“Placer County Republicans Strongly Oppose Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed tax increases and strongly urge our Republican state legislators to oppose all tax increases.”

This is called stepping into the vacuum and showing some leadership. Republicans have asked for leadership and the Placer GOP is happy to oblige.

Some will ask, does the Governor care – he does not care about the Placer GOP, he really never has… this is more for our local Republican voters to show them that the Placer GOP is still the Republican wing of the Republican party.

Roseville and Granite Bay have ponied up big bucks for national candidates in this year’s presidential election cycle, records show.

Political donations by residents in the four Zip codes comprising the greater-Roseville region were on track to break local records this election cycle, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based nonprofit that tracks political donations.

Total area donations topped $677,722 by the end of August, putting the region on track to break the $685,775 raised during the last presidential race in the intervening weeks, records show.

This year’s figure includes donations to the presidential and congressional candidates and PACs made during the current election cycle up until Aug. 31, including during the primaries.

And despite the region’s large Republican registration, Democratic candidates and organizations walked away with a surprisingly large share of the largesse, according to a Press-Tribune analysis.

Affluent Granite Bay led the pack. Donations from the 95746 Zip code stood at $351,888 – about eight times as much as the average Zip code – according to the most recent tally.

The time covered includes the period in which both presidential candidates accepted individual contributions; Sen. McCain stopped accepting direct campaign contributions on Sept. 1 because he opted for public financing, a move Sen. Obama resisted.

Who’s on the receiving end? Records show Democrat Barack Obama led his Republican rival John McCain, $40,400 to $35,950 among Granite Bay residents.

But enthusiasm in the primaries for Republican presidential also-ran Mitt Romney dwarfed those. He had collected $68,550 from Granite Bay before the end of his run, records show.

The individual candidate totals should be considered a rough glimpse into an area’s donation preferences because they do not include non-itemized contributions totaling less than $200.

Placer County is the state’s second-most Republican county, with the GOP claiming 49.7 percent of registered voters to 29.6 percent for Democrats.

But that advantage doesn’t always translate into a clear fundraising trend.

The east Roseville neighborhood of 95661, which also includes a portion of Citrus Heights, had contributed $183,626, about $5,000 less than the previous presidential cycle.

Nearly 16 percent of that came from area developer Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, who donated $28,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in March, records show.

Obama walked away with $21,128 from the Zip code, more than double his rival’s $10,027.

In the west Roseville Zip code of 95747, which includes Woodcreek and Sun City Roseville neighborhoods, residents had donated $78,327, more than $10,000 above what the Zip gave in the previous presidential election cycle.

Again, Romney towered over the other candidates, with $12,050 collected. But Obama led McCain $8,800 to $7,551.

In the less affluent 95678 Zip code, residents had contributed $63,871 by Aug. 31. That’s about $6,000 less than the total given during the entire 2004 cycle.

by Nathan Donato-Weinstein
Roseville Press-Tribune

LINK to article

By now our local officials have had a few weeks to mull over the crushing defeat they were handed by the electorate in Placer County and the 4th congressional district. Something tells me that the will of the people has not quite sunk in for our good friends.

Perhaps they did not get the message that this election sent loud and clear: Republicans want a clear unambiguous ideological conservative that will take the Republican Party back to the principals of Ronald Reagan. The voters of Placer County and the 4th CD rejected the vision of the status quo that Doug Ose and our local elected officials put forth. Republican voters rejected the notion that Washington DC is like a giant ATM machine from which we can get all the monies we need to fix local problems. The voters know intuitively that the system in Washington DC is broken and needs to be fixed. The voters know that Washington DC needs a man like Tom McClintock to join with like minded representatives from all over the country to restore our government to fiscal sanity.

Voters in Placer County are sick and tired of continuously being asked to reach into their pockets for one “good government” funding scheme after another. It is time our local officials got the message the era of big government is over. The era of small government has arrived. It is time for government to shrink in size. The burdens being placed on the tax payers dictate that all levels of government should go on a diet.

Doug Ose Spent 6.2 Million dollars in his bid to purchase the 4th CD nomination, and was doomed from the beginning thanks to his “I can deliver all the goodies you will ever need” approach. The people of the district said “no thanks” and sent him packing by 15% margin. McClintock was outspent by a 6-1 margin and won a resounding victory.

It is time that our local friends understand that Tom McClintock’s victory on June 3rd was a triumph of ideology. A traditional conservative triumphed over “pragmatic moderate”. I look forward to our local elected friends understanding the will of the people and charting a new course for Placer County’s future. I also look forward to our local elected friends endorsing our nominee Tom McClintock and working hard to help defeat Charlie Brown. I will be by their sides as we walk the precincts and call from the phone banks this fall.

In an effort to get some blog diversification going – I have some Red County Placer exclusives.

Exclusive to the Placer CRA Blog are the political updates from local offices in Placer County, and insider commentary about County Central Committees and the State GOP.

Yesterday – I posted an exclusive article about Dan Logue leading a legal challenge to the half-baked Gay Marriage ruling by the CA Supreme Court.

Article

Be sure to check out the comments from the anon Charlie Brown supporters… I think we can figure out where Charlie stands on Gay Marriage.

Today – I started a special exclusive series called “Rampage Watch” – this is where I am going to track the editorial habits of Deric Rothe of the Auburn Journal as he attempts to use his publication to influence the elections results in 2008.

Article

Only got a one-week break, damn.

Mike Holmes is an Auburn City Council Member who does not like John Doolittle very much.

He likes Doolittle so much that he ran against him twice in the primary. In 2006 – he was effectively Pete McCloskey’s shill for Charlie Brown. Holmes was part of a strategy to take down Pombo and Doolittle.

After Pombo lost, McCloskey re-registered Democrat and has been out campaigning with Brown.

Mike Holmes, for his part has been busy. He refused to endorse John Doolittle after losing in the 2006 primary. Ted Gaines confronted him in front of the Placer GOP committee about that very issue and he refused.

Mike Holmes has also been very unifying in his comments about the Placer GOP Central Committee. READ THIS POST for more on Mike’s classy comments in the Auburn Journal.

Now Holmes is repeating his old tricks in 2008.

Holmes reportedly called Tom McClintock and when McClintock extended pleasantries – Holmes declared, “I haven’t endorsed you yet!”

Apparently, Holmes overestimates his importance – or he really is a Democrat who is registered Republican out of convenience.

Holmes has espoused Pro-Choice, Anti-Growth, Pro-Gay Marriage positions in the past. He opposes the Auburn Dam and endorses only Liberal Candidates when he does endorse.

Holmes should be held accountable for his behavior. Maybe it will start when he takes his seat on the Central Committee in 2009.