July 2015 Archives

CRA Update: The CRA Board Prepares to Elect a Death Panel

CRA, Tom Hudson Comments Off

Jul 302015

I got a copy of an email from this morning. The CRA is asking for its’ board to appoint a Special Litigation Committee by Tuesday August 4th at 8AM.

We warned you. This is what the all-consuming desire to be right looks like when you are dealing with a pack of rabid dogs in a nerd colony.

If you read the text of the letter – a couple of things should jump out at you. Are they expecting a lawsuit? Are they going to file a lawsuit?

Who are they going to sue? (One clue could be the reference to conflicts of interest with spouses of “someone the organization may have a claim against”) My sister-in-law is still on the CRA’s Board.

Are they going to sue the charitable organizations they have been sending legal threats to? (They already bullied Acres of Hope successfully)

Are they going to sue the former board of the former Placer CRA that voted 4-0 to donate the money? (Better get yourself an attorney, Ed Rowen)

The makeup of the committee are some of the most rabid dogs on the CRA’s board, so caution and rationality are out the window. (with the exception of Greg Goehring)

However, you have to take a good look at the recent events as written about on this blog and you should ask even more questions:

Is this related to Tom Hudson’s ego being bruised?

Is this related to Tom Hudson needing to go back to the State CRA’s board after-the-fact in order to get them to sanction his rogue actions?

What does the CRA hope to gain out of this? Members? Good Press?

Do the board members of the CRA think that the timing of this will help their efforts to stop the bleeding in the organization?

Does Tom Hudson think that the Placer GOP and Tom McClintock are going to gain from this as he is publicly tied to both…

Logic is out the window. Political insiders will think about the California GOP’s rules about lawsuits and ask questions from that paradigm, but the pattern of behavior has more resembled a sociopath on a rampage to get his next victim.

Asking the questions about what the “benefits” of these lawsuits, threats and bullying are to the GOP at large, then asking how this registers more voters and asking how this elects more Republicans are moot related to the pattern of behavior here. Tom Hudson will destroy himself and anyone else that helps him in order to be right – and I write this blog and others related to his actions as a man that has known him 18 years.

The CRA is already starting to sink. All over the state, reports are coming in and they are not good. You may even ask yourself if this is some sort of murder-suicide pact that the CRA’s 900-club are leading the organization in to.

For those of you that know my background in dealing with substance abuse and helping others, I have seen a lot of people dig their own graves before. This is a special case where people are already in their grave and are starting to bury themselves in it.

CRA Update: How Much is Enough? Tom Hudson on Tilt – Legal Threats Bear Fruit

Placer County Republican Assembly, Tom Hudson Comments Off

Jul 292015

There is a reason why now CRA Membership Secretary Carl Brickey refers to Tom Hudson as a sociopath. It is because Tom Hudson has demonstrated through the years that he is indeed a borderline personality with his actions.

I got to start experiencing that with the Tom McClintock non-endorsement saga and it has carried through to his rampage locally. Tom Hudson is indeed a close ally of Tom McClintock and has been since he got elected to congress.

This is why Mine and George’s ouster from the CRA was centered around the non-endorsement of Tom McClintock, we needed to take the fall for it so Tom Hudson could save himself. But, now that we are gone, Tom Hudson is on display with no straw man for the typical political types to be distracted by.

As Mr. Hudson continues to spiral out of control, he is making larger and larger political mistakes.

Tom Hudson and his surrogates threatened the three local charities that the Placer CRA donated to. I learned via an email that Joe Dorr (one of Hudson’s few remaining allies in Placer County) threatened Courage Worldwide via a phone call on behalf of Tom Hudson and the Placer CRA. (That is the Placer RA that the state CRA board recognizes)

Joe Dorr made it clear that if Courage Worldwide did not return the money that there would be “legal action”. I have the email.

