That’s right. Conservative “Icon” Chuck DeVore tweeted while he was abstaining in the legislature the day of Maldo’s first Confirmation hearing…
@ejschultz3 Teamwork – the Assembly GOP Caucus decided to support Maldonado.
The Man who would be the next Tom McClintock, just ain’t it. Abstaining is the same thing as voting to confirm Maldonado. I don’t buy the notion of trying to grab middle ground. McClintock would have voted no.
Nice – and DeVore participates in throwing Sam Aanestad – a true conservative and someone who endorsed him for US Senate under the bus…
I think this particular action by the Republicans in the State Assembly is deplorable and DeVore proves that he walks in lock-step with leadership, playing both sides while portraying himself as a maverick.
As a result of the Republican leadership – they have assured that Abel Maldonado will get millions of dollars worth of Air Time while people are getting their absentee ballots in the mail. (Maldo’s confirmation 2.0 is going down in May)
This blogger was told by and informed source that Michael Babich was served with an FEC complaint.
The Complaint was apparently about Babich running a campaign without following McCain-Feingold and related FEC regulations.
A while back, I noticed when I looked at Babich’ Website that it lacked the required disclosures. (You know those annoying little “Paid for by” things you’re required to do) When I looked at it just now – it looks like it has been modified to include them…
Say what you want about campaign finance laws (I can’t stand them), but breaking them is a federal offense and anytime a complaint is filed, apparently the FEC is directed to respond in a certain number of days. This is apparently why Michael Babich got served notice.
Will this go anywhere – who knows. In the 2008 primary, McClintock and Ose traded FEC Complaints, and they were rightly discharged – even as Ose probably did violate the law by re-using a characture from Dean Andal’s previous campaign without paying him for the copywright. (so what?)
I did not ask my source exactly when Babich got served notice or the details of it – as my source was adamant that Babich did nothing wrong and did not have a campaign at the time the complaint was filed.
He also asserted that Babich was raising money for a 501(C)4 cause that he believes in – using the website.
If there is a Media Circus – you heard it here first.
No endorsements for Abel. None. The CCR almost endorsed Sam Aanestad.
Abel Maldonado’s stuff looks like Obama’s – take a look at Abel’s new LG Website… it sucks and looks like Obama Junior. Maldo apparently is trying to win the general election in the Primary. Brandon Gisecki is showing the same kind of wisdom that netted his client Bill Kirby 22% of the vote in 2002 against John Doolittle…
The Lousy Website? It has one gigantic lie on it – it says Lt. Governor elect on it. Nope. Sorry Abel… and his site is as sorry as his booth, with no one at it most of the weekend despite his hiring of a couple attractive staffers.
One oddity is that Maldonado brought his wife with him to this c0nvention – usually Maldo preferred to attend conventions stag… (more on that later if necessary).
At least Maldo didn’t send the state a bill for aviation fuel to go to this convention… he drove the short distance to get there.
Sam Aanestad? All he had to do was address the convention on Sunday and say, “Hi I’m Sam, I am running for Lt. Governor and I did not vote to raise your taxes…” The Crowd erupted in Laughter and Maldo went home with his tail between his legs.
Harman for Ag wins the convention award for best hijinks – I am partial to anything kool-aid related and I give team Harman credit for the Cooley Kool-Aid… drink the Kool Aid and believe Cooley is a conservative. Nice.
Team Harman also had the second best – with the Umpire reminding everyone that Three Strikes and your out is correct – not Cooley’s idea of 5+ strikes. This lampooned Cooley’s soft on crime record.
Problem for Harman – John Eastman was the rock star of the convention, cleaning house for endorsements.
Aanestad was not far behind – people were coming out of the woodwork offering help and event planning. We all need to help people get to know Sam Aanestad – because they’ll soon see too much of Abel.
As far as lousy Hijinks – there was the lame Al Gore characture as Whitman went neagtive again – forgetting to tell us what she is going to do for California – but reminding us of the check Poizner wrote to Al Gore. (Whom she endorsed also)
Compared to the Cooley Umpire and Cooley Kool-Aid… lame.
