With Republicans in the California Senate at last about to unveil a series of elusive budget cuts to deal with what they describe as out-of-control deficit spending, their state party apparatus is having a fiscal crisis of its own. High-ranking Republicans within and without the state party confirm that the California Republican Party has run up an operating deficit of nearly a million dollars since new state chairman Ron Nehring took over in February.
This is on top of and separate from the ongoing debt of several million dollars from last November’s election, most of which is a note from an individual donor, which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will take care of.
Nehring is in the midst of a 10-day trip to Israel. California Republican Party press secretary Hector Barrajas did not comment on the party’s financial difficulties, and did not dispute the situation.
Former state Assemblywoman Barbara Alby, the Republican national committeewoman for California and a member of the state party’s governing board of directors, said: “I can’t talk. I just can’t comment. I just don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss it in public.”
Other party leaders, such as the normally voluble Flash Report publisher and Southern California vice chairman Jon Fleischman, avoided phone calls and e-mails on the crisis.
Nehring’s 10-day trip to Israel is part of a national Republican tour. It is unclear what the trip has to do with his duties as chairman of the California Republican Party.
High-ranking Republican critics say that Nehring is a junketeer who has neglected his fundraising responsibilities. Nehring was out of the country when Schwarzenegger made his only appearance thusfar this year at a state Republican fundraiser. Since becoming state Republican chairman, Nehring has had a more extensive foreign travel schedule than Schwarzenegger, who has been lampooned in the Flash Report and other right-wing outlets for his globe-trotting ways.
Nehring has, according to sources, traveled to Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Dubai, Israel, and several countries in Eastern Europe since his election as state party chairman at the convention in Sacramento this past February.
Last week, one source revealed, he was in Washington, D.C., addressing the weekly Wednesday group gathering of conservative leaders hosted by his former boss and now client, Beltway conservative power broker Grover Norquist. The longtime friend and close associate of convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff famously said: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
Long the head of the Americans for Tax Reform group, which formerly employed Nehring, Norquist found some California controversy of his own earlier this year after he, according to several informed sources, helped push through the appointment of another of his former employees, Michael Kamburowski, as the state party’s top staffer.
Kamburowski is an Australian citizen who ran afoul of immigration authorities and was jailed for a month before gaining and maintaining green card status after the second of his marriages to American women. He filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the U.S. government over his treatment. Nehring, who worked with Kamburowski in the ’90s under Norquist, pushed through his appointment to the California party’s top staff post despite the fact that Kamburowski had no experience in California and precious little relevant political experience in this decade. Nehring said he was completely unaware of Kamburowski’s immigration problems, and Kamburowski was forced to resign.
Leading Republicans speaking on background express dismay at the financial state of the California Republican Party. Schwarzenegger promises to take care of the campaign debt, and it appears that that will be largely accomplished in relatively short order.
But with the party moving farther to the right — the state board of directors voted narrowly earlier this month to prevent independents from voting in its presidential primary next February, and its newly ascendant hard right faction delights in taking potshots at the former action superstar’s popular centrist agenda — it shouldn’t be counting on Arnold Schwarzenegger for a bail-out.
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48 Comments
Jonas Blane:So much for fiscally responsible Republicans.
Jul 25, 2007 - 6:10 am Jonas Blane:So much for fiscally responsible Republicans.
Jul 25, 2007 - 6:10 am Ann:What a bunch of bozos. I have to read this again. lol
Jul 25, 2007 - 6:34 am Capitol Boy:That outfit is a continuing embarrassment. Who are these little dweebs Nehring and Fleishman and De Beccaro? They expect Schwarzenegger to bail them out?
Jul 25, 2007 - 6:50 am Sacramento Solon:It’s hard to find the proper words for this. Hard, but not impossible. Let me ponder it for awhile and when I quit laughing I’ll get back to you.
