Sarah Palin

A day after a West Hollywood man took down an effigy of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the chairman of the California Democratic Party condemned the display.

"Hanging an effigy of any of the four candidates for president and vice president is reckless, irresponsible and is a distraction from the real issues in the final days of this historic election," Torres said in a statement released Thursday. "This may be ‘art' under First Amendment, but it is not acceptable in an American presidential election."  

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama leads Republican nominee John McCain by a large margin in California, and two of the most high-profile ballot measures are on the tipping point between passing and failing, according to a new survey released late Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The ticket of Obama and Joe Biden leads McCain and Sarah Palin by a margin of 56-33 among likely voters, a 13-point gain for the Democratic ticket in the last month. Obama and Biden are doing particularly well among women, Latinos, younger voters and independents, according to the PPIC.

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CABAZON - Former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay thinks conservative Republicans will have their work cut out for them if John McCain is elected president in November.

"If McCain wins the election, we've got just as much work to do as if Obama won," DeLay, the former House majority leader from Texas, told PolitickerCA.com. "I've known McCain for 23 years, and McCain's hard to swallow."

BURLINGAME - Several hundred protesters are expected to greet GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin here Sunday as she arrives for a fundraising brunch event.

Republican Party organizers have said they expect some 1,500 supporter-donors to join the Alaska governor for brunch at the Burlingame Hyatt Regency starting at 10:30 a.m.

Last night's vice presidential debate went off without a hitch or a headline-grabbing gaffe from either candidate, but local Republicans and Democrats came to different conclusions about their performances.

Melahat Rafiel, executive director of the Orange County Democratic Party, to said that it was a wash. 

"I don't think any particular candidate won or lost," Rafiel said. "I think Palin did a really good job of learning her talking points and talking about Ronald Reagan as much as she could."