Capitol Alert

California Republicans often point to the Lone Star state's economy as a model their home state should seek to emulate.

Now, one well-known GOP official got tired of pointing and has decided to pack up his bags and leave the Golden State.

Former GOP Assemblyman and U.S. Senate hopeful Chuck DeVore has given up his Orange County supervisor bid to move his family to Texas. While caring for aging parents was one factor in the move, the Irvine Republican also blamed California's economic climate, writing in a statement on his website that he's "found it hard to earn enough to support my family" since leaving office last year.

"My old aerospace clientele has fled to greener, less-expensive pastures Combined with the drain on our savings caused by six years of public service in the Assembly, we have come to the reluctant conclusion that it is time to move," DeVore wrote.

DeVore has accepted a new job as a visiting scholar at the nonprofit Texas Public Policy Foundation, where he will write a book on "