Jul 25, 2007 - 6:57 am Wilbur:CA Reeps seem to be drowning their own party in the bathtub in the course of their kool-aid party.
GAS should let it be known that he’ll be happy to solve the debt problem for a new, rational leadership, but not for the same loonies who’ve driven the party into the ground and show no signs of having learned their lesson. It’s time he, not they, took the party back.
Jul 25, 2007 - 6:58 am Ann:I bet Jonny Flashman and the other Flush Report bozos do expect Schwarzeneger to bail them out. Like most wingnuts, they have strong daddy fantasies.
Jul 25, 2007 - 7:08 am Flap:Pathetic……
Clean them all out including Nehring and Fleishman.
Jul 25, 2007 - 7:35 am Samantha:As a former resident who continues to follow CA politics, this same situation of no fiscal control is happening in other states where the far right has taken over State or local GOP organizations.
These two guys need removed and until they are, the Governor should keep hands off. Wouldn’t bail out these turkeys or the State Party.
Candidates are going to have to rely on winning without State Parties for the most part in states where this has happened.
Give direct to candidates and avoid the state party donations.
Jul 25, 2007 - 7:51 am alex:Figures you have more stories about them.
Jul 25, 2007 - 7:51 am Hap Hazard:“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties… This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” - John Adams
Jul 25, 2007 - 7:52 am Johnnie Rico:Nuke ‘em.
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:01 am Bill Bradley:Ah, right.
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:11 am Bill Bradley:And?
>Hap Hazard :
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:12 am Bill Bradley:“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties… This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” - John Adams
Jul 25, 2007 07:52 AM
And?
>Hap Hazard :
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:12 am Bill Bradley:“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties… This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” - John Adams
Jul 25, 2007 07:52 AM
When you inquired the other day, I said I was enjoying a fine cigar.
>alex :
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:13 am Bill Bradley:Figures you have more stories about them.
Jul 25, 2007 07:51 AM
Which other state parties are you referring to?
>Samantha :
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:14 am Brasky:As a former resident who continues to follow CA politics, this same situation of no fiscal control is happening in other states where the far right has taken over State or local GOP organizations.
These two guys need removed and until they are, the Governor should keep hands off. Wouldn’t bail out these turkeys or the State Party.
Candidates are going to have to rely on winning without State Parties for the most part in states where this has happened.
Give direct to candidates and avoid the state party donations.
Jul 25, 2007 07:51 AM
Maybe Tom McClintock could bail them out.
Ha!
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:48 am Bill Bradley:Actually, Schwarzenegger bailed out Tom McClintock.
Jul 25, 2007 - 8:53 am Brasky:Schwarzenegger did more than that.
McClintock is a republican monster that Dr. Schwarzenegger created in his democratic experiment, The California Recall. Since then, he’s been roaming the countryside terrorizing the villagers. Not only has Dr. Schwarzenegger not tried to capture the beast, but has occasionally fed him table scraps when the errant monster comes home.
Fortunately, this monster is only 2-foot high and acts like a clown college drop-out…
Jul 25, 2007 - 9:34 am Bill Bradley:Hey, you’re talking about Schwarzenegger’s running mate, John Gara …. I mean, Tom McClintock.
Jul 25, 2007 - 9:44 am Ann:Here’s some Jonny Flashman prose ..lol It’s 9:14am and the Senate Chambers are a ghost town. The much awaiting introduction of the Senate Republican budget reforms were not brought up this morning.
Jul 25, 2007 - 9:53 am Brasky:What does this mean for the next election cycle?
Will the RNC muscle-in again?
Where does this leave the county parties?
With state and federal limits, candidates are dead without soft money support.
SOMEONE will fill the CRP power vacuum.
Jul 25, 2007 - 9:57 am Brasky:If Arnold resurrects his Save California committee, could he use it to provide unlimited soft money support to state candidates?
I mean, wasn’t there a court ruling that said he doesn’t actually run the committee, so they can spend unlimited amounts of money on whatever?