Acres of Hope – a shelter for Mothers and Children that helps them get off the streets, get clean and get job skills – was also threatened by Hudson. They have a policy of returning all disputed donations. (I guess someone wanting to mess them up could dispute the donations from corporate donors)

So, Mr. Hudson partially got his own way. The bullying and the legal threats netted the Placer CRA $1400 back from Acres of Hope. When Carl Brickey referred to Tom Hudson as a sociopath, he was referring to Tom Hudson having zero conscience once he thinks he is right.

This would include his binge-drinking fueled rampages against anyone and everyone that he thinks is wrong. This is the sad lonely life of a nerd. (who is in the middle of a divorce)

How many Women and Children at Acres of Hope had their services or programs interrupted because of Tom Hudson’s legal threats? Did the State CRA sign off on this? What would Ken Campbell say about this? (I saw him recently at a fundraiser that my wife Emceed for Acres of Hope)

Joe Dorr, Tom Hudson and the puppet President of the CRA, Ed Rowen are all associated with the Placer County Republican Party Central Committee. Wait until the local media gets hold of this story. With the media digging up 30 year old stories about Presidential candidates, some fresh recent kill related to a local Republican Lawyer bullying a local women’s shelter should be great press for the Placer GOP. Since Placer GOP Chairman Dennis Revell owns a PR firm, I hope he is ready for the typhoon that is headed his way.

Repeatedly, our decision to dissolve the Placer CRA has been proven to be wise. The State CRA is a train-wreck and their part in this saga can not be ignored as it was the law office of Craig Alexander from Southern Orange County whose stationery the legal threats was delivered on.

Ed Rowen is once again “President” of the Placer CRA. The photos show that the club likely lacks enough members to be a valid unit. If there was a court case, we could show multiple violations of state CRA by-laws in order to lead to that outcome – but the CRA has already demonstrated that the by-laws are flexible in the name of being right.

That same ED Rowen has been publicly accused of embezzlement by Mr. Hudson related to his yes vote on sending the money out to the three charities to begin with.

Tom Hudson’s internal desire to be right is not going to end well for Tom McClintock, the Placer County Republican Party or the CRA. With each successive empty wine bottle the powder keg gets larger.

California Impact Republicans Launch First Unit – Huntington Valley IR

California Impact Republicans Comments Off

Jul 242015

July 24, 2015

For Immediate Release
Contact: John W Briscoe (714)791-6003

The California Impact Republican’s Board of Directors is proud to announce the charter of the Huntington Valley Impact Republicans.

The Huntington Valley Impact Republicans will serve Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach in Orange County. “This is the first of many chapters that are organizing all over the state for the Impact Republicans”, said founding CIR President John W Briscoe. “Once again Orange County leads the way for California Republicans”

The CIR is centered on recruiting Conservative Republican candidates for local office, training and equipping leaders, fundraising and endorsing candidates for partisan office based on a different metric than other Republican Groups have used in the past.

“The Huntington Valley IR is full of new blood for the conservative Republican movement”, continued Briscoe, “The CIR adds to the Republican metric in California” The Huntington Valley IR features three board members who have never served in leadership of any Republican volunteer organization, and over a quarter of its’ members are new to membership in Republican volunteer politics.

The CIR will be presenting its’ paperwork for consideration of a Charter at the California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim in September. We look forward to seeing you in September.

Please visit the California Impact Republicans on our Facebook Page, or our Facebook Group, on twitter @CAImpactReps or at our website www.impactrepublicans.com.

AD06 Race Update: The Campaign Emails Are Coming

AD-06 Race Comments Off

Jul 242015

After 7/1 came and passed, you knew this would happen. The little-known candidates with big dreams would attempt to introduce themselves to the political world. It makes sense, if you have no name ID, you need to attempt to establish legitimacy.

Bill Halldin entered the race and forced the hands of the others. They had to act.

The third such candidate is the team Gaines seat control candidate. Ostensibly, he is a client of Mr. Gilliard – meaning they will likely get the endorsements of the Gun Owners of CA and Jarvis regardless of merit (as has been the pattern in past campaigns). The entry of the seat control candidate this early was deliberate and a sign that team Gaines fears Bill Halldin, not Kevin Kiley or Cristi Nelson. The seat control candidate did not make much noise publicly until Halldin declared – follow the pattern.

