[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

What's the status of the California Republican Party these days?

If you ask some DC insiders, like John Feehery, a GOP strategist who was former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's spokesman, "The party is seen as dog meat -- tainted dog meat at that."

And he's being nice.

No wonder. The State Party -- and its legislative leadership -- is hopelessly out-of-touch with the California electorate. Democratic registration is soaring, Obama has a double-digit lead, and legislative Republicans are doing the two-decade old "read my lips" dance when the majority of Californians are rejecting a cuts-only budget.

As for John McCain's prospects,the Mercury News notes, "Most analysts agree California's 55 electoral votes appear secure for the Democrats. 'McCain was going to lose California anyway, but his gamble to back offshore drilling means he will lose California by 20 points, and it will cause him trouble in Florida,' predicted Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, a group backing Obama."

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

If California voters don't like having the third highest unemployment rate in the country, endless war, nonsense issues at the forefront of the presidential discourse, an outrageous attempt to abolish rent control, and an unfortunate lack of universal health care due in large part to Repubublican obstructionism, they can show the pundits they are motivated by voting during this June 3rd's Assembly, Senate, Congressional, and local races primary.

Courtesy the Secretary of State Debra Bowen's Office:

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Hannah Beth Jackson

With Super Tuesday all but a dim memory in the fast-paced world of Presidential campaign politics, Speak Out California will try to provide a summary of what happened, why and what it means for the near future of our state and nation. While such prognostications are often supplanted within days as the "conventional wisdom" shifts with each passing event and hour, we think there are enough interesting tidbits to provide at least some kind of guideline for the historic election we have just witnessed in our state.

So just what did the California electorate have to say this past week?

Remembering that we moved our primary election up to be "relevant" in the presidential selection process, it is somewhat ironic that the results of "Super Tuesday" have not clarified the race much at all. With Hillary Clinton taking the grand prize of California by an impressive 10% margin, having received 52% of the votes cast to Barack Obama's 42.4%, the candidates are still neck-and-neck in the all-important delegate count heading into the August convention, where the final candidate selection will take place.