On Facebook the Ventura County Republican Assembly,a group that wants the Republican Party to become more conservative, posted this:

The problem? That man has been released and cleared by the FBI. In their rush to smear liberals they attacked an innocent man.

Since then a former Republican candidate has been investigated for framing him. Does that prove anything? No. His problems do not appear to be related to conservatism or the Republican Party.

But it does prove that when breaking news happens we should wait to find out more before we try to make political points from it.

Will the Ventura County Republican Assembly correct themselves or just erase the post?

While local Republicans have been trying to shift their party further right this happened.

"In a number of counties, including Ventura, the numbers actually show an uptick in registration since the presidential election. About 4,200 additional voters have been added to the county roll -- about 1,900 Democrats and about 1,900 "no party preference" voters. The other new voters were all affiliated with minor parties, as the Republican total dropped by 132."

The California Republican Assembly is the conservative faction in the Republican Party. They want the party to move more to the right on social issues.

Do you think the Republican Party is too liberal on social issues? The California Republican Party is a conservative faction in the Republican Party. They recently reorganized their Ventura County chapter with the help of State Assembly Member Scott Wilk.

I am interested in their plans to get more involved in Ventura County politics.

What do you think they should do?

Conejo Valley School Board candidate Tony Dolz has a real problem with the book The Kite Runner. His platform on his website lists only two issues. One of them is to ban high school teachers from using The Kite Runner.

What surprises me is that the Republican Party supports such a candidate. He has support from Tony Strickland and the local Tea Party. Do they really think The Kite Runner should be banned? Is that really their priority? With all of the problems in schools their priority is banning this book?

Fun fact: The author of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, had close connections to Ventura County.

Maybe we can suggest those in favor of censorship to read his book.

I went to the Grand Opening of Hannah-Beth Jackson's campaign office Wednesday night in Ventura. After the excitement outside and inside the Tony Strickland w/ Mitt Romney event I was let down. It was the standard office opening party.

When I was walking up I ran into Republican activist Steve Frank who was a lone protester outside the event. Steve was holding a Taxin' Jackson sign and keeping tabs on the amount of people or who was attending the event. I asked if he wanted to talk on a short video but he declined and had no comment as he was there for business.

Inside the event there was about 25 people total. I looked around for signs of liberalism and found this:

( Looks like the tomato crisis is over!)

I didn't find any MAC computers running Firefox, pilates mats, or Nalgene bottles.

There were local Democratic Activists ( Steve Cummings from the Ventura Democratic Club), labor union supporters, people from the education community, business people, and a few young people, and as far as I could tell no other media. But ask Steve Frank. He was keeping track of that stuff too from the outside.

For about 15 minutes Hannah-Beth Jackson spoke about the campaign thus far, her issues, and then she took questions.

She started off by expressing her shock at the shoving that happened outside the Tony Strickland fundraiser. She said she would not tolerate that from her campaign and went on about freedom of expression and the constitutional right to free speech. She even mentioned Steve Frank and his right to stand outside the meeting and talked about how that is a great part of our nation's freedoms.

At a past event I asked her if she would pledge to not take contributions from gambling interests and the prison guards' union being that she had talked about her budget priorities including funding education at a high level. She said it was wrong how much we spend on prisoners while we cut education. Hannah-Beth Jackson said she wasn't going t pledge to not take any money from them but she said her record shows that she isn't beholden to them. ( Rough paraphrase, I don't know if she used the word beholden or not).

Last night she said there was two industries that she wouldn't take direct contributions from: oil and tobacco. That reminds me of the movie Zoolander. Tobacco and Oil do not go together:

How many of you got the reference without watching the video?

On the issue of tobacco funding she said the major difference was not the money but the voting patterns. She discussed key votes where she and her opponent voted differently when they served in the state assembly together. If you want to read more about the tobacco issue click on continue reading to see her latest press releases.

She discussed the need for some regulations and the role of government in a free market economy to provide for infrastructure and an educated workforce.

The long drive back to Simi Valley gave me a chance to reflect how large this state senate district really is and how hard it is to organize events when the drive time along back and forth would be a few hours. It would be awesome if both campaigns opened offices in Simi Valley soon. Maybe they could team up with local Democratic or Republican clubs?

Trivia question: Being that Tony and Hannah-Beth served in the assembly at the same time and both represented parts of Ventura County can you name any legislation they worked on together?

If they are promising to work with members of the other party did they ever work together?

I will be very impressed with your research skills if you name the legislation or action.

The California Republican Assembly is gearing up to have a local meeting. The CRA is described by many as a conservative grassroots group dedicated to pushing Republicans to the right.

Here is the description from Steve Frank's blog:

For my readers in Ventura County great news. The California Republican Assembly is back, bigger and stronger in our county. There are now five clubs throughout the county.

For the first time, all of the clubs will have a joint meeting. This is the place for conservatives and activists in Ventura County. Come to the meeting, meet a real conservative Supervisor Peter Foy and join with others in the cause of freedom. It is June 21!

Mark your calendars, send emails, send press releases to your local newspapers, contact your new CRA members, call your Republican friends which may want to join the CRA and invite them to our first meeting. We need to have a great turnout. Invite your local "Republican" elected officials and ask them to join the CRA.

When - June 21st - Thursday - Time - 6:30 PM

Where - "The Pickles Deli" in Newbury Park ........go to www.picklesdeli.com for directions and menu. Address: 1940 Newbury Road, in the Kohl’s Shopping Center

NOTE: Everyone will be responsible for their own food and beverage purchases.

Guest Speaker - County Supervisor Peter Foy

CAPC ( California association of political centrists) readers, will you folks be there?