Over 70% of 54th AD voters tell Arnold (and Bonnie) NO!

By now most of you know the overwhelming results of this past Tuesday's special election. Despite the Governor and Assembly Speaker predicting either a victory or a "close loss", the voters throughout the state sent a strong, direct message that no more tax revenue will be acceptable. The bleeding heart tactics of the Democrats, who drag out young children, minority teachers, firefighters and cops to do commercials telling voters how they're all going to lose funding if they don't sacrifice more of their hard-earned salaries are no longer resonating.

Voters now know that this simply is not going to happen. If so, the follow-on question would be "why are budgets for education, police & fire so low in the list of budgetary priorities?"

I have a few highlights from Tuesday:
- For the first time in a long while, Los Angeles County actually voted more "conservative" than the statewide average. Prop 1A received 2.5% fewer votes in LA County; Prop 1B received 2.7% less; the others all finished with lower percentages than their statewide totals.
- Here in the 54th AD, Prop 1A finished over 6% below the statewide average, limping in with just barely 28%. Prop 1B also finished over 6% below the statewide average. Our new assemblymember, Bonnie Lowenthal, endorsed the statewide ballot measures, as evidenced by her staff members assigned to the neighborhood councils and HOA's handing out literature specifically showing a lack of opposition to them.
- Similar results are seen in the results of the 28th State Senate District, the race that you all know I'm running for in 2010.
- San Pedro native Carmen Trutanich rose above the slime that his opponent, Jack Weiss, was trying to drag them both through and will now show the City of Los Angeles what a "TRU" public servant can do!
- Republican Tina Park did a fantastic job with a late-season rally to unseat a Democratic imcumbent from the Los Angeles Community College Board. This is the first time in recent memory that a Republican has sat on that board, and Tina will have a lot of support, based on Tuesday's results, for criticizing how the Measure J funds are spent.

So the primary question I'll leave you with is this: Do you think our state legislators understood, or will make a sincere effort to understand, the results we gave them this past Tuesday?

Somehow, I anticipate the answer to this question will drive the 2010 elections. (Hey, a candidate can dream...!)

Republican Values victorious on Tuesday

I know some of you will think this is a bit of a spin job, but the results of Tuesday's election for Los Angeles County, and specifically the City of Los Angeles, should give those of us loyal to conservative principles and values much hope. From the defense of EVERY Republican local seat to the voting trend symbolized by the results of key measures, the liberals are starting to lose their grip on this county, slowly but surely.

The 54th AD had two Republican candidates in Palos Verdes Estates up for election Tuesday against a Democrat who ran on the "why can't I break the law and disturb my neighbors" campaign. Incumbent James Goodhart and PVE Planning Commissioner George Bird ran great campaigns that represented what most of the voters in PVE were looking for. Their sole opponent was Democrat Sheryll Iannitti, who would not likely have received our endorsement has she been a Republican anyway due to her reason for running. This was the woman who ran for office because she was upset that the city asked her to remove her Halloween decorations from city property. She was basically running on an assumption that residents of Palos Verdes Estates wanted "change"; anyone familiar with PVE like I am can tell you that's not the best campaign slogan on "the Hill".

Congratulations to our two endorsed elected candidates!

For San Pedro Republicans, Tuesday night seemed somewhat bleak and uneventful to start. Mayor Villaraigosa was leading by a comfortable margin, Janice Hahn had pretty much locked up her third term, and Measure B was still in a slight lead despite every neighborhood council from the Northern San Fernando Valley to Coastal San Pedro opposing it. When most of the voters went to bed, even the IBEW has issued their announcement talking about how great their Measure B victory was.

But something funny happened around 1:00am...the majority vote turned to NO!

The final bulletin issued at 1:45am Wednesday morning shows only 49.7% of voters supporting Measure B, signifying a trend that resulted from the voting public learning more about the issues of the measure. I have been pretty detailed in my earlier posts about Measure B, so I won't repeat them. The trend of voting was a result of the absentee voters and districts closer to downtown L.A. being the first counted. As the precincts from the San Fernando Valley, Westside, and Harbor area came in, the gap narrowed until it flipped right before the end of counting the nearly 250,000 votes.

But the battle to defeat Measure B is not yet complete. Another 46,000 ballots remain from late absentees turned in at polling places, provisional ballots, and ballots with issues and discrepancies. The No on Measure B team has committed members observing the counting daily, and it looks like the trend downward for Measure B should continue. I look forward to announcing the official defeat of this measure.

There was much to be proud of Tuesday for those who believe in the Republican principles and values of limited government and better business practices. Now we hope to begin the resurgence of the Party through taking local seats from Democrats, and it starts in Long Beach in just 4 1/2 weeks...

