In predictable fashion, Hollywood has already pointed its campaign cash compass toward Democrat Jerry Brown in his California gubernatorial bid against Republican Meg Whitman.

Brown has received endorsements from the titanic triplets of election treasure, DreamWorks’ Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The man formerly known as “Moonbeam” has also been given contributions to his campaign from the head of Disney, Bob Iger, former co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, Ben Silverman, and high-powered Hollywood lawyer, Ken Ziffren, according to James Hirsen of Newsmax.

Meanwhile, along with GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman is being portrayed as a “rich woman,” with lots of mainstream media coverage in the form of hand-wringing over the fact that the $71-million she spent during the primary was her own money.

Interestingly, the media didn’t seem to care when Hillary Clinton loaned herself about $13 million during her 2008 presidential bid or when former Goldman Sachs investment banker Jon Corzine used his millions to snag his New Jersey governor title.

In Florida, billionaire Jeff Greene, who made his fortune in credit-default swaps, is using his cash to upset Rep. Kendrick Meek in the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate.

Greene recently lived in a 63,000-square-foot home in Beverly Hills, had Mike Tyson as his best man for his 2007 wedding, and at one time owned a 145-foot yacht and three private jets.

Wealthy Dems get a pass from the media, pure and simple, even though most of them spend the bulk of their time chasing money to fatten their campaign coffers.

Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, who have been accused of trying to “buy” offices, are actually a whole lot more independent of special interests than many of their Dem counterparts, who fawn over Hollywood celebrities, kiss the rings of trial lawyers and pledge allegiance to the public unions.

Meg Whitman, the billionaire former eBay chief executive who poured tens of millions of her own fortune into her first-time bid for political office, easily won the Republican primary for California governor Tuesday, advancing to face a Democratic icon, former two-term Gov. Jerry Brown, reports Juliet Williams of the Associated Press.

Another wealthy businesswoman, former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Carly Fiorina, was leading in early returns in the Republican primary to decide who will challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in the fall.

If Fiorina wins, it would be the first time the California Republican Party would have put a woman — much less two — at the top of its ticket.

It also will set off an election season of big-money campaigns and high drama in the nation’s most populous state, pitting two deep-pocketed Silicon Valley business stars against stalwarts of the Democratic Party establishment.

Whitman, 53, worked on the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and John McCain. She has spent much of the primary in tightly scripted appearances and was criticized early on for avoiding detailed questions from political reporters. On Tuesday, Brown took a swipe at Whitman’s reputation for controlling her message.

“I’m looking forward to a campaign where people get to see the candidates, not just the commercials,” he said.

The opponent Whitman beat Tuesday, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, is a wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneur who spent $25 million of his money on his race.

The heated battle with Poizner to win over conservative GOP primary voters forced Whitman to move to the right on issues such as abortion and illegal immigration, moves that could hurt her against Brown in November.

Democrats and moderate independents comprise two-thirds of the electorate in California. Without a serious primary challenger, Brown has positioned himself as a moderate, pledging not to raise taxes and to make the kind of spending cuts that Whitman also campaigned on.

The gubernatorial race promises to be the most expensive in state history.

Brown will not be able to match Whitman’s millions — he has $20 million in the bank so far — but is relying on Democratically aligned independent groups to fund an opposition campaign.

GOP leaders in California believe they can ride the momentum from Tuesday’s primary all the way to victory in November, perhaps triggering a political resurgence for Republicans in the Golden State in the process, reports David A. Patten of Newsmax.

One reason for their optimism: Recent voter registration trends that show a sharp uptick for the GOP after a prolonged decline.

“I think much of it has been generated from what you see in Washington, where Barack Obama and the Democrats have chosen not to govern from the center but rather from their own party’s left,” the chairman of California’s Republican Party, Ron Nehring, tells Newsmax. “That’s clearly driving the discussion right now in California, and in every other state.”

“If you look most recent data within the past 140 days,” Nehring says, “Republican registrations rose by 28,359, while Democratic registrations gained only 7,492.”

There are several other indicators of newfound GOP strength in deep blue California. Surveys of voter enthusiasm and intensity point to a Republican advantage.

