Boxer has an eight-point lead over both former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (48 percent to 40 percent) and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine (47 percent to 39 percent).

Among likely voters in the GOP primary, Campbell leads at 27 percent, with Fiorina at 16 percent and DeVore at 8 percent. Campbell leads among likely voters with household incomes both below and above $80,000, and among both men and women. This survey of likely voters includes the 12 percent of independent voters who say they will choose to vote on a Republican ballot.

The margin of error for the 1,223 November likely voters is three percentage points, and the margin for the 425 Republican primary likely voters is five points.
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DeVore's spin is the funniest yet and Trevino is beclowning himself again. DeVore has no polling support, no name recognition and no campaign money.

When will he withdraw?

Meg Whitman’s growing lead in the Republican primary for governor is worse news for Jerry Brown than it is for Steve Poizner.

The former eBay CEO has jumped out to a huge 41 percent to 11 percent lead over Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, in a poll released last night by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The survey gives Brown an increasingly narrow 41 percent to 36 percent lead over Whitman in a November match-up, but those numbers aren’t nearly as worrisome to the attorney general as Poizner’s weak showing.
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Steve Poizner should withdraw and let Meg beat Jerry Brown by 10 points.

Jerry Brown promised to "mix it up" this morning on his weekly call into San Francisco radio station KGO. And mix it up he did. Listen here.

The attorney general and undeclared Democratic gubernatorial candidate was asked about San Francisco Mayor and former gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom's recent remark that Brown didn't appear to have "fire in his belly" for the race.

Brown responded, "He's been giving a lot of advice to the president and now me, and I'm sure there'll be others because when you don't have a lot to do, you can start checking out what other people have been doing.

"I appreciate the advice, and I'm going to be examining my intestinal fortitude here."
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Ol' Crusty Brown ain't going to be the next California governor. He failed the first time around.

The White House ordered the Justice Department to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The White House took the action hours after Mayor Bloomberg called Attorney General Eric Holder to say he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere."

"It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters.

"There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City."

State leaders have railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month.

The order to consider new venues does not change the White House's position that Mohammed should be tried in civilian court.
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Better not be Los Angeles….

The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.

The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.

The Information Commissioner’s Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.

The stolen e-mails , revealed on the eve of the Copenhagen summit, showed how the university’s Climatic Research Unit attempted to thwart requests for scientific data and other information, and suggest that senior figures at the university were involved in decisions to refuse the requests…

If President Barack Obama hoped his State of the Union speech would revive the health care debate on Capitol Hill, signs of movement were not immediately apparent Thursday.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said health care reform “is on life support, unfortunately,” and the president should have been more specific with how Democrats should move forward.

“He should have been more clear, and I am hoping that in the next week or two he will because that is what it is going to take if it is at all possible to get it done," Landrieu told reporters. "Mailing in general suggestions, sending them over the transom, is not necessarily going to work.”

The president's criticism of the Senate in the speech was "a little strange, a little odd," Landrieu said.
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Put a fork in Obamacare

A new PPIC poll (2,001 RVs, 1/12-19, MoE +/- 2%) of the landscape in California shows that former Rep. Tom Campbell's (R) decision to switch from the gubernatorial to the Senate race has changed the dynamic of both races, as he now leads a more crowded Senate field while former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has jumped to a commanding early lead in her bid for governor.

In general election matchups, meanwhile, Democrats are favored in both. But neither candidate — Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown and incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer — tops 50%.

Republican Primary Matchup: Governor
Whitman 41
Poizner 11
Und 44

Republican Primary Matchup: Senate
Campbell 27
Fiorina 16
DeVore 8
Und 48
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Nothing new here from the California Field Poll

The majority of California voters are aware of the Tea Party protest movement sweeping the country but don’t identify with it, a new Field Poll shows.

The nonpartisan, statewide survey shows that 61 percent of California registered voters have heard of the Tea Party movement. But only 12 percent say they have a lot of identification with the movement, and 16 percent say they have some identification with it.
For example, more than half of the Republicans, 56 percent, say they identify strongly or somewhat with the Tea Party movement, compared with 11 percent of the Democrats.

Likewise, 64 percent of voters who consider themselves “strongly conservative” sympathize with the Tea Party movement strongly or somewhat. Only 10 percent of voters who regard themselves as “strongly liberal” do.

