When California Republican activists converged on the Anaheim Marriott in mid-September, they experienced something they hadn’t felt in years.

Excitement.

“It’s an exciting time for the delegates as we embark on a journey in 2016 by selling principles of limited government and holding the line on taxes,” said Allen Wilson, a delegate to the state party and member of the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee. “That resonates with millions of Californians.”

Since former State Senator Jim Brulte took over the helm in 2013, the state party has made steady progress in picking up legislative seats and rebuilt its party operations. Last November, California Republicans defeated two Democratic incumbents — the first time in two decades that a Democratic incumbent has lost re-election to the Legislature.

Brulte also put Democrats on the defensive in the Central Valley, forcing the state party to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to rescue Assemblyman Adam Gray in his re-election campaign.

CA GOP will be tested in 2016

Although Brulte deserves credit for a shrewd campaign strategy and effective fundraising, Republicans’ legislative gains in 2014 were aided, in part, by a record low turnout. The 2014 electorate also skewed heavily toward older, more conservative voters.

According to an analysis by Political Data, Inc., less than 10 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted last November.

“In California, an 18- or 19-year-old was more likely to be arrested this year than actually vote in one of the statewide elections,” Paul Mitchell of Political Data, Inc., told KQED earlier this year.

Next year, Republicans won’t be so lucky, when the presidential election is expected to draw more young people to the polls.

But, this time around, state GOP activists say that the party is doing a better job of reaching the younger generation as demonstrated by the turnout at the state party convention.

“The most exciting thing is to see the numbers of young people in attendance,” said Dr. Alexandria Coronado, a longtime Republican activist and former president of the Orange County Board of Education. “They are energized and ready to work for the conservative cause.”

CA GOP: “No Longer in Hospice Care”

Republicans have reason to be optimistic, but state political observers say the party still has a long way to go.

“The California Republican Party used to exist in the hospice care of American politics, but now they’re undergoing plastic surgery,” said John Phillips, an Orange County Register columnist and co-host of “The Drive Home with Jillian Barberie and John Phillips” on KABC AM 790. “Unfortunately, it’s the doctor that did Kanye West’s mom.”

Phillips believes that Republicans’ best chance is to embrace “tough on crime,” fiscal conservatives.

“If they want to expand the base, they need to run fiscal conservatives who are hard on criminals and are social libertarians,” Phillips said. “Otherwise, have fun handing over control of the state to the SEIU.”

That approach has worked in San Diego, where Mayor Kevin Faulconer has achieved sky-high popularity. There’s even talk that Faulconer won’t draw a major Democratic opponent in 2016.

Nearly one hundred delegates and guests made the short journey up from San Diego County and shared their optimism with their fellow GOP activists from around the Golden State.

“I’d say the convention was a success as we re-adopted a solid, conservative platform and adopted a common sense rule to skip two conventions in the ‘on’ year,” said San Diego County Republican Chairman Tony Krvaric. “A lot will depend on how the presidential race develops, but I’m very optimistic about our chances to have a ‘Republican wave’ in 2016 which will have reverberations all the way down the ticket.”

That positive attitude was echoed throughout the convention halls.

“This working weekend made me realize how far we have come,” former Downey city councilman Mario A. Guerra, who ran a strong but unsuccessful State Senate campaign in 2014, wrote on Facebook, “and how much more we need to do here in California.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Stephen Moore joins CalWatchdog’s James Poulos to discuss a new political alliance to challenge the supporters of big government.

“SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill that passed the Assembly with unanimous bipartisan support Thursday encourages California schools to teach students about the racial significance of Barack Obama’s presidency.

“The Assembly approved AB 1912 with a 71-0 vote and no debate or discussion. It now heads to the state Senate.

“The bill by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, asks state education officials to include Obama’s election in history and social studies standards laying out what students are expected to learn.

“High school history students already learn about recent presidents. But Holden says lessons about Obama also should focus on what his election meant for racial equality and civil rights.

“He said on the Assembly floor that the 2008 election ‘should not just be a mere footnote within textbooks, but rather focus on the significance of Americans overcoming our nation’s past and acknowledging that Americans are moving in the right direction.'”

Just how will ‘racial significance’ be framed?

But flash-forward a few years to when these lesson plans are in place: How will the “significance” be explained?

Republicans, conservatives and libertarians who have witnessed the amazing media protection racket for Obama have every reason to fear the worst.