More important than the numbers, perhaps, are the candidates: The surging candidacies of gubernatorial challenger Meg Whitman and Senate challenger Carly Fiorina, combined with an aggressive GOP voter registration campaign and political shifts occurring on the national level, are fueling speculation that Tuesday’s elections could have a lasting political impact in California.

National political experts see an opportunity ahead for California Republicans as well.

“Whitman and Fiorina have two qualities that make the hearts of GOP leaders flutter,” University of Virginia Center for Politics director Larry J. Sabato tells Newsmax. “They are self-funders who can spend big, and they have a hook – gender — that attracts the news media and prods voters to reconsider their stereotype of Republicans.

“The midterm year ought to be a GOP-leaning year,” he adds. “That gives Republicans a chance even in deep blue states like California. The party will be very disappointed if at least one of these women doesn’t make a breakthrough in November.”

Bolstered by extensive television advertising, Whitman and Fiorina have established commanding, double-digit leads over their nearest GOP rivals.

A recent Field Poll shows Whitman, the former eBay CEO, leading high-tech entrepreneur Steve Poizner, the state’s insurance commissioner, by 51 percent to 25 percent.

Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, actually trailed the five-term GOP Rep. Tom Campbell by 5 points in January. But now she holds a strong double-digit lead, 37 percent to 22 percent, according to Field.

Chuck DeVore, a favorite of California’s tea party activists, is polling just behind Campbell, at 19 percent.

If the polls prove accurate and Whitman and Fiorina cruise to victory Tuesday, they will offer California voters a formidable one-two punch with remarkable business credentials untainted by Washington politics. In an election cycle dominated by anti-incumbent fervor, that could prove decisive.

In the general election, Whitman if nominated would square off against Democratic insider and former Gov. Jerry Brown. Fiorina would be expected to mount a strong challenge to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Those match-ups have GOP leaders in California salivating over the November campaign.

“I see that Democrats are relying upon old-style, outmoded, hard-core liberal careerists,” says Nehring. “Versus Republicans, who are putting forward leaders who have a proven record of success and a proven understanding of what it takes to create jobs and manage an organization. That’s a very stark contrast.”

Anecdotally, California Republicans tell Newsmax their offices are receiving an unusual number of calls from Democrats who want to switch parties. They report that Republicans are submitting early ballots by mail in disproportionate numbers – often seen as a measure of voter enthusiasm prior to Election Day.

“Many more Republicans than Democrats are indicating they are certain to vote in November. The world is run by those who show up, not by those who register to show up,” Nehring says.

Yet another factor that could point to a Republican resurgence in California: The swelling rolls of independent voters in the Golden State. They now comprise about 20 percent of the electorate, up from 18 percent in 2006.

Recent Rasmussen national polls show that among voters not affiliated with either major party, 42 percent now lean Republican on generic party ballots. That compares to just 18 percent who think they’re more likely to vote for a Democrat. A rising number of independents in California would appear to bode well for the GOP in November.

“I think the morale of Republicans across the country is sky high,” commentator and author Wayne Allyn Root tells Newsmax. “Speaking purely as an analyst, I predict everything is in motion for a gigantic, historic Republican victory in November.”

Of course, California Republicans know they will need every bit of their newfound enthusiasm to win in November. Democratic voter registrations outnumber Republican registrations by 44.57 percent and 30.79 percent, a gap that has widened significantly since 2006.

Encouraged by strong indicators and strong candidates, however, California Republican leaders are looking forward to Tuesday’s primary results — and to November.

Says Nehring: “The wind is at our backs.”

Folks, those of you who are politically in the know probably already know that San Diego is, by and large, a Republican enclave; however, they happen to have an ACORN office in San Diego County. And like the other ACORN offices who got “caught in the act” elsewhere, the San Diego branch got taped. And guess what else? The California Attorney General, former California governor Jerry Brown, may be involved to at least a small degree.

To recap, on October 1, Brown announced that announced that an investigation hyad been opened into ACORN’s activities in the state of California, which were a result of undercover videos showing the organization’s employees offering to assist the two undercover filmmakers with human smuggling, child prostitution and even tax advice (no different than the other tapes). as per custom, ACORN denied any wrongdoing, some of their employees were terminated and ACORN even pledged to cooperate with any investigations that followed.