A new Franklin & Marshall poll being in Pennsylvania finds Pat Toomey (R) leading Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) for the U.S. Senate by 14 points among likely voters, 45% to 31%.

Toomey leads Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), 41 percent to 19 percent.

In a Democratic primary match up, Specter leads Sestak, 30% to 13%, with 50% undecided.
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Handwriting on the wall. Arlen Specter is done.

Carly Fiorina is a conservative and principled woman who has the know-how and the support to win in a head-to-head battle with the legendary and rough campaign tactics of Boxer.
Carly Fiorina is high-contrast to the tolerated Boxer. She is easily one of the most accomplished women in America. She is campaigning throughout California to standing ovations. In San Diego this month, a last minute upgrade to a giant ballroom was required to handle the growing crowds that arrived to hear her. Fiorina is Barbara Boxer’s worst nightmare because she has actually done something. Senator Boxer has no answer to Fiorina’s blue chip preparation and training, her two MBA’s, and work history that spans a receptionist desk all the way to the top of AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Hewlett Packard.
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The Author, Sonja Brown was Deputy Communications Director and spokeswoman for Yes on Proposition 8 campaign to preserve traditional marriage

With no clear path forward on major health care legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress effectively slammed the brakes on President Obama’s top domestic priority on Tuesday, saying they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them.
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, deflected questions about health care.

“We’re not on health care now,” Mr. Reid said. “We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.”

He added, “There is no rush,” and noted that Congress still had most of this year to work on the health bills passed in 2009 by the Senate and the House.

Mr. Reid said he and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, were working to map out a way to complete a health care overhaul in coming months. “There are a number of options being discussed,” he said, emphasizing “procedural aspects” of the issue.
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Obamacare or at least the Senate bill version has died with the election of MA Senator Scott Brown

Conservatism, an optimism grounded in great faith in each individual, rests on the fundamental principle that people will make better choices for themselves and their families than others can make for them.

It is the belief that we can trust individuals to make better decisions about how to spend and invest their own money than any far-away government bureaucrat or professional politician can.

Conservatism is really about a return to the basics that every responsible family understands. Don't spend what we can't afford; make the tough priority calls about spending and keep track of where the dollars go; invest in the security and unlimited potential of our children; don't burden them with our debts.
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Read it all

At first glance, the seasoned observer of Golden State Republican politics is tempted to shrug and say “Who cares?” A Stanford University law professor and briefly state finance director under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Campbell represents the left-of-center of the state Republican Party that has been in decline for decades. He has already made two unsuccessful Senate runs. In losing nomination for the same Senate seat he now seeks to conservative Bruce Herschensohn in 1992, Campbell took decidedly liberal stands on abortion (his television spots almost always underscored he was the “pro-choice Republican”), gay rights, gun control, and the environment. He also was for abolishing the Strategic Defense Initiative and for the quota-laden Civil Rights Act of 1991.
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When CA voters are reminded of his past positions he will sink like a stone in the polls

Ex-FL House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) announced this a.m. that he raised $1.75M in the 4thQ '09, nearly matching FL Gov. Charlie Crist's (R) total during the same period.

The numbers are more good news for Rubio, whose campaign seems to be riding a wave of momentum bolstered by any number of conservative victories, from Doug Hoffman's candidacy in NY-23 to Sen.-elect Scott Brown's (R) win in MA to Rubio's own victories in straw polls across FL.

Now, a new Quinnipiac poll out this a.m. shows Rubio leading Crist for the first time. And an endorsement by ex-FL Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could be a matter of "when," not "if," following the endorsement of Bush's son, George P. Bush, last week.

Despite his impressive 4thQ haul, Rubio still lags far behind Crist in terms of CoH. Crist currently has a hefty $7.5M in his war chest, dwarfing Rubio's $2M. That means Crist is well-positioned going into the seven months remaining until the 8/24 GOP primary.
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Going to get down and dirty soon.

The Washington Post 1-25-10: President Barack Obama, under pressure from deficit hawks, will seek a three-year freeze on domestic spending in his 2011 budget that would save $250 billion by 2020, administration officials said on Monday.
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After spending America blind for the past year, President Obama now proposes a spending freeze?

What about Obamacare?

the largest increase in domestic spedning ever/