In normal circumstances, they could assume Holden’s bill yielded a classroom narrative in which Obama’s election was depicted as a societal triumph because it shows how America was now a place where a member of a once-enslaved race could become president.

In our present swamp, however, media assertions and insinuations that racism drives criticism of Obama are everywhere. even though Republicans hated Bill Clinton every bit as much as Barack Obama. So I won’t be surprised if Obama’s election is depicted as a triumph not over historical racism but rampant current racism.

Still, I harbor a tiny hope that historians are less baldly in the tank than the media for our fiasco-in-chief.

Any scholar who is able to pull back and look at the Obama presidency from a bigger perspective than daily journalism is going to notice the absence of foreign-policy triumphs and the groundswell in nations that like the U.S. less under Obama than his predecessors; the list starts with such fundamental allies as Canada, Britain, Germany and Israel.

Any scholar who contemplates Obamacare from a bigger perspective than daily journalism has to see the astoundingly inept implementation of the sweeping law as a presidential debacle — even if one thinks it was a great goal.

Any scholar who looks at the economy from a bigger perspective than daily journalism will see that probably half the counties in the nation never recovered from the great recession — and that the states that flourished the most under Obama (Texas, North Dakota) did so in spite of him, not because of him.

Will he be graded on (absent) accomplishments — or symbolism?

Historians usually — usually — grade presidents more on execution than on their good intentions and/or cultural symbolism. So for now, at least, when it comes to who is in the tank for Obama, this is my equation:

Broadcast media > print media > historians > bloggers > pro golfers

C’mon, academia: Reward my faith by being appropriately tough on the 44th president.

I wrote about the Fletcher freak show in an editorial for the U-T San Diego that made several key points.

No. 1: This is not a normal U.S. politician party switch

“There are examples of politicians who switched parties and made a credible case that it wasn’t about expedience but about larger circumstances that changed. Many conservative Democrats in Southern states joined the Republican Party in the Reagan years, such as former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm. More recently, socially liberal Republicans in the Northeast have shifted to the Democratic Party, such as Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

“Fletcher’s political evolution, however, is one of a kind. He went from being a traditional Republican with a near-reflexive opposition to organized labor and a slight maverick streak, to being a righteous independent who looked down on both parties, to a union Democrat — all in little more than a year.”

No. 2: It's not just party flip; he used to disdain both parties

“In a video posted on YouTube on March 28, 2012, Fletcher said that in a 'decision I’ve been struggling with for sometime,' he’d become a political independent. 'In my heart, it’s what I believe is right … . I’m leaving behind partisan politics (and a) system that is completely dysfunctional.'

“In a March 29, 2012, interview with the U-T San Diego Editorial Board, Fletcher depicted both political parties as deeply flawed. 'I didn’t [become a Democrat] because I think there’s an unwillingness on that side as well to step out and solve problems whether we’re talking about pensions or managed competition or some of these other types of issues,' he said. In shifting from Republican to independent, Fletcher said, 'My positions haven’t changed. My beliefs haven’t changed. My core values haven’t changed.'

“Fourteen months later, Fletcher wrote on Facebook about his realization that his values had changed — in ways that made him comfortable in the Democratic Party. Fourteen months after bragging to Republicans about his hostility to labor unions, he realized his values were those of the party that in California is defined and dominated by unions.”

No. 3: Fletcher still — STILL! — thinks he has moral high ground

” … as strange as this saga is, it gets even stranger: Fletcher and his backers argue that he’s not the cynic — it’s the critics who see a hunt for political advantage in his shape-shifting. Fletcher’s supporters contend it’s 'unfair' to point out that he says things now that are diametrically opposed to things he said 18 months ago.

“But it’s completely fair to note the oddity of what Fletcher calls his 'journey.' To note the gap between his old words and his new words. And to note the slick huckster vanity of his claim to always hold the moral high ground — whether he’s a pro-business Republican, an above-it-all independent or a union Democrat.

“After what San Diegans went through with their last mayor, we hope they are skeptical about all the candidates. But that is especially so about Nathan Fletcher, a politician with the gall to sell spasms of expedience as principled personal growth.”

