Next Luncheon

As Californians, we entrust our leaders with a massive $325+ billion state budget, yet too often, transparency takes a back seat to red tape. Enter Herb Morgan—a lifelong Californian, seasoned financial expert, and candidate for California State Controller who is ready to change the status quo.

With nearly four decades of financial market experience, Herb brings rare executive muscle to the table. As the founder of Efficient Market Advisors (EMA)—one of the nation's earliest ETF-based firms, which scaled to $1.5 billion in assets—and a former Wall Street Chief Investment Officer, he knows how to build, manage, and protect large-scale operations.

His commitment to accountability is equally rooted in public service. Appointed to the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System (SDCERS) Board by Mayor Jerry Sanders, Herb successfully overhauled financial reporting, restored corporate governance, and was elected Board Chair twice by his peers.

Now, Herb is bringing that same fierce integrity, entrepreneurial drive, and dedication to Sacramento. His campaign has a clear and urgent mission: transforming the Controller's office from a passive bookkeeper into an active guardian of taxpayer dollars. Through radical transparency, real-time fiscal oversight, and proactive, outcome-based audits, Herb Morgan is ready to eliminate waste, prevent fraud, and restore absolute trust in how California handles its finances.

What specific fiscal transparency initiative would you most like to see implemented first in California's state budget process?

Join us to hear Herb set out his vision! Register here

*NOTE: Luncheon program begins at 11:30 but PLEASE check in by 11:15 so that the ladies working at the registration table can take their seats and listen to the speaker.*

MENU:

Parmesan crusted whitefish with artichoke chardonnay cream sauce and seasonal vegetables.

Veggie Entrée: Mushroom ravioli topped with fresh mozzarella and roasted cherry tomatoes

Dessert: Mini apple tartlets 

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It's Time to Party!

This event is for members, husbands, and their guests.  We’ll be enjoying an outdoor BBQ featuring hamburger bar with all the fixings provided by the Golden Gate Republican Women Board members.  All you need to do is RSVP by October 22nd so we have enough food, plates, etc.  No late comers or non-RSPV-ers at this one. All you need to bring your drink of choice.  We will also go over the ballot recommendations with a handout.  Otherwise enjoy and stay for as much or as little time as you like. You will get the address for the party once you RSVP! Register here

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President's Report

Our speaker for October is Herb Morgan who is running for CA State Controller.  Please sign up by October 13th and bring your friends and family!

In September our speakers were Anna Cheng Kraner and David Chan, the founders of Golden State Revival (GSR), a group dedicated to electing Republicans to the State Senate and State Assembly in “flippable” districts in order to eliminate the Democrat super-majority, which can propose any crazy law or regulation it wants to impose.  Ann and David asked if we could send out hand-written and addressed postcards to voters in targeted districts, because this personal touch has been proven to get people to actually read the message.  We took on about 1,300 postcards and we have sent out just about all of those as of this writing.  Those postcards are going to low propensity Republican voters and will be the second time they have been contacted.  This time around GSR is supporting three candidates and if they win, GSR expects to have the resources to back double than number of candidates within two years!  We need seven State Assembly seats and four State Senate seats to achieve the goal of eliminating the Democrat super-majority!  This is an achievable goal and I want to thank every member who wrote postcards until their hands were numb!  Thank you to Anna and David for driving this movement and for driving so far to talk to us!  

Events scheduled in the coming months are:

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Ready or Not, It's Holiday Time!

Hey members, it's time for our traditional Holiday Luncheon and Silent Auction.

It is fun because we can go home with lots of exciting treasures!!! We ask that you bring "like new" items, such as home-made crafts, purses, jewelry, scarves, or kitchen items. Also food & beverage items such as, pies, cakes, candy and wine/spirits. Holiday decor is always welcome. Please, no books of any kind. We will start a little earlier that day, as all items need to be priced before placing on the auction tables. Thank you so much for participating in this holiday event!!!

"Non-Event" Donors!

Our heroes for the non-event are:  Kathleen Criley, Jessica Freilich, Joan Gard, Rita Johnson, Ruth LeBlanc, Janet Locke, Patricia Loyd, Christine Mehas, Bonnie Padrick, Beverly Pearce, Patricia Rees-Miller, Connie Riley, Diane Scott, Isabelle Simpkins, Morgan Kelley, Cynthia Theobald, Terry Graham, Hal & Carol Shirley, Joyce Thornton, Lydia Tolmacheff, Katherine, Young, Joan Vennemeyer.

If you have donated, we have not received the check yet and will add anyone who donates after this newsletter.  Thank you so much to everyone who “paid their blessing taxes” for 2026!