Team Gaines is tipping their limited hand and is attempting to muddle Mr. Halldin’s third house fundraising. Beth Gaines is a lame duck and Ted Gaines may as well be – it remains to be seen if Ted Gaines can threaten donors the same way he did in 2011 when Beth rode in to the assembly on name ID without any qualifications.

The second candidate – Kevin Kiley is a fine-looking young man. By all accounts, he appears to be intelligent and articulate. He is a lawyer, he’d better be or else he’d not be a very good lawyer. Mr. Kiley appears to have raised some $50k on his own, not bad. Now, where does the next $200k come from? His first campaign email was pretty much boiler-plate GOP stuff, it remains to be seen what the 30-year-old is able to do in the long haul of the AD06 campaign.

The first candidate – Cristi Nelson – attempted to bluff people out of contending with her $100k check to herself. She also bought the annoying junk mail cards early. In six months, she has managed just five name endorsements and Kevin Kiley appears to have out-raised her. Secondly, I have received several unsolicited stories about her behavior on the campaign trail that suggest that she needs serious refinement as a candidate and may well lack the temperment to relate to anyone in lower socio-economic classes than she is in. She is also a social liberal in AD06 which is 62% pro-life and voted 2-1 for Prop 8.

Nelson sent an email attempting to impress people with her $140k cash on hand. She needs to publicly commit that she is going to spend the $100k of her own that she put in, then it will count. Otherwise, she has $40k in the bank and every astute observer knows that.

There is also the ever-present rumor of Placer COE member Suzanne Jones running for Assembly. This could suggest why she threw her hat in the ring for the recent vacancy on the Placer GOP Cent Com. Jones should have realized that by doing so (and then getting elected to that seat) that she would be in essence taking a side and for the first time would be creating political enemies.

There had been rumors of Big Daddy Jack Duran running for Assembly – I think they are absurd. Big Daddy knows better than to out himself as a democrat in his +15 Republican Supervisor District. Maybe Aggie-Lair-Uh is considering putting his name on the ballot? Maybe Reggie Bronner again? (he just got slaughtered by Robert Weygant for Sup D2 in 2014)

The bottom line is that you have the following dynamic:

Bill Halldin – the only current officeholder. He will have almost unanimous support amongst Placer electeds / business community. Can he expand to the other parts of the district?

Team Gaines Seat Control Candidate – will they be able to freeze enough money away from the other candidates while at the same time convincing them that their candidate is the answer?

Cristi Neslon – she will have to self-fund. In six months, raising $40k and only bagging 5 endorsements means that she will have to make herself viable on her own

Kevin Kiley – will his youth be his downfall? Where does the rest of his money come from? Is there room for him, with older, better-known candidates getting the endorsements and cash?

Suzanne Jones – a second female in the race decimates the only other advantage Nelson may have had. Will Jones have any money to spend?

Democrat? Will the dems stay home and let this go R vs R in order to aid the chances of a liberal republican (like Cristi Nelson) being elected to the seat? However, as we have seen in past races, the dems have the same party discipline problems that the Reps do. At the same time – the top two has actually aided Conservatives in the runoffs with the recent example of Steve Knight in CA25 and Jeff Stone in SD29 trouncing well-financed mod GOP opponents. My money is on the fact that a dem will file. This will shorten this race to June – the dem will finish first due to the number of Republican customers leaving the second place finisher as the shoo-in candidate in the fall.

SB277 “Referendum” Update – How Many Petitions Are There?

SB277 Referendum, Tim Donnelly 1 Response »

Jul 212015

How many of you remember Prince Potemkin’s deception of Catherine the Great? The prince knew his fiefdom was a disaster. He set up an elaborate ruse to fool the Czar in to thinking everything was ok.

Potemkin staged a series of displays (think 1700’s here) in order to give the appearance that his fiefdom was the best in the Russian Empire.

Facebook allows people to do similar things – used effectively, it can project an image. However, in the world of politics, observers are used to being deceived, lied to, snowed, fed straw-men and otherwise spun.

