Former governor worries at message he would send to voters

by Brian Leubitz

Back in 1994, Pete Wilson leveraged nativism and Prop 187 to a big re-election win over Kathleen Brown. But, apparently there is a bridge too far, and his name is Tim Donnelly: (h/t to David Siders)

“I respect and share the concern of Tea Party and other California voters who are determined to reverse the growth in the size and cost of our state government. I strongly urge them to vote for a candidate for Governor whose campaign can compel the public to focus on reform of our failing public schools and of the tax and regulatory burdens that are driving companies and good jobs out of California.

Neel Kashkari can and will produce such a campaign. Tim Donnelly will not because he cannot.

Keeping public focus on the real and important issues facing California will require a candidate who does not have to defend Tim Donnelly’s bizarre votes and statements or his irresponsible personal behavior. Donnelly’s record – not California’s critical challenges – is what would inescapably become the focus of a Donnelly campaign.

With Tim Donnelly on the ballot, it would be a losing campaign, risking injury to our party and our state, and to other Republican candidates who deserve to win.” (FlashReport)

Ouch! Now, unfortunately for Wilson and the GOP, the conservative base seems to like them some crazy. With the ballots already out, whether Kashkari can pick up the momentum he needs to pull into second is still a very open question. Meg Whitman and her millions of dollars aren’t walking through the door anytime soon, and the future of GOP as a viable party in California is looking rather hazy.

Yes, that really happened

by Brian Leubitz

You knew at some point that Tim Donnelly would break out of his standard issue right-wing rhetoric to really reach for some crazy stuff. Something that would really grab attention and force Republicans to redouble their efforts to somehow make sure that he isn’t the GOP standard bearer in November. Sure, polls have him up big over former TARP administrator Neel Kashkari, but that doesn’t wipe away years of crazy. After all Donnelly is that guy →

But linking Neel Kashkari to Shariah law, can’t say that I saw that one coming. But, in a facebook post still available today, Donnelly links to a bizarre and factually ridiculous commentary in the Washington Times and posted the following comment:

Neel Kashkari supported the United States submitting to the Islamic, Shariah banking code in 2008 when he ran TARP.

Shariah is “the seditious religio-political-legal code authoritative Islam seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy.”

This revelation is spreading fast, as people like Anita Gunn refer to Mr. Kashkari’s support of Shariah an “October Surprise”.

Now, I don’t normally go around defending Republicans who are campaigning on shutting down high speed rail, but I think this is worth a mention. First of all, it is racist on its face. If Neel Kashkari was white, would he face this ridiculous accusation? His family comes from a tradition of Hinduism, which turns out is not a tradition that is generally friendly to Shariah, but I suppose that knowledge would require a bit of reading. This is about ignorance.

The Washington Times article itself is a joke. Kashkari and Treasury officials were actually supporting the idea of connecting the Shariah-approved financial system into the larger global finance system, not making everything submit to Shariah law. It turns out that wouldn’t really work well for our finance system anyway, as Islamic banking forbids the practice of receiving interest. That’s kind of the point of Wall St., so I don’t think we’ll all be converting to Islamic Banking anytime soon.

A tip of the hat to Josh Richman for pointing to the LA Times article where Donnelly doubled down on this crazy:

Donnelly stood by his remarks late Monday.

“Given the recent stories and protests about the outrage of the discriminatory nature of Sharia law, we’re horrified that Kashkari would support Sharia anything,” he said.(LA Times)

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your leading GOP gubernatorial candidate, Tim Donnelly.  

Republicans beginning to fear a nativist on a large stage

by Brian Leubitz

Gov. Brown is looking good in all the polling. He’s well over 50% against all the challengers, and the leading Republican is nativist Tim Donnelly. That raises something of an existential question for the future of the California Republican party: are they a niche right-wing party or can they compete for statewide races?

So, with that in mind, much of the establishment of the national GOP is looking to push Wall Street’s candidate, Neel Kashkari. The endorsements are flooding in:

Bush, who’s considering a 2016 run for president, joins 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former California Gov. Pete Wilson and San Diego-area GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, who signed on with Kashkari on Monday.

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Kashkari’s endorsers make all the right noises about how “it’s clearly time for new leadership” (Issa) and how the former investment banker’s skills are “exactly what we need in leading California today” (Romney). But it’s probably not Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s 57 percent support in that poll that worries Republicans both inside and outside the state – it’s the 17 percent backing that San Bernardino County GOP Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has picked up.(SF Chronicle / John Wildermuth

That 17 percent is pretty close to Donnelly’s ceiling. He won’t get much in the way of minority votes, and he’s certainly not going to do well with independents. Brown could rack up vote totals that are rarely seen in politics. The Republicans know they aren’t going to beat Brown, but they don’t want to go down in flames. That kind of losing leaves a mark that you can’t wipe away the next day, or the next cycle.

And so you have Republicans from seemingly everywhere pouring in to endorse Kashkari. Given that he was at 2% a few days ago, and has only five weeks, it’s a big hill to climb. But, it’s a hill that establishment Republicans are desperate to conquer.

Former self-proclaimed vigilante looks to finish off the CA Republican Party

by Brian Leubitz

Sometimes when you are swimming, or surfing, or generally playing in the ocean, you can be surprised by a big wave. Other times, you can see them building for miles. Asm. Tim Donnelly’s gubernatorial campaign is the latter. He’s the wave that is building miles away, ready to crash down upon California’s GOP, making the long-term fallout of Prop 187 look quaint. But, he’s in, for whatever reason:

Donnelly plans to make the announcement at a Los Angeles manufacturing facility. … The conservative Southern California Assemblyman, who earlier had announced an exploratory committee for the run, will challenge moderate former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado for the GOP nomination. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not made an official announcement but is widely expected to seek a fourth term, is not expected to be challenged for his party’s nomination.