In the 19th century, academics touted the “Great Man” theory of history, in which one leader of such stature and charisma came along that he lifted a whole nation to a much better place. Given that Fletcher has followers who have stood by him when he was a 90 percent conventional Republican, a pious nonpartisan and a 90 percent conventional Democrat, maybe the “Great Man” theory is having a San Diego revival, just with a guy who hasn't shown greatness.

Or maybe it's just a cult of personality thing. But it's going to be interesting to see if Nathan Fletcher can pull off what he's trying to pull off. And it's going to be depressing if he does.

By Chris Reed

For years, Cal Watchdog founder and now regular CWD contributor Steven Greenhut has depicted media favorite Nathan Fletcher, a one-time Republican assemblyman from San Diego, as a phony and a turncoat waiting to happen.

Boy, was Steve right. Over the weekend, the guy who was Karl Rove’s buddy 14 months ago and a fierce independent 13 months ago suddenly announced that, hey, he’d had an epiphany and figured out he was a strong Democrat. Here’s how Tuesday’s U-T San Diego editorial dealt with this ridiculously expedient posturing:

‘Who is Nathan Fletcher? Who knows?’

By John Hrabe

Jim Brulte was elected chairman of the California Republican Party in a landslide vote on Sunday. But despite winning support from 90 percent of convention delegates, the former state senator kept campaigning until the end.

“Leaders lead by example,” Brulte, who served as Republican leader in both houses of the California Legislature, told reporters shortly after the party closed its 2013 spring convention. “That’s why I campaigned right up until the votes started to be cast.”

Brulte’s chief adviser, Michael Schroeder, himself a former state party chair, told CalWatchdog.com that Brulte spent the weekend “campaigning around the clock.” At a Sacramento Hyatt that was blanketed with hundreds of “Brulte for Chairman” signs and stickers, he spoke to 10 Republican groups on Friday, followed by 11 more speeches on Saturday, before hosting a 15th-floor hospitality suite late Saturday night.

Leadership, candidates, fundraising all faulted

If he’s to orchestrate a Republican renaissance, Brulte needs his take-nothing-for-granted leadership style to rub off on legislative leaders.

“There were three Assembly seats that were lost because we got lazy,” the state’s new Republican chairman said. “Leaders lead by example, and we have to be in the precincts working, standing shoulder to shoulder with our volunteers.”

Brulte did not specify which districts he believed Republicans should have won in November. However, state Republicans have been heavily criticized for being caught off-guard with lackluster campaigning and poor fundraising in several Assembly seats during the 2012 cycle.

Perhaps the most egregious case: the 36th Assembly District in the High Desert. Republican candidate Ron Smith reportedly stopped campaigning after the primary and ultimately lost by 145 votes.

“Smith’s loss is typical of the self-inflicted wounds that have destroyed the Republican Party in California, leaving it with fewer legislators than any time in the state’s history,” wrote Tony Quinn, a political commentator and former Republican legislative staffer, in a scathing election post-mortem on Fox and Hounds. “Once he was the only Republican in the runoff, he coasted, assured of election in this ‘safe’ Republican district.”

Smith was too busy hiring staff and hanging pictures, according to the Sacramento Bee.

“I had most of my staff getting ready to be hired, my picture was up on the wall, I had my office that was assigned to me, and I already had two pieces of legislation that were going to be introduced Monday,” a perplexed Smith said in December.

In Orange County, a lack of mother’s milk of politics

If Smith’s loss epitomized lazy legislative campaigning, GOP incumbent Chris Norby’s surprising defeat in the 65th Assembly District in Orange County symbolized the party’s fundraising problems in the lower house. In a span of 18 days, late in the campaign, six Democratic county central committees contributed $292,200 to the Assembly campaign of Sharon Quirk-Silva.

Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, told CalWatchdog.com that legislative Republicans struggled in 2012 due to a lack of funding.

“The caucus’ problem with the last cycle was the lack of money,” Hoffenblum said. “The one who influences the targeting is the one who raises the money.”

Hoffenblum believes that Brulte’s coronation as chairman will change the party’s fundraising and targeting.

Brulte was less critical of Republicans’ poor showing in state Senate and congressional races.

“We lost some congressional and Senate seats and frankly I’m not sure in a plus-23 election we could have won those,” he said, referring to President Obama’s 60 percent to 37 percent pasting of GOP nominee Mitt Romney in California.

More than 1,300 people attended the state party’s convention. In October, delegates will reconvene in Anaheim.