Mayor Villaraigosa has to "pull a weekender" for Measure B

There have been many great accomplishments for the rag-tag, rebellious group I have been proud to work with in opposition to Measure B, the solar energy boondoggle that has unified not only city-wide Republicans and Democrats active in the neighborhood councils, but Laborer Union Locals throughout the city who are having city facility work normally set aside for them being transferred solely to the IBEW membership under Measure B. Our combined effort, combined with opposition endorsements from great civic leaders like Laura Chick and Dennis Zine, have resulted in recommendations to vote NO on Measure B from the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Daily News and our local paper, the Daily Breeze.

To try and swing the tide from the city council members who are now embarrassed for "placing the measure on the ballot for voter to decide" to the DWP & IBEW's failure to address the calculated doubling of energy rates (according to their own endorsed Huron Report), the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa (who desperately needs this measure passed in order to beef up his political resume for his run for Governor next year) had to initiate a city-wide bus tour this weekend in order to promote Measure B. Fox 11 News covered it last night, and interviewed one of our speakers, Jack Humpreville, about why the measure is having such difficulty.

I want to personally thank all of you that forced our 11% mayor to forgo his regular weekend schedule of finding the closest "televised" public event, away from any of the other mayoral candidates, and forcing him to actually invest personal time in campaigning this weekend. Your phone calls to absentee voters the past four weeks, plus your renewed energy this weekend to call poll voters in key districts, has made a real difference!

This past week, I was very excited to see the energy and activism by two local unions, the Laborers Local 802 and Local 872, who really took the Huron consultant and DWP managers to task at the Wilmington DWP Townhall last Wednesday. You can only imagine how much fun I had speaking on behalf of labor unions being shut out from what is supposed to be their contracted work effort in the city. To their credit, the Laborers Union members are the ones working at our trade schools and junior colleges to train young men and women the trades associated with building and construction, and have a far better record of providing training in under-privileged communities and community colleges. The marketing rep from the Laborers Union specifically asked the DWP about the record of bringing in and training new IBEW members from under-privileged neighborhoods. When the DWP rep "could not recall" the numbers, the marketing rep informed her that the numbers were "practically non-existent".

Now these great union colleagues are taking every phone list I can create for them and calling residents to oppose this measure on behalf of the truly local union residents. Awesome!

So if you see our Mayor's bus driving through the neighborhood, wave "Hello"! And then contact me for a call list to do either Sunday or Monday. But don't worry about the Mayor's precinct...we've already called it and left a message for his household to vote NO on Measure B!

After all, he is a high-propensity voter...

RPLAC: "Change" for the sake of "change"

To begin, I want to be on record that I warned the former Executive Board that moving the Republican Party of Los Angeles County (RPLAC) Organizational Meeting to the same day as the USC-UCLA game, the SEC Championship game and, most importantly, the Army-Navy game would be bad luck! Up until the night before, I was still undecided on whether I was going to attend. I know for sure of at least three newly-elected members who chose the Rose Bowl over the Reagan Building, where the meeting was held. I personally took a lot of flack from fellow Navy alumni, even though we trounced Army 34-0, for choosing politics over tradition.

But what happened on December 6th at this normally routine meeting was anything but routine!

The purpose of the Organizational Meeting is to set up the county committees, the district-level officers, and the county executive board officers for the next term, 2008-2010. For the previous six years, Chairwoman Linda Boyd & her husband, California Republican Party Vice-Chair for L.A., Doug Boyd, had been well-prepared to get the full body of central committee members quickly through an agenda of setting up the necessary committees, running the members through each of three sets of district elections (assembly, state senate, and congressional district committees), and then introducing their slate of "endorsed" board officer candidates to be approved by the body. Each of the past three meetings, (2002, 2004 & 2006), there were a small group of disgruntled members, primarily unelected state office nominees, that tried to organize enough to challenge the Boyds for one or more of the board positions. Each time, the Boyds have been far more organized & ensured a strong majority of attendees to the meeting were supportive of their agenda. I have been very impressed with both Linda & Doug, and have been blessed to have learned much about both Republican politics & Los Angeles County from them. They are extremely smart and tuned in to some of the key political issues. Unfortunately, their intelligence was equally matched by their egos, and they far underestimated the amount of change and dissatisfaction those of us on the local levels were seeing within the Republican Party. By choosing to ignore the opportunities to bring in some of these new & younger faces to our team, the Boyds unwittingly gave that opportunity to one of their long-time rivals, Carl Davis, himself a former RPLAC chairmam. Carl Davis and I have talked about key issues, and I also consider him a smart & valuable resource. But his unilateral mission to get back at the Boyds for removing him from power has been a prime mover for him in all he does.

This year, Carl Davis organized some key groups under a common motive to remove Linda and her supporters.