Jul 25, 2007 - 10:02 am Bill Bradley:Good questions.
I think the behavior of the party leadership will determine that.
Jul 25, 2007 - 10:32 am Bill Bradley:Ann, Jon isn’t a writer, he’s a pol.
Cut him some slack.
Jul 25, 2007 - 10:38 am Brasky:Well that ain’t happening without an intervention:
Arnold Schwarzenegger : “Ok, I want everyone around the room to tell Ron how his behavior has hurt them. Al?”
Al Zaremberg: “You’re tearing me apart!”
Arnold Schwarzenegger: “That’s fantastic Al. Jack?”
Jack Stewart: “Why can’t mommy and daddy be nice?”
Jul 25, 2007 - 10:53 am Jonathan Hemlock:The Calif. Republican Party is devolving to its pre-Arnold state.
Jul 25, 2007 - 1:31 pm Juan Cortina:What?
Why didn’t Republicans just tie spending to a common sense formula like previous budget plus inflation minus the shrinking population of registered Republicans?
Jul 25, 2007 - 1:59 pm Bill Bradley:Devo?
Jul 25, 2007 - 2:28 pm Brasky:Are we not men? We are Devo!
Jul 25, 2007 - 2:37 pm George:I’m not sure how Ron Nehring got elected–I guess he was at the right place at the right time–but the real strongman in the CRP is Jon Fleischman.
In February of 2009 he will be elected Vice Chair and in 2011 he will be elected Chair. He will dominate the CRP until at least 2013. All of this presumes (generously) that the party lasts this long.
Fleischman now represents the mainstream of Republican thinking. Schwarzenegger isn’t even in the room.
Jul 25, 2007 - 2:41 pm Brasky:I bet by 2013, Fleischman and I will have one thing in common — we will have both elected the same number of republican legislators…zero.
Jul 25, 2007 - 2:45 pm waterman:Schwarzenegger should not bail the CRP out. Those running the party are social and political misfits. They are a joke, but take themselves seriously.
Jul 25, 2007 - 2:51 pm Bill Bradley:Schwarzenegger will not bail the party out.
Jul 25, 2007 - 2:58 pm waterman:Glad to hear that. He is one of few republicans I have respect for, and I am a republican. What the gov needs to do is build a bench team of people who can think for themselves, and act in what is the best interest of the people.
Jul 25, 2007 - 3:11 pm Brasky:All this talk about political irrelevancy makes me wonder – what’s happening with redistricting?
Jul 25, 2007 - 3:39 pm Bill Bradley:Back burner, at least for now.
That will get done, or not, in a number of top leadership meetings.
Jul 25, 2007 - 3:45 pm Ann:Jon Fleishman is the state Republican power? Jon Fleishman who runs away when we ask him what he wants cut from the budget? Jon Fleishman who is so far to the right he’s barely in California? Jon Fleishman who runs the “no comment” web site?
lol
Jul 25, 2007 - 3:59 pm Capitol Boy:These are basically unserious people.
Jul 25, 2007 - 4:51 pm Capitol Boy:These are basically unserious people.
Jul 25, 2007 - 4:51 pm Bill Bradley:Oh, they’re very serious.
Jul 25, 2007 - 5:52 pm Ann:Only six comments on today’s Flash Report. Not enough for a fringe movement. lol
Jul 25, 2007 - 6:14 pm Bill Bradley:They might get a few more today.
Jul 25, 2007 - 7:43 pm Bill Bradley:Incidentally, NWN passed 35,000 comments sometime last week.
Jul 26, 2007 - 2:43 pm Bill Bradley:Incidentally, NWN passed 35,000 comments sometime last week.
Jul 26, 2007 - 2:43 pm Ann:No denials from the wingnuts, huh? lol
Jul 26, 2007 - 6:52 pm Bill Bradley:Not a one.
Jul 26, 2007 - 7:25 pm