campaign so far consists of an answering machine at his Monrovia home.

I will leave you with this funny story that I read in the paper today about an event Feinstein spoke at recently. She asked the crowd of Democrat supporters if anybody had ever heard of Dick Mountjoy and not a single person raised their hand. She responded, "Good. And I want to keep it that way." She didn't mention him again in her talk.