To start, the alliance of opposers included not only more state-level nominees (who are often called "sacrificial lambs" in L.A. County for obvious reasons), but an increased number of new Republicans, including Log Cabin Republicans & supporters from the Ron Paul presidential campaign. Our own local committee has a few new members from this group, and I made it a point to both welcome these new, enthusiastic members and to try and mentor them in the basics of the party structure. All of these groups bring new perspectives, lessons learned from their struggles, as well as some concerns they want to see addressed. Only through open dialogue will we be able to find the common ground opportunities for all of us; the lack of this open dialogue between the June primary electing these new members & the December organizational meeting is what led to what I like to call the "restructuring".

The first thing this group did was ask for help from former RPLAC Second Vice-Chair Al Han to run for the temporary chairman role at the meeting. This is the person who basically runs the restructuring until a new county chairman is officially elected. I have often talked about the reputation of Al Han as being extremely supportive and fair of the democratic process, whatever those results yield. Al does not come to meetings with an agenda, so much as a desire to bring out topics of discussion and see what the democratic process yields. Because the Boyd loyalists had a predetermined agenda that had no room for variety, Al Han's election to the temporary chair role was a serious blow, as well as a warning for the rest of the meeting.

I won't go into every detail of the meeting, but the truly shocking moment came when the Boyd loyalists staged an attempt to have the meeting quorum removed, thereby making the meeting results null and void. Out of the established attendance of 119 members, the Boyds attempted to have 50 members walk out in order to get below the by-laws required quorum of 70 members. Unfortunately for them, only about 35 or so took the hint/bait when they first removed themselves from the board nominations and then walked out. So a new board, led by new chairman Glen Forsch, has taken over the county party and will soon release their agenda for the next term. One of our own members from the 54th AD, Lydia Gutierrez, was elected First Vice Chair. I will post an assessment in January of the new board, after a planned January meeting between them with all of us new AD chairs.

I will also post an update very soon of your new 54th Assembly District members, including your new executive board and some key areas we hope you'll be interested in getting involved in.

I want to finish this posting by stating that fellow committee member Al Han performed his role at the organizational meeting as the temporary chairman the way that most Republican voters would have wanted him to perform. Republicans in both Los Angeles and throughout California are tired of the same agendas and strategies that have made us a permanent minority party. We are not entirely impatient, but we need to see some progress and activism to show us that our elected leaders and representatives have not settled for the status quo. Whether this is what Linda and Doug actually did in Los Angeles County is not relevant; this was, and still is, the perception of the majority of Republicans in Los Angeles, and they need to see a renewed effort to challenge the liberal, union elitists who only represent their special interests while waging dishonest marketing campaigns to dumb down the voting population.

Al Han has been a fighter for re-educating these voters and ensuring they turn out for key elections. If the new county executive board takes on these noble objectives and creates a positive change in Los Angeles County, they can expect a long tenure of both respect and influence within the party. If any of the new board members instead tries to bring in their own personal agendas to "change" the platform of the party, provide support solely for their own chosen candidates, and otherwise engage in physical or verbal conduct that would bring disrepute to the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, they will very soon find themselves in the same or worse position than the Boyds were.

Republicans want positive change, but this time, we're not willing to wait six more years to see it.

GOTV Night - Michelle & Shawn Steel join Host Committee; Republican Nominees Holt & Gutierrez confirmed to speak

Fellow Republican Activists & Friends,

I first want to send out a personal thank-you to both the Honorable Michelle Steel, our hard-fighting Board of Equalization Member, and our National Committeeman-Elect Shawn Steel for joining our host committee and lending their valuable support for this important event.

I am also extremely pleased to confirm both of your Republican Nominees, 54th State Assembly Nominee Gabriella Holt & 25th State Senate Nominee Lydia Gutierrez, to our fantastic agenda for Thursday Night's McCain Nation / GOP GOTV Event in San Pedro.

Both Gabriella & Lydia are important additions to our agenda, and these fantastic Republican women will have a dedicated portion of the agenda to present their campaigns, as well as the opportunity through an open forum with you to answer questions about how they will fight for you in Sacramento. This is your opportunity to have your voice heard and to learn how to get these great nominees elected by turning out the vote in your neighborhood!

The agenda includes:
- Two-way audience discussion about the 2008 national election;
- Brief video about Senator McCain;
- Joint conference call with a national Republican VIP;
- Brief overview on how you can Get-Out-The Vote in your local neighborhood;
- Discussion period about our state & local issues, followed by our state candidates (or representatives) telling you how they are going to address these issues when we get them elected.

I expect the California Republican Party to send the media to our event due to the relative size and planned agenda. This will be a good rally for all of us to kick-off our fall campaigns!

If you haven't done so already, please RSVP on our event site at: http://www.johnmccain.com/mccainnation/Default.aspx. (The zip code for our event is 90731.)