Joyce Thornton and Morgan Kelley – Ways & Means Committee

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Welcome New Members

Fall is officially here and we have definitely kicked off the season with a bang!  Our membership continues to grow. As of this newsletter we have 115 members!  We ramped up our September with a new member recruitment Happy Hour event. Laura Wilson, a new member herself, graciously hosted over 20 potential new members.  We had five ladies join on the spot and are looking forward to several more becoming Golden Gate Republican Women.  A big thank you to Laura for opening her home as well as putting so much effort into making it an amazing event.   

We had a great turnout at our September luncheon which included several new members. Welcome to all our new ladies! Please continue to spread the word about our wonderful group and bring a friend to our next lunch! We are still offering a discounted membership for any new member -- their dues will be good through January 1^st, 2028.

Our members continue to work hard to make California Golden Again. Working with Golden State Revival (GSR), our members -- including so many of our new ladies -- have sent out several hundred “get out the vote” handwritten postcards last week. Thank you to all the ladies who jumped in to help reach low propensity Republican voters in districts that GSR is targeting.  When we work together, we can make a difference!

September & October Birthdays

Genevieve Nielsen - 9/1

Ruth Holly- 9/3

Julie Zeller - 9/12

Sally McGivern - 9/13

Alma Clements - 9/15

Erna Randig- 9/16

Caroline Nielsen - 9/30

Lisa Garaventa - 10/21

Barbara Kuykendall - 10/25

Martha Kearns - 10/28

Eileen Stafford - 10/30

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In Case You Missed It

The September luncheon was a barn-burner, inspiring the crowd to get behind the Golden State Revival (GSR) PAC to help elect Republican candidates for CA Assembly and CA Senate in flippable districts in California. The two founders of GSR, Anna Cheng Kraner and David Chan spoke to us about their mission and strategy:

Mission

1.     Most seats are already decided: Knocking on doors in these districts (like Marin County) changes nothing, no matter how many you knock.

2.     Focus on swing districts that are genuinely flippable: Four in CA Senate and seven in CA Assembly where Republicans have lost seats by razor thin margins.

3.     GSR puts volunteers into those seats and nowhere else.

Strategy

1.     Deploy trained volunteers to precincts in target districts.

2.     Use public voter data to aim every hour of volunteer time. Focus on high impact precincts where a few hundred votes can change the outcome.

GSR focuses efforts in these flippable precincts by focusing on low-propensity Republican voters. They would love to direct outreach to “no party preference” voters but they are much more expensive and harder to reach. GSR has limited resources and therefore must focus these resources on a fairly limited number of voters for whom they can get data and target cost-effectively, and communicate regularly. These voters include Gen Z, and GSR targets them through social media and influencers.

Focused on Three Candidates in 2026

Guillermo Gonzales in Kern County (SD-16)

Leticia Castillo in Riverside County (AD-58)

Ted Nordblum in Ventura County (AD-42)

The luncheon presentation was free-form, with the speakers welcoming questions throughout the presentation and not just at the end. This built a tremendous amount of enthusiasm, with GGRW members (pictured) volunteering on the spot to take home postcards to send to voters in support of the three candidates. Our President, Morgan Kelley also set up postcard-writing sessions at her home for members who like to add a little group fun to their postcard-writing efforts. You can also donate to GSR here.

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News You Can Use

Investigative Journalist Christopher Rufo visited four public-services office in Southern California, each of which admitted that illegal aliens can enroll in public-welfare programs or receive benefits on their children’s behalf. In total California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing these illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year.

 California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a state-funded alternative to Supplemental Security Income that provides monthly cash assistance to low-income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled. A Glendale official said “If you are a citizen, you cannot get CAPI. I don’t care about legal or not. Not being a citizen is the key.” In Los Angeles, more of the same. While some state programs are closed to illegals, they are open to those aliens’ U.S.-born children. These benefits add up. In California, illegal immigrants can qualify for CAPI, public health insurance, and various tax credits. Their children qualify for others, including CalWORKS and, as in other states, Section 8 rental subsidies.

How is this possible? Federal law generally prohibits states from using federal dollars to serve illegal aliens. In one of several ways that California devised to dodge these restrictions, California used a state-funding “bucket” within its Medi-Cal program to extend coverage to some 1.7 million illegal aliens at a cost of $10 billion annually. The state also has no citizenship requirements for various programs including its Low-Cost Auto Insurance Program, California LifeLine providing free cellphones and service. This while ordinary Californians and U.S. citizens deplete their savings, work long hours, and take on debt simply to pay the bills. Read more here.

 Read more here.

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Just for Laughs

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