That’s interesting, considering that the local head ACORN organizer in California, David Langstein, was caught on tape earlier this month, speaking to an East County (San Diego County) Democratic Club. Both audio clips can be heard by clicking here.

In addition to the audio clips, the National City (San Diego suburb) ACORN office engaged in a massive “document dump” on the evening of October 9, which contained thousands of sensitive documents – just a few days before the Attorney General’s visit. While the “document dump” is kind of newsworthy, what is interesting is the manner in which the dump occurred; the documents in question were dumped in a public dumpster, without considering laws and regulations in to how sensitive information should be treated. That’s irresponsibility at its finest, folks.

Some of the “dumped” documents include not only the inner workings of ACORN within the state of California, but also personal, sensitive information belonging to ACORN employees, organization members and clients of ACORN. Of course, I’d be remiss in not including some San Diego ACORN shenanigans on video.

ACORN, as deep in doo-doo as they already are, are about to get in it even deeper. By the way, below are the “Dumped” documents in question.

SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Document1 –

SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Document2 –

SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Document3 –

A big thanks to Big Goverment.com!

Republicans are taking advantage of a scandal that involves the former and future Democratic candidate for governor of California, Jerry Brown.

A former aide of current Attorney General Brown admitted that he illegally secretly recorded phone calls with journalists. The aide in question, Scott Gerber, recorded six interviews before he was forced to resign.

In damage control mode following the resignation of the staffer, Brown pledged to fully investigate the matter.

One problem, though, is that the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the Golden State is investigating himself as he gears up for a run for gov.

Dane Gillette, Brown’s chief assistant attorney general, wrote a report that found the taping didn’t require a criminal investigation because the conversations were “on the record” with a journalist.

State law prohibits the recording of telephone conversations without the consent of all parties.

A Republican online ad is running, which begins with the phrase, “Jerry Brown is at it again.”

The ad points out the conflict and states, “We just can’t trust you [Brown] on this one.”

As those of you who have been following the progress of Proposition 8 already know, this Thursday is a day of reckoning, so to speak as the California state Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the measure; in the meantime, the state Legislature approved a resolution on Monday  declaring that voters alone did not have the right to adopt the gay marriage ban.  Fortunately, the resolution is non-binding.  At the hearing, the court will hear oral arguments on the measure; State Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office will argue that this measure violates an “inalienable right of liberty” in the state constitution.

Specifically, the resolution contends that Proposition 8 – which defines marriage as only between a man and woman – was an improper revision of the state constitution; the resolution also states that the measure – which voters approves in November 2008 – oversteps the authority of the courts to enforce equal protection and prevent government discrimination.  The resolution was sponsored by Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), an openly gay member of the Legislature.

I predict that on Thursday, the court will find that the measure is valid in its current form; just know that the voters approved the measure not once, but twice.

Well folks, it certainly didn’t take long for former eBay CEO Meg Whitman to come to a decision as according to Shane Goldmacher of The Sacramento Bee, Whitman has officially submitted her bid to run for governor on Monday.

Some things to know about Whitman:

• She is a political novice; she has never in her life held political office.  Assuming she is elected, she would be the first female governor in the state’s history.
• She was an adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaign, then John McCain’s.
• She hasn’t made public her positions on many issues, including stem-cell research all the way to balancing the state’s budget.  The only position to date that I know of is that she does support Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage.
• She registered as a Republican in 2007 and according to reports, she didn’t vote in half of the elections that have taken place since 2002.

So what does all of this mean?  In my humble opinion, not a heck of a lot – for right now.  There’s not a whole lot of info on Whitman, other than what I’ve posted already, so for the moment, I’m going to keep an open mind about Whitman until more facts come out.

Whitman will have a lot of competition – including some Democrats – in the bid for the state governorship; below are the current participants in the gubernatorial race:

• State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner
• Tom Campbell.  He was a former congressman, U.S. Senate candidate and state budget director.
• Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi
• San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom (I just cannot see that happening)
• State Attorney General Jerry Brown (God, I hope not!!)
• U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein
• Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (tentative)
• Former state controller Steve Westly
• State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell (Who?!?!)

When this list becomes a bit more transparent and definitive, The Republican Temple will keep you posted.