The site includes a feature to do driving directions for you. Though it's not required to attend, the RSVP help ensure we plan for seating, refreshments, and campaign literature for the nominees. Please bring as many friends, neighbors, disenfranchised Democrats & Independents, and others as you can!

See you Thursday for this important event in our local efforts to turn out the Republican vote!

John S. Stammreich
Chairman - 54th AD Republican Central Committee

South Bay / San Pedro Republican Get-Out-the-Vote 2008

Fellow 54th AD Republicans,

It's time to kick off the fall campaign season with a motivating rally for the Republican ticket! August 14th is McCain Nation Night, so let's get together for John McCain's first national event day and get organized for the election. All of our local GOP candidates need our support!

South Bay / San Pedro Republican Get-Out-the-Vote 2008

August 14th, 2008 7:00pm

1891 N. Gaffey St. San Pedro, CA

Please come to my event to talk about John McCain's agenda for America and to discuss what we can do to help him win. Then listen to other local candidates or their representatives to learn how you can help them get elected. As the election is only a few months away, this event will focus on making sure every supporter is empowered to get out the vote in their neighborhood.

John McCain consistently puts his country before his political interests and is committed to addressing the tough issues America cares about most. Our Republican candidates are also taking on the special insterests killing California, and they need our help! Please join us for this important and fun event!

Invited speakers include (partial list):
Lydia Gutierrez – Republican Nominee, 25th Senate District
Brian Gibson – Republican Nominee, 36th Congressional District
Gabriella Holt – Republican Nominee, 54th Assembly District

I hope you can join us for this important event!

Very Best Regards,
John S. Stammreich
Chairman - 54th AD Republican Central Committee

Drill now...or $8 per gallon gas? What is your choice?

Like many of you, I've been listening to the daily talk shows on both the radio and on cable discuss the oil crisis. I believe that unless the Democratic Congress figures out how to get gasoline back down under $4 per gallon, the energy crisis will be a much bigger factor on the November election than the Iraq War or anything else Democrats can stir up. Let's face it: the Iraq War has not been the primary factor in the November elections since 2002 (yes, BEFORE we went in!) when Republicans (and Democrats) campaigned on a strong forceful approach to Iraq. In 2004, Senator Kerry had plenty of skeletons in his closet that our Swift Boat friends were happy to enlighten us about. In 2006, the Republican Party had both entangled itself with various scandals and Democrats did a good job of exposing the wasteful government spending of Republicans. In 2008, I believe the issue that will eclipse the Iraq War will be the cost of gasoline and what each candidate (at all levels) proposed to do about it.

This is where we have a HUGE advantage! Regardless of your income level, political affiliation, or other concern, everyone is affected by the price of gasoline. Even my mass transit friends who still ride the MAX bus from San Pedro to El Segundo (and hence do not commute in a car) have to purchase groceries and other things that are becoming more expensive due to the cost of transportation. Lower income families are affected the most, as they are seeing a higher percentage of their disposable income having to go to the rising cost of gasoline and related expenses. So...our new leaders HAVE to have viable solutions to this growing problem.

The ideas coming from the Democrats center around this basic premise: We have to find someone to BLAME! It's either the speculators, or the naughty SUV drivers (like me) or maybe even the greedy oil companies that want to (heaven forbid) actually make a profit doing business. The latter two "causes" have recently become less promoted by Democrats, likely because most of their fellow voters are also driving SUV's, and voters are starting to see that adding taxes to businesses like oil companies will simply raise the prices at the pump. (Remember - businesses don't pay ANY taxes! Consumers do when the increase costs are flowed into the prices of goods and services.) I particularly like the recent emphasis on blaming the speculators, particularly because Democrats won't admit that the solutions proposed by Republicans would actually address the issue of speculation.

Republicans have been leading the fight to declare now as the time to consider drilling oil domestically. Presidential candidate John McCain has recently acknowledged that high prices combined with our dependency on foreign oil have re-prioritized our need to explore and utilize our natural resources while our technological advances are busy working to strengthen viable energy alternatives. While I hope that all states with oil resources will choose to tap into them, I think McCain has the proper position that gives states the right to decide whether they will drill. (This is one of the basic tenets of the Republican Party - states' rights over federal rights as much as possible). All three states with the most oil reserves, Alaska, California and Florida, are experiencing recent increases in their unemployment rates. Opening the opportunities for oil companies to invest in drilling operations in each of those states will almost assuredly increase employment. What else will it do? Increase supply, of course!

But Democrats claim that we would not see any significant amounts of oil from these operations for 10+ yuears. Thought more credible engineers state that we wold see significant amounts within 3 years, wouldn't forecasts of higher oil amounts (even later than sooner) have a significant impact on the speculation of oil volume? So wouldn't increasing the oil supply take away the alleged "power" of the speculators?