In a statement released Monday, Donnelly said he will stress three key issues in the campaign: jobs, civil liberties, and “leaving California a better place for the next generation.” (SF Gate / Carla Marinucci)

The CRP has two options next June, and neither of them are all that stunning. Maldonado’s campaign has already been through some tough times, firing campaign staffers and other such shenanigans. He’s not that great of a candidate, having already lost statewide and for Congress. But, he’s not going to offend anybody, he has a good personal narrative, and (probably) won’t embarrass the party.

Donnelly, as you can see from the Colbert Report story to the right, is a different story. His placing in the Top-2 could radically change the face of the state party. While I’ve not seen any polls, a one-on-one matchup with the Governor would be a landslide of epic proportions, and turn minorities away from the CRP for several elections to come.

Perhaps it would be hard to resist the shadenfreude, but a complete lack of an honest opposition could raise problems. Like the Calderons or other such nonsense. But, as the headline for the above post says, it should be interesting.  

Former self-proclaimed vigilante joins “Free California” movement in attempt to recall Pomona senator

by Brian Leubitz

Sure, I could have posted the video from the Bee of Donnelly talking about the recall campaign. But, let’s face it, this is about Tim Donnelly, so the ColbertReport video was far more appropriate. The former MinuteMan state leader is pretending to run for Governor next year, and even Abel Maldonado is getting more and better press coverage.

So, he needs some sort of stunt, kind of like the fence stunt in the video. And attempting to recall a State Senator that has been in office for about six months seems to fit the bill:

Having failed to persuade Gov. Jerry Brown to reject a wide-ranging package of gun control bills, pro-gun advocates announced on Thursday they will seek to punish Democrats who supported the measures at the ballot box.

“Every single assemblyman and state senator swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution,” Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, told reporters before speaking at the conference. “And when they violate that oath by trying to erase the Second Amendment, then I think we have a duty” to “remove that threat.”(SacBee)

This is of course from a man who claims to be a vigilante and carried a gun into the airport. Torres seems to be merely a name he chose from a list of Democrats, perhaps one with a slightly less Democratic seat. But the underlying fact is that Torres won the special election this spring, and deserves to server out her term.

Californians support these very modest gun safety changes, and Torres seems to be in little actual threat. But this is about Tim Donnelly, the “patriot not politician”, who apparently loves to play political games.

Minuteman Assemblyman looks to challenge for 2014 Governor’s race

by Brian Leubitz

Tim Donnelly isn’t one to shy from a fight, and clearly that’s what he has in mind by announcing a bid for the 2014 Governor’s gig. Now, Gov. Brown hasn’t yet announced his intentions, but the speculation is that he will likely be giving it another go. Challenging Gov. Brown, even with the state’s challenges, is a tall order that many prominent Republicans (read: wealthy outsiders) may not want to take on.

So, this is what is facing the California GOP. Unless the exceedingly unlikely happenstance of a Democrat challenging Brown occurs, Republicans will likely be free to have a free for all primary and still get on the general election ballot. That being said if there were any “adults” in the room of the California Republican establishment, you would expect that they would shutter at the thought of a Donnelly candidacy.

Let’s just look at what the Republicans have here. Donnelly is a far right conservative, out of step with the California electorate, to be sure. But that is probably not a disqualifier with today’s California Republican Party. But he really came to the public spotlight through his work with the Minutemen, the anti-immigration group. While leadership in a vigilante organization is always a bit tough to spot, clearly he was in the forefront. And the organization never was all that shy about talking about race and immigration.

So, this is where the CRP is headed. In a state that is a minority-majority state with a burgeoning Latino electorate, the first major Republican to announce an exploratory bid for the Governor’s spot is…a Minuteman leader.  If Donnelly does get on the general election, it is difficult to see a path for the Republicans out of the wilderness. As Prop 187 brought Wilson to power, it also set the CRP on its course for long-term irrelevance.  That culminated this year with a legislative supermajority.

Perhaps there is a place for the Republican Party in California, but if so, they’ll need to drastically review where they are headed.  The strategy and course they are on is great for a regional party, or perhaps a Southern State. But, unless they can find some way to attract a broader base, they’ll keep walking the road to minor party status.

Well, those are five minutes that I’ll never get back again. To your right, you will find Asm. Tim Donnelly’s web video that he shot in his Assembly office.  It is not often that I recommend not watching a video I post, but that is what I do here.  Better uses of your time include watching paint dry and walking over burning coals.

In it, amongst other brilliant ideas, he enlightens us on his theory on what the Employment Development Department does.  Except…he has no clue what it does.  He says that its purpose is to “create jobs.” Except, no, that is only one part of what it does.  It does help those who are on the unemployment roles iin workforce development, but, there’s that other part. That would be unemployment, which the EDD manages.

Apparently Tim Donnelly wants to get rid of unemployment benefits in the state. I’m sure the idea might be popular with some of his rich donors, but I’m not sure how that would go over with the middle class folks in his district.

Oh, and he also wants to eliminate CARB, which “tries to fix global warming, if you still believe in that.”

Anyway, this guy has been getting some attention for this video. Apparently shredders are popular enough to land you on the Fox Business channel.