Kevin McCarthy

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - The second night of the Republican National Convention will not include any speakers from California.

Former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, who heads the state's consumer services agency, was bumped from her speaking spot as a result of the shuffling that took place when Monday's session was shortened and simplified.

A list of Tuesday's speakers released by the Republican National Convention includes President Bush via satellite, former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

MINNEAPOLIS -- Events for the California delegation to this week's Republican National Convention are scheduled to go on as planned Sunday evening and Monday morning, but are subject to change as events surrounding Hurricane Gustav warrant.

A spokesman at the delegation's press office noted that with Monday's convention events at the Xcel Energy Center scaled back Sunday to just a brief meeting, the schedule of speakers and other events for succeeding days is also likely to change.

The Republican National Convention announced an additional round of speakers today -- including two Californians -- for next week's convention in St. Paul.

Three members of the California Republican delegation have been named as officers for the Republican National Convention next month in St. Paul, Minn.

U.S. Reps. Kevin McCarthy and David Dreier and National Committeeman Tom Morgan will be principal officers at the convention, Sept. 1 through 4.

WASHINGTON - The Young Guns, the Kevin McCarthy-led group of congressional Republicans who are supporting selected House incumbents and challengers around the country, is considering among its options the bold step of taking sides in upcoming GOP primaries, McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) said in an interview with PolitickerCA.com today.

“We haven’t gotten engaged in primaries,” he said. “If the primaries are late and there is an opportunity, maybe there is one or two that we do.”

McCarthy, pointing to the GOP’s failure in special elections earlier on in the cycle, said the organization had missed an opportunity to “solidify” the party’s standing for the general election.

In the end, state Sen. Tom McClintock’s victory over Doug Ose in the Republican primary for the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. John Doolittle had as much to with the realities of the 4th Congressional District as the candidates themselves.

The conservative tilt of the district, which gave George W. Bush 61 percent of the vote in 2004 and supported the 2003 recall of Gray Davis by a margin of 70 percent to 30 percent, made it a natural fit for McClintock, a veteran state legislator who is widely considered to be something of an icon in right-leaning circles. The tendency for party die-hards and activists to turn out in Republican primaries made the task that much more difficult for Ose, who is widely perceived as a moderate.

“It was an uphill climb the day he got in,” said Richard Temple, Ose’s chief political adviser, referring to McClintock’s March entrance into the race. “Most candidates didn’t want to take on that challenge. Ose did.”

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthyWASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy is one of the few people who will become so animated when talking about congressional elections that he leans forward in his seat in mid-conversation and touches the arm of the person he is speaking to.

“I believe everyone is addicted to something in life,” he said in an interview with PolitickerCA.com, and the first term Republican congressman said for him “it just happens to be politics.”

McCarthy’s enthusiasm and energy for politics, coming at a bleak time for house Republicans, has made him something of a standout in his freshman class and the party in general. Already, the Bakersfield congressman has been placed in an advisory position at the National Republican Congressional Committee and has been tapped to head up the party’s Platform Committee at the national convention in September. He’s a member of the Young Guns, a group of Republicans whose mission is to prop up house challengers around the country.

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy: File PhotoWASHINGTON -- Kevin McCarthy, the first term U.S. Congressman from Bakersfield who is widely seen as a rising star within the Republican Party, tells PolitickerCA.com that he would not take the reins at the beleaguered National Republican Congressional Committee should sitting chair Tom Cole step aside.

"I don't think that you change midstream. You create a strategy and you play out the plan. Does the plan have to adapt? Yeah the plan has to adapt. I think the strength Cole - he's been in the foxhole before," said McCarthy this morning while sitting in his office in the Longworth building, a block from the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthyRepublican U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who occupies the District 22 seat spanning the Bakersfield area, has been tapped to chair the 2008 GOP Platform Committee, which is tasked with outlining the Republican Party's positions at the GOP convention in August.

"I'm excited to see my friend Kevin McCarthy asked to serve our party in such a key national role this year. As we work to elect John McCain to the White House, Congressman McCarthy will be instrumental in developing a platform that showcases the Republican vision and our party's solutions for the problems everyday Americans face," said California Republican Party chair Ron Nehring.