This is more of the Democrats' need to have issues with parties to blame, rather than viable solutions that could dry up an issue. Such is the case with the homeless, the state education system and affirmative action. If any of these issues were to suddenly be declared resolved, activists of these issues would be without purpose. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the will of their allies, the far-left environmentalists, to drive the price of gasoline so high.

Even Senator Obama has been quotes as saying that he thinks prices should be this high, but that he wishes it hadn't risen so fast. I guess he was hoping that we'd all have to wait for him to be elected before paying so much for gas.

Don't worry Senator! With your party in control of Congress, we're on a pace to see $8 a gallon gasoline by October. What will Americans do then?

June 3rd: Thank you so much...

Now that the dust has settled on the June 3rd Primary Election, it's time for the dust to settle and for us to get to the real tasks at hand: Winning back the 54th AD & securing the White house for another 4 years. But first, I have to thank you all for your phenomenal support and turnout.

Many of you not only voted for me and my slate of "Can-do" candidates, you spread the word extremely well. And the results show it. The "Can-do" slate of seven candidates finished in the top seven, sweeping the central committee election and ensuring a solid team of operationally-minded members for the 2008-2010 term. This new group takes over in November, and I am extremely excited for our local campaign strategy for 2009 and 2010. It takes more than just a few members to make a difference, and the next committee will be committed toward helping local Republicans running for city councils, school boards and other local seats get the support they need to start making gains in the 54th Assembly District.

The list at the top of the left column will be your new central committee. First and foremost are the two legislative nominees, Gabriella Holt & Lydia Gutierrez, that we must now dedicate our local resources and efforts to get elected. They are both phenomenal candidates that bring us a new opportunity to take key seats that previous nominees did not, and not just because they represent the significant trend of Republican women taking control. Each has unique traits and skills that they bring to our Party that will enable us to openly discuss the most important issues with Democrats, Independents and fellow Republicans alike.

Lydia Gutierrez will compete well against Democratic nominee Rod Wright for the 25th Senate District seat. Her upbringing and experience as a LBUSD school teacher, plus her activism for children and stronger family values will make many Democrats and Independents consider whether their current parties have represented their values and concerns like Lydia will if given the opportunity to be their state senator.

Gabriella Holt, our Republican nominee for the 54th Assembly District, brings a solid background of experience in the fields of health care, business and education, the three big issues Democrats are hoping to use against our party. Unlike the campaign events prior to the Democratic Primary, the Democratic nominee, Bonnie Lowenthal, will not be able to simply give short, pithy answers and watch her opponent talk herself into a liberal frenzy, like former Democratic candidate Tonia Reyes Uranga did. Gabriella will force Bonnie to either campaign on the issues, or watch as Long Beach figures out what most of us in San Pedro know: It takes more than podium speeches to win the public. This committee will be dedicated foremost to its pledged mission to win elections in the 54th AD, and its primary one has always been and will continue to be this one.

For information on their campaigns, please see my website list in the left column or e-mail me at stammiam@yahoo.com. Your continued support and involvement will be essential in helping our two 2008 nominees win their campaigns.

Thank you again, for your wonderful support. I pledge to continue representing you in the Republican Party and listening to your concerns, locally, in the state and nationally. We have a lot of work to do after a horrible 2006 performance. But this is when we see who has the strength and persistence to rise again and fight for our principles and values.

I look forward to working with all of you this summer and fall to elect our great candidates: Holt, Gutierrez, and McCain!

Judicial Endorsements for June Primary

Fellow conservatives,

In keeping with my commitment to getting out the word on all of the races for June 3rd, I wanted to talk a little about a friend of mine running for Superior Judge. Even better, I'll let her talk to you herself. She sent out a posting for me to use, and I've included most of it below.

Of note, Kathleen Blanchard has joined with superior judge candidates of multiple parties to create a true crime-fighting team of conservative judiciary candidates. Kathleen received the endorsement of the Lincoln Clubs of Los Angeles County, which is a true sign of a conservative candidate. Here is most of her message below, including the team of candidates I am endorsing for June 3rd. (The list includes both judiciary candidates endorsed by the Republican Party of Los Angeles County - Michael O'Gara & Michael Jesic.)

"Hi everyone! As you know, I am running for judge in the June 3rd election (seat 123). I am writing to solicit your help in getting the word out about the election. There are 11 superior court seats on the ballot, and not much else, so I fear that voter turn-out will be extremely low. What that means is that every vote counts A LOT.

I am asking that each of you send a mass e-mail to everyone you know in Los Angeles County, asking them to VOTE on June 3rd, and to vote for the best caandidate in each of the judicial races.

