Larry Greenfield is the California Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, overseeing 10 chapters throughout California and is a good friend to Republican grass-roots organizations like ours.  The RJC is the fastest growing movement of Jewish Republicans in the country.  The RJC fosters ties between the American Jewish community and the Republican Party, and it promotes strong national security for the United States and a strong alliance with Israel.

Larry grew up in Encino, right here in the SFV and earned his BA in political science from UC Berkeley.  He received a law degree from Georgetown University, where he worked on an arrest warrant for PLO chief Yassir Arafat, which helped to deter his appearance before the UN.  Larry is a rising star in the Republican Party, and has a case for the GOP winning in 2008.  It should be a very interesting talk.

Martha Montelongo is a talk radio show host in Northern California and is the State coordinator for U.S. term limits.  Martha will speak to us briefly about some issues that will be affecting us shortly relating to term limits and how career politicians are trying to circumvent the wishes of the people they were elected to serve by amending the California Term Limits Law.

The initial election results show that Roy Burns beat Georgia Mercer by 88 votes.  There were a total of 116,630 votes cast for this race - slightly more than 6% of registered voters.  You can see that EVERY vote matters.  You can also see that, disgracefully, voters do not exercise their voting rights.

 

At the time of this writing, the provisional ballots are being qualified, and the ballots will be recounted by hand.  The official results of this race probably won't be known until the end of May.

39th Assembly District

In the 39th Assembly District, there were four Democrats and one Republican, Jose Bonilla.  There were a total of 10,680 votes cast, about 9.5% of registered voters.  Jose Bonilla garnered 2,143 votes and is in second place.  Felipe Fuentes, chief deputy to Sen. Alex Padilla, and consultant to Councilmember Richard Alarcon, won his well-financed race with 5,432 votes to get 50.86% of the vote.  In a special election any candidate who gets over 50% wins and there is no run-off.  There is a bright spot in that race.  There are 490 provisional ballots.  The provisional ballots, if they go to candidates other than Fuentes, could reduce his count to under 50%, in which case there will be a run-off between Bonilla and Fuentes.  We probably won't know the official results of that race for a couple of weeks.

Appreciation to Volunteers

 

As a member of the Executive Board of RPLAC, I am pleased to let you know of the achievements by the County Party in the first four months of 2007.

 
A new Executive Board was elected in December.  The members of the Board are Linda Boyd, Chairman; Walter Allen, First Vice Chairman; Al Han, Second Vice Chairman; Sylvia Southerland, Secretary; Ron Esquivel, Assistant Secretary; Gary Aminoff, Treasurer; Armineh Chelebian, Assistant Treasurer.  From the first of the year the Board has re-energized RPLAC. 

Some of the achievements of your County Party since January are: a) registered nearly 10,000 new Republicans, b) endorsed and supported Walter Allen in his successful race for Covina City Council, c) endorsed and supported Joseph Essavi, Hector Gurule, Guy Mato and Roy Burns in the primary race for the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, d) endorsed and supported Roy Burns in his run-off race for the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, e) endorsed and supported Jose Bonilla in his race for the 39th Assembly District, f) held an endorsement meeting to select a Republican candidate for the 37th Congressional District vacant seat, of which there are now six candidates.  No candidate received a 2/3 vote, so no candidate has been endorsed in that race.

RPLAC is determined to be a pro-active organization and to be an effective force for Republican success in the 2008 election, under the leadership of Chairman Linda Boyd, and the Executive Board.  Your participation in the County Party activities will assure that success.  You are invited to attend the monthly RPLAC County Central Committee meetings, and to get involved in the committees of the County Party. 

Visit the RPLAC web site.

The California Republican Party elected new leadership starting in 2007.  Elected Chairman was Ron Nehring of San Diego County.  Tom Del Beccaro of Contra Costa County was elected Vice Chairman and Chris Carlson of Orange County was elected Treasurer.  The new CRP leadership hit the ground running. They have completely revised the CRP web site.  There is a lot of important information on the CRP web site and I suggest that you visit it and review the information.

Further, A comprehensive strategic plan was adopted, setting priorities and an action agenda for growth. The plan covers party building, campaign programs, streamlining our management and organization, and other key elements. We now have an excellent roadmap for the future and action items in the highest priority areas.

The California Republican Party Performance Review was initiated, providing the framework for a review our programs and operations so we take advantage of our first non-election year in four years to assess what works well, and where we can make improvements.

The revitalized CRP will become a more effective force for Republican success in California.  We look forward to more dynamic leadership from Chairman Nehring and his team.

 

Western CPAC has confirmed the dates and location for a conference to help educate and renew conservative advocacy in the Western states, especially California. Our conference will have a special theme of "Preserving the Reagan Legacy," and we are delighted that radio talk show host Michael Reagan has agreed to serve as General Chairman of this year's Western CPAC! Especially given the public policy issues to be raised during California's new early presidential primary in February, 2008, we expect an exciting time ahead for public policy organizations and advocates on the West Coast.

Western CPAC does not endorse candidates for office. However, all the GOP candidates for president will be invited to speak and will be featured at either one of the two evening banquets or the Saturday luncheon, and at non-meal Saturday "breakout" sessions as time allows.

There are only 600 people who will be able to attend.  This is the western version of the CPAC conference which took place a couple of months ago in Washington, DC.  I encourage you to make your reservation early, or they may be sold out.  Go the Western CPAC web site to make your reservation.