By John Hrabe

SACRAMENTO — Meeting in the state capital this weekend for its spring convention, the California Republican Party is deep in the red. The party’s debt problems are so bad it’s not even clear how much money it owes creditors.

The Sacramento Bee reported the tab could be as high as $800,000. One state party officer told CalWatchDog.com on Friday afternoon, “The number is probably closer to half a million, when it’s all said and done.”

It could take incoming state Republican chairman Jim Brulte months to get the party into the black. Or the party’s financial problems could be resolved with as few as four phone calls to longtime Republican officials who currently sit on millions of dollars in active campaign committees.

Will quartet come to their party’s aid?

Four former Republican members of Congress — Wally Herger, Elton Gallegly, David Dreier and Jerry Lewis — retain more than $2.2 million in combined cash on hand in federal campaign accounts. Federal campaign finance rules allow retired members of Congress to make unlimited transfers to state party committees. Pegging the party’s debt at a half-million dollars, the party could resolve its financial problems with as little as 22 percent of the retired members’ reported cash on hand, still leaving them with more than $1 million to spend as they see fit.

“After decades of serving the people of California and the Republican Party, this is a splendid opportunity for them to generously give back — to help revive the California Republican Party,” said Shawn Steel, California’s Republican National Committee representative. “I have no doubt, in terms of their political legacy, they’ll want to make one final contribution to the state party.”

Retiring members of Congress are eligible to make “unlimited transfers to any national, state or local political party committee,” according to the Federal Election Commission’s Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees, published in August 2011.

California’s outgoing Republican chairman, Tom Del Beccaro, told reporters on Saturday that he has been frustrated by the congressional delegation’s lack of financial support and believes that the four recently retired members of Congress should help alleviate the party’s debts.

At a Saturday morning press conference, when asked whether the retired members should aid the party, Del Beccaro answered simply, “Yes and yes.”

“Jim Brulte will be a better chairman when it comes to those types of things,” he added.

Few federal limits on ex-lawmakers’ use of leftover campaign cash

Within the first six months of a candidate leaving office, congressional committees are authorized to use their campaign committees to pay for “the costs of winding down the office of a former federal officeholder,” which can include moving expenses, payments to committee staff and gifts to individuals. If funds remain after six months, federal officeholders are eligible to make unlimited contributions to political parties and charitable organizations as well as contribute to state and local candidates, pursuant to state law. About the only restriction on federal officeholders: no expenditures for personal use.

Lewis, frequently described as “one of California’s most powerful Republicans,” ended his 34 years in Washington with $856,407 in the bank.

Dreier, who was recently appointed chairman of the Annenberg-Dreier Commission at Sunnylands after 32 years in Congress, has nearly $750,000 in his congressional account.

Gallegly, who represented Ventura County for 12 terms, retired with just shy of $600,000 in cash on hand.

Herger, who represented Northern California’s 2nd congressional district for 13 terms, maintains the lowest cash on hand, a little more than $82,000.

State party Treasurer Mike Osborn said the party could use the help.

“All our party members have future plans,” said Osborn, who is seeking reelection to his post. “It would be much appreciated if they could find a way to help the party.”

The former congressmen have yet to embrace the idea of bailing out the state party. Last July, a spokesman for Lewis told CalWatchDog.com that the congressman was still considering his options. “He has not made any final decisions on the distribution of his campaign account at this point,” said Jim Specht, then Lewis’ deputy chief of staff.

A spokesman for Gallegly told CalWatchDog.com last summer that the congressman was considering his options, which was affirmed in January.

“We’re working very closely with the [Federal Election Commission] to make sure what we do is appropriate and make sure that when the final decision is made, it’s going to be one that can best serve the community,” Gallegly told his hometown paper,  the Ventura County Star.

No new campaigns seen for ex-congressmen

It’s unlikely that any of the four congressional retirees would run for another office. All four retired from Congress in 2012 rather than face tough reelections in new district’s created through the state’s decennial redistricting process.

Rancho Santa Margarita Councilman Jesse Petrilla, a Republican candidate in the 73rd Assembly District, believes that the retired members of Congress should contribute to the party’s debt along with everyone else in the state party.

“They should chip in whatever they can,” said Petrilla, who serves as a convention delegate. “But we’re going to need support from more than just a few individuals. We need everyone to reach into their pockets and dig deep.”