...(T)ell them about me (a career prosecutor, working in the Hardcore Gang Division, prosecuting gang-related homicides, endorsed by virtually every police officer organization in LA County, the LA Times, Antonovich, Knabe, Cooley, Baca, & more than 30 Superior Court Judges) and/or about my opponents (both of whom were rated "not qualified" by the Los Angeles County Bar Association), or you can simply refer them to my website at www.blanchard4judge.com where they can learn everything they need to know about my race.

In addition to my own race, I have some suggestions about whom to vote for in the other seats. These aren't just friends of mine; they are great prosecutors who have dedicated their careers to public service. Each of them would make an excellent judge. But, again, you don't have to believe me. Each has a campaign website where you can go to see their qualifications for yourself:

seat 69 Serena Murrillo www.murilloforjudge.com
seat 72 Hilleri Merritt www.merrittforjudge.com
seat 82 Thomas Rubinson www.tomrubinson4judge.com/
seat 94 Michael O'Gara ogara4judge.com
seat 95 Lance Winters www.wintersforjudge.com
seat 119 Jared Moses www.mosesforjudge.com
Seat 123 Kathleen Blanchard www.blanchard4judge.com
seat 154 Michael Jesic www.jesicforjudge.com

If you would please pass this information along to everyone you know, wherever they live in L.A. County, and ask them to do the same, I would really appreciate it. I'm trying to make it as easy as possible, so that people can just print out the list & take it with them to the polls. Thank you so much for all of your help! Please let me know if you have any questions."

I plan to compile all of my endorsements into one easy handout that I will send out, and will also try to set it up on this site to download it. This way, you'll have what you need for the polls.

Why the Central Committee elections matter...

Until I moved to San Pedro and got more involved with the County Party, I had never heard of County Central Committees. When I worked campaigns for gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren, Bush 2000, and congressional candidate Tim Escobar in 2002 and 2004, I never once heard of the central committee structure or how they were "supposed" to be working to get out the Republican vote. I have some theories why, but I think more importantly than why past committees have been pretty much irrelevant in the campaigns I have worked over the past 10 years, I want to instill in everyone that reads this why we need stronger and more effective central committees.

I was introduced to the central committee organization in 2006 working for Michael A. Jackson's campaign. My first impression was that the central committee's purpose was to give seven people plus ex-officios a status as being the "Republican authority" of their respective district. They were supposed to meet once a month and discuss opportunities to recruit more Republicans for office. What I saw throughout Los Angeles County were a few members in each district trying to do just that; but I also noticed those that ran for central committee strictly for their own agendas. They assumed that a position on the committee meant coffers of money would open up, and that they were "entitled" to support from every Republican in their district, if not through donations at least every Republican vote in the district. What they failed to do was reach out and ask voters and locally-elected leaders HOW they could earn their support.

My biggest priority for my first term was to learn HOW to earn the support of the local leaders and learn from them how to win elections in their parts of the district. The biggest lesson I have learned is that voters do NOT want activists as legislators, so much as they want leaders that have shown action in their activism. They also want intelligent legislators who work their way up through their local councils, school boards and community organizations. If you look at the Democratic leaders who have been successful, they all came from local elections; so have most of the Republican elected legislators. So it makes sense that we need to get more active in electing more Republicans to our local offices in the district.

So long as we play the Democrats game of "non-partisan" elections, they will continue to win majorities on our city councils. No where is this more evident than in our three primary parts of the 54th Assembly District. In Long Beach, the Democratic Party has engaged in a 12-year effort to maintain an ultra-high majority. They have done this through the unions & special interest organizations, and I have to commend one of my counterparts, Sergio Carrillo, for keeping the "non-partisan" message resonating well. Not only have local Democratic candidates been able to hide behind this, they've even been able to convince Republican voters that local elections are somehow non-partisan. So let me ask a few questions about "local issues" to see if we could afford a little partisanship:

1) Do you like paying MORE property taxes or LESS property taxes?
2) Do you prefer MORE social welfare programs or LESS programs?
3) Do you prefer MORE local government regulations on small businesses, or LESS?
4) Do you prefer MORE crime (through ignoring increasing crime trends), or LESS crime by getting tougher on criminals and gangs (think City of Los Angeles vs. City of Torrance)
5) Do you prefer MORE local government spending or LESS government spending?

I hope now you can see why promoting Republican principles and values in local races is essential. But who should be taking on the responsibility to promote these by finding and supporting local Republicans throughout each district? THIS is the official mission of your local Republican Central Committee, and one that I take very seriously.

So long as I am chairman of the 54th AD Republican Central Committee, local Republicans who seek to make a difference in their city, be it Long Beach, Signal Hill, Avalon, Los Angeles, Rolling Hills Estates or Rancho Palos Verdes, will have a group of Republican leaders behind them. This is why I am running for another term on the committee; because we have work to do in 2009 & 2010.