This means then that smart political operatives are cynical and observant. The really smart operatives also understand that most people want to avoid conflict and would rather do nothing than act – especially in the face of controversy.

The combination of the two mean that effective political operatives who are personally corrupt, or are clinical are extremely deadly because few if anyone will stand up to them.

This is why scams are common in politics.

Some screenshots that made their way to me included some nuggets about the voracity of the SB277 campaign.

I also know that the proponents are responding to this blog in real time.

I also know that they have little or no resources and are counting on a naive volunteer base to continue to solicit more funds.

Witness, “We have 100,000 petitions” in one comment. (psst, you need 380,000 valid signatures to qualify)

“We have had a number of questions about the number of petitions we are allowed to give out to individuals…”

There is no legal limit on the number of petitions that can be handed out. Donnelly knows this. Lauren Stephens knows this. This means that they are out of money and are having to ration petitions.

Every initiative / referendum campaign I have been involved in gives out petitions liberally to anyone that wants them… so seeing comments about the campaign needing to monitor all the petitions in real time suggests that they are indeed short of resources.

“Our goal is to turn in 400,000” – this is what you say when you know your effort is lackluster in order to lower expectations. This is similar behavior to past referendum campaigns that have failed spectacularly. Any seasoned campaign operative would understand that you need 1.5 times at least turned in to get the job done. If you are completely dependent upon volunteers, you should shoot for 1.8 times as the error rate amongst non-professionals is extremely high.

I believe the reasons why they are short of resources are that they are completely dependent upon the tea party for their support. Witness the banter on their campaign pages on social media.

Where are the democrats? There were several that voted against the bill. Where are the independents? Why is there no effort to broaden the base?

I believe another reason why they are short of money is that Tim Donnelly is reputed to be receiving advertising revenue for his fledgling radio show from the campaign. This is also alleged to be the reason why Mr. Donnelly was prevented from touring the USA with Donald Trump vis-a-vis, the Trump anti-illegal-immigration tour. (Trump did indeed invite Donnelly to participate)

I learned when investigating Tim Donnelly in 2014 that he is severely in debt. He is also reputed to be in debt to several former constituents of his assembly district. This suggests why he is pushing this ruse as far as he is – even the most attention starved would-be radio stars have limits.

Related to the referendum effort itself, it gets better – if you peruse the “official” SB277 referendum pages… besides seeing that a majority of the support is from out of state, you will see chatter about visiting the DMV, the Social Security Offices, Welfare Offices, etc.

Anyone that knows how to run an effort would tell you that doing any of the above could land you in hot water as the government workers would likely call the cops on you. Why is Lauren Stephens suggesting this? Was this some sort of a post in order to look legitimate?

So then, ask yourself is this thing real? If it is not real, then what other nexus is there for Tim Donnelly and Lauren Stephens other than personal aggrandizement and financial gain?

Meantime, other people that really care about the issue are finding out the brutal reality of the situation:

1. Donnelly is toxic, no one wants to be a part of anything he is headlining.

2. Donnelly is mistreating people that do not do 100% of what he wants them to

3. Lauren Stephens has been scorching the earth behind herself. (the sad fact is that she may be completely unaware of it)

4. Many would-be Donors are using Tim Donnelly as a Judas goat in order to not participate.

5. The supporters of the effort are continuing their paranoid conspiracies against Republican legislators.

No amount of pictures of the same boxes of petitions are going to change the reality. The SB277 referendum appears to be a scam and little more than a way for Tim Donnelly and Lauren Stephens to pay their bills. They need to come clean about what is being done with whatever money they have raised.

When I wrote that they could not afford to print petitions, I meant it. Printing 100,000 petitions (if indeed that assertion is the truth) in order to cover themselves publicly does not cut it. You need 380,000 signatures, you need 3-5 times that many petitions. With 60 days to go and with Mr. Donnelly and Ms. Stephens scorching the earth – the breaking point where it becomes impossible is coming quickly.

Will this charade be worth it to them? Or, worse do they really believe they can win given what they are doing?

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