Under the category of expected: The Demon Sheep showed up… both as a suited up college sutdent and a 3D hologram stuck under the doors of convention attenders…
Unbelievable – I love going to conventions… how could I forget my Meg Whitman playing cards. The simplest of hijinks neutralizes tens of thousands of dollars…
Meg Whitman again is spending money like it’s going out of style – including a hospitality suite with an open bar. (YIKES) Her staff were like ants – btw, they went out of their way to be friendly to this blogger. I saw all the heavy hitters from the Pete Wilson era: Zak, Saragosa, Cranney – and newly minted Whitmanites like David Reade. It felt like a lull in the middle of a civil war to sit with Mark Spannagel and David Reade and just chat knowing that we are about to go into an EPIC 4th Senate District campaign on opposite sides…
It is a much friendlier convention than any I can remember – in an adversarial sort of way – I consider a lot of the Whitman crew friends… even though I am going to light up their boss. (The life of a blogger, I guess)
And, I mean big money – Whitman had more signs than every other Campaign combined – and there was a substantial amount of litter under my door waiting for me in the morning. The Whitman staff are so numerous, it feels like the Ose Vs McClintock blog wars all over again. (Where I was outnumbered 8 to 1)
There was a stark contrast to the Friday Dinner and Saturday Dinner – Whitman’s spending was on display… she purchased an unheard of 8 Table Sponsorships at the Friday Dinner. The Campaign flew in Mitt Romney as well.
Saturday Night – Steve Poizner was the speaker, his evening featured home-grown support and was far less lavish.
The most important difference – Whitman used a teleprompter, Poizner did not bring any notes or a teleprompter. This repeats the theme of Whitman being scripted all the time… and this will dog the rest of her campaign. It is indeed a scary place to be as a voter – it reeks of Arnold all over again.
Back to the hospitality suites – Poizner’s was economical compared to Whitman’s. I also took note of who the participants were at each suite. It seemed that Whitman’s suite was jammed with paid staff – Poizner had gotten a ton of kids from local College Republican Clubs to come volunteer… Poizner’s suite seemed full of regular delegates that I see all the time at conventions.
It just screams what the campaigns have been thus far – Poziner+People and Whitman+Money.
And the final theme – Negativity followed by Generality from Whitman, Positivity and Specificity by Poizner.
When Whitman said anything that wasn’t an attack on Poizner – it was her non-specific plans for fixing the state. Her attacks were specious as well – such as portraying Steve Poizner as an Abortion rights activist when Whitman is the one who favors taxpayer-funded abortion…
Poizner? Passion and solutions – he is speaking about across-the-board tax cuts (Whitman opposes), Immigration Reform (enforcing our existing laws) and spending tax dollars on citizens only (Whitman opposes), the AB32 suspension, Parental Notification and the Citizen Power Initiative. (Where is Whitman on any of these)
The Convention was a microcausm of the campaign – Poizner has the message, Whitman has the Money – which will win?
BTW – Larry Niratelli did not show at the convention that I know of.
Well – Meg Whitman keynoted the dinner, it was a good speech (off of a teleprompter) and was well received. Also in tow was Mitt Romney – looks like Mitt is coming back for another crack at it.
I was greeted by a mess under my front door from Whitman telling me what a loser Poizner is – but again, there was nothing telling us why to vote for Whitman…
I had a bird’s eye view from my post as a Sgt. At Arms for the event last night – but this weekend will be relaxing compared to the last…
Last night featured the usual hospitality suites replete with booze and college campaign interns as well.
The campaign game is afoot – the convention has been swarmed with campaign staff. There is also an unusual amount of media here – they are looking for the usual kooks to interview, because in their faux objectivity they want to portray the entire Republican Party by interviewing the fringe.
Abel Maldonado? His campaign signs look like Obama’s. Suffice to say – Abel Maldonado is to the left of every Republican not named Tom Campbell. It will be interesting to see what his website or campaign ads look like.
Today’s drama is going to surround the unification of the CYR and the YR. Mark Abernathy (see also RINO) has sent a contingent to attempt to derail and disrupt the unification – and his side is groosly outnumbered.
DeVore – ran across one of his staff who made it a point to tell me that I $^%&ed DeVore last weekend. Now, contrast that to the Whitman people who all came up and shook my hand thanking me for the job I did – along with the Poizner people!
Also found out that Chuck himself was telling people that I tried to extort money out of him at the CRA convention – and he wants to run for Senate? I’m sorry – even if what he said or what they believed was true, it is a sign of arrogance and campaign stupidity to pick a fight with an officer in the CRA. There is zero upside for Chuck and it does not reflect well on a candidate for Statewide office to be so vindictive to anyone, let alone a blogger.
I have also come to know that Chuck’s characterization of Carly Fiorina has been patently absurd. Not Bad – campaign 101.
P.S. I made a bet with Mitch Zak Poizner +15 Dinner. We’ll see what happens!