To close, I have learned of an effort by a few candidates to divide Long Beach (& Avalon) Republicans from those in Palos Verdes & San Pedro by marginalizing the importance of a cross-district level of support. These "Greater Long Beach" candidates are missing a key component in their campaign: Support from ANY Long Beach elected Republican. Meanwhile, I am pleased to state that two of our best Long Beach Republican leaders, Long Beach Councilman Gary DeLong and LBUSD Board member Jon Meyer, have endorsed me, as well as my friend Davina Keiser, for election on June 3rd. I have received numerous other endorsements from across the district, and I have posted them at the top of the left column. Many of these leaders have expressed a desire for our central committee members to work together across the district and help each other when each local race comes up. Those I have endorsed understand this purpose, and voting for these seven will increase the strength of our committee to seek out good Republican candidates and give them the necessary volunteer and operational support to win local election.

I hope you will make sure to vote on June 3rd for myself and my six friends, and spread the word to all of your Republican friends in Long Beach, Avalon, Signal Hill, San Pedro and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. We have a lot of work to do, and a divided committee will have the same problems in 2 years that past committees did. A united committee will be able to effectively take on the unions and special interests battling to take over our local governments and our local schools.

Your vote matters on June 3rd!

Central Committee Endorsements...and WHY

In my earlier post on central committees, I laid out the basics of its mission and objectives. Today, I will lay out for you the six other candidates you NEED to vote for (along with me, of course) this June in order to maintain the momentum of involvement and support for electeds and future electeds throughout the 54th Assembly District. (I have listed them at the top left, and will maintain this list through the June Election.)

Prior to my election to the central committee, the level of involvement by both this district's committee and others throughout Los Angeles County was sporadic at best. Personally, I had worked two congressional campaigns in Los Angeles County and had never HEARD of the central committees. To this, I give due credit to Mr. Jackson, who promoted the need for increased involvement by the district committees. At the time (February 2006), we were primarily concerned about his own race for Assembly, but he was correct to call out the lack of participation by these committees. In my opinion, the primary reason for the lack of involvement by these committees was the primary reason most people ran for these committees: Their own personal agendas.

I decided to be a candidate that was going to engage differently. It was time for a committee of members that had no specific campaign or candidate in mind, but wanted to get more Republicans elected throughout the district. Others that filed shared this vision, including James Crean (who is taking time away next term to focus more on family & business). James has been a phenomenal mentor of mine, and I hope I can continue working with him in future years to further the principles and values throughout the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

We have some great candidates who are eager to get involved from Palos Verdes to Long Beach, and I'll talk about each one now.

First, I hope that my fellow board member Davina Keiser is elected to the next central committee. Davina has been serving as an alternate, and also stepped up to serve as our committee Secretary. Employed as a teacher in LBUSD, Davina has been this committee's best resource for providing information about the political scene throughout Long Beach. While we have members from Long Beach, Davina has dove deeper into both the LBUSD races and the City Council races, and been a positive point-of-contact for Republican electeds there. I expect Davina to continue building her network within Long Beach, and make this committee's networking event stronger.

Two central committee members that have weathered the storms of the past and I hope will continue to be appreciated and supported throughout the district are Nancy Comaford and Al Han. Both are veterans of past AD campaigns, as well as critical races throughout Los Angeles County. Nancy has been a positive role-model for fellow Republican Women's Federated (RWF) groups throughout the county, and I have benefited much from her knowledge & experiences during meaningful telephone conversations. I very much hope I will continue to benefit from this, and the district will reap those benefits as well. Al has been a critical member of key election campaigns throughout the county, including the LA Community College District race last year and the Victory '06 campaign. Serving as the 2nd Vice-Chair to the County Party, Al has been able to bring increased attention to our district and continues to work hard to get campaign donations to key candidates. Al has also been a critical resource for me as I continue building relationships throughout the county in the best interests of this district.

For new members, I am endorsing a candidate from each of the three primary cities in this district: Chuck Michel from Palos Verdes, John Cozza from San Pedro, and Kevin Kunkle from Long Beach. Each brings a unique background and set of experiences that should help this committee take advantage of lessons learned from a diverse group. Chuck Michel is an attorney who brings contacts and connections throughout the district, including his representation of the American Flag flying at Trump National Golf Course. John Cozza has been involved in both local San Pedran business issues and those within the City of Los Angeles. He was the Legislative Analyst for Former Council member Rudy Svorinich, and has a deep understanding of the 15th Council District of Los Angeles, which is primarily located within the 54th AD. Kevin Kunkle was recently on the local leadership team for Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul, and brings with him experiences and lessons from his campaign. Kevin was very active in Get-Out-The-Vote efforts throughout Long Beach, and brings a lot of operational experience and motivation to this committee. Though I worked for a different candidate in the primary, I have a deep level of both respect and admiration for fellow Republicans that supported Ron Paul's high-energy campaign, and I hope we can take some valuable advice from Kevin and others on how to energize our other 2008 races.

Finally, I (John Stammreich) sincerely hope that I have proven to be a valuable player in the local politics throughout the 54th AD. From my neighborhood council election in San Pedro to chairing this committee (when no one else wanted to), I have worked hard to grow this committee back into a viable & credible committee that our Republican leadership has recognized as a key political force in the district again. Knowledgeable local candidates used to skip this committee and proceed directly to the county meetings when seeking endorsements, and many local candidates did not know about the capabilities and support that this committee can offer. Since December 2006, I have risen both the visibility and credibility of our committee, with the help of some great supporters mentioned earlier, and I ask for your vote for myself and the six candidates I have endorsed for the June 2008 Central Committee elections.

Please e-mail me at stammiam@yahoo.com if you have any questions about myself or those I look forward to serving with for the next 2 years.

Long Beach Republican candidates...where are you?

With the exception of the 4th seat on the Long Beach Unified School District, not one Republican filed for ANY of the elected seats for the three Long Beach government bodies. Five of the incumbents were able to file for re-election without any challenger, including the 2nd, 4th & 8th Districts of the City Council, and both open seats on the Long Beach Community College District board. The only three races with challengers were the Long Beach City Council 6th District, and both open seats on the school board. I understand the issues of party registrations in Long Beach districts, but this never stops Republicans in other tough cities and legislative districts from at least filing and challenging incumbents. What happened to reduce Republican activism in Long Beach? Who is leading the charge to restart the political motivations in districts throughout Long Beach? I think I know this answer, and want to point out some key local Republicans who have recently stepped up to take on this challenge.

At last night's Long Beach GOP Straw Poll event at the Reef restaurant, co-sponsored by the Long Beach Area Republican Party (LBARP) club and the Long Beach Lincoln Club, I witnessed the revitalization of both organizations that have worked hard for years but have been mostly dormant; almost as dormant as the previous central committees prior to the current term. The electricity in the room and the interest by attendees to get involved in local upcoming races was a true testament to the new leadership that has become involved to work for the benefit of all of Long Beach. The new LBARP chairman, Hilary Poochigian, has worked hard to get the club's activities reorganized and staffed with local volunteers. The new chapter chair for the Long Beach Lincoln Club, former council member Frank Colonna, has led the efforts to bring Long Beach Republican donors and supporters together and to provide a much-needed forum for Republican leadership, discussion and cooperation. I encourage all Long Beach Republicans to get involved with one or both organizations. (Links to both organizations are in the "Relevant Websites" section to the left.)

Another motivated volunteer that I expect to watch take a stronger and more profound leadership role in Long Beach Republican efforts is Randy Terrell. Randy has brought enthusiasm and dedication by researching Long Beach politics, and has been getting the word out throughout Long Beach for the need for Republican locals to get involved. The online newspaper, LBPost.com, has given Randy a dedicated column, and I go to it regularly. (The link is also in the left margin.) I look forward to more young Republicans joining Randy in helping take back the great city of Long Beach.

Before I conclude, I wanted to give a quick snapshot of the one race where Republicans actually filed. Incumbent LBUSD board member Jon Meyer is being challenged by fellow Republican Karen Hilburn, liberal Democrat lawyer and TALB (LB teacher's union) supporter Paul Crost and Linda Sanchez Democrat congressional aide Patrick Rodriguez. The primary concern for this race, which was very openly discussed at last night's event, was that Republicans would split our voter base, likely allowing the TALB loyalist to take the seat. Both Republicans in this race bring strong credentials to their campaigns, but we must do everything we can to not turn over this seat, the only Republican opportunity in April's election. This is where the local Republican Central Committee must step up and do its job...even if a few Republicans do not agree. Our committee will be listening to both candidates and evaluating both their platform & their strength to win the seat. We will discuss and debate who should be recommended for endorsement to the county party executive committee. Republicans are always encouraged to support whichever candidate they feel they want to support, but we also want to ensure we hold this important seat.

As for the other two races, I will evaluate each in a future post and give a recommendation regarding which candidate would do more to promote our principles and values, and possibly be a coalition builder with us on future races, including the assembly race later this year. I believe each race offers such an opportunity. However, I would much rather prefer to have encouraged fellow Republicans that live in and understand these Long Beach districts. But building networks and foundations like that take time; we'll have to continue working within these districts to promote the party principles and how their implementation helps residents of all income levels.

I believe both Republican support organizations in Long Beach are on a solid path toward future victories and gains, and I look forward to supporting and contributing to these. I hope all of you are as well. Success in Long Beach is critical toward the success of our party throughout the 54th Assembly District.