On Sunday, party delegates will consider a resolution proposed by Republican delegate and activist Carl Burton that would thank all retiring Republican members of Congress, including the four members, “for their service to citizens of California and to the United States of America.”

Noticeably absent from the resolution: any mention of their service to the California Republican Party.

By Katy Grimes

I hope you don’t need $1,635, because that is what the average tax increase will be on the majority of Americans.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 80 percent of American households with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 will be out more than $1,600 next year. And that’s just the starter.

The much hyped last-minute fiscal cliff deal negotiated Jan. 1 between Vice President Biden, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and President Barack Obama, cuts only $15 billion in spending but increases tax revenues by $620 billion. The 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts is no deal for Americans.

The tax increase is primarily due to the expiration of a payroll tax cut, according to the Tax Policy Center in Washington.

While the bill, known as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, will protect millions of middle-class taxpayers from tax increases set to take effect this month, it will increase tax rates on wages and investments for households making more than $450,000 a year.

This is the first time in more than 20 years that a huge tax increase has been approved with GOP support.

The measure, which addressed the tax increases while holding off sequestration cuts and the debt ceiling, passed with the support of 85 Republicans, including the Speaker who took the unusual measure of casting a vote, and 172 Democrats.

The Deal adds to the deficit

The smelly Senate deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” will add approximately  $4 trillion to the deficit, according to new  the CBO, and achieves minimal deficit reduction in the early years.

“For a family making median income, they’ll notice an additional $3,500 dollar income tax increase,” Fox News reported. “27 million Americans will be subject to the alternative minimum tax, and additionally, the death tax will increase to 55 percent for estates of $1 million and over.”

The extension of lower tax rates for taxpayers, and the addition of only a patch to the insidious Alternative Minimum Tax would add more than $3.6 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the CBO said.

Other individual, business and energy tax extenders will add another $76 billion to the deficit.

The latest extension of unemployment benefits will cost $30 billion.

The “doc fix”, a one-year payment patch for physicians who treat Medicare patients, would add $25 billion to the deficit through fiscal 2022.

Pork-laden deal

One of the most egregious aspects of this bad deal is how much pork was stuffed into the bill.

* Perks for Hollywood: special expensing rules for certain film and TV productions

* special tax-exempt financing for New York Liberty Zone, an area around the site of the World Trade Center.

* extension of American Samoa economic development credit

* Green energy — nearly a dozen provisions in the bill would extend green credits and green incentives for plug-in electric vehicles, energy-efficient appliances, biodiesel and renewable diesel, and other alternative energy initiatives.

* The legislation also would kill the part of Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act designed to let millions of elderly and disabled people get help at home rather than be placed in institutional care, which tends to be more expensive.

Democrats acknowledge that the insurance initiative known as the Community Living Assistance Services and Support program, or CLASS, is financially flawed but they had argued it should be fixed rather than ended.

The House voted to repeal that provision 11 months ago.

* No $8 per gallon milk: the “dairy cliff” was avoided. Measures to prevent a steep increase in milk prices were averted.

I can hardly wait.

See the Final Vote Results

By Chris Reed

Republican strategists for years have looked contentedly on the fast-growing Inland Empire as a future source of GOP strength, seeing all the suburban bedroom communities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties as a bulwark against Democratic strength in big cities. No more. In picking up four congressional and state legislative seats in Riverside County, Democrats underscored the increasing Latino vote in the county.

What’s more, a Riverside Press-Enterprise analysis suggests that the old rule of thumb in California politics — a GOP candidate is a lock in a district in which Republicans have more registered voters — is no longer true.

[P]reliminary precinct results suggest that Democrats received significant support from independents and some cross-over votes from Republicans.

In the county’s 31st Senate District, Democrat Richard Roth received 47 percent of the vote in precincts where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats. His Republican opponent, Jeff Miller, received 37 percent of the vote in precincts were Democrats outnumber Republicans.

In the 36th Congressional District, where Democrat Raul Ruiz defeated Rep. Mary Bono Mack, Ruiz received almost 48 percent of the vote in precincts where Republicans outnumber Democrats. Bono Mack received 43 percent of the vote in precincts where Democrats outnumber Republicans.

In San Diego, Democrats also appear to have won a congressional seat in which the GOP had a registration advantage.

This is one more bit of terrible news for California Republicans. Maybe the Mayans were right about 2012, except the doom they forecast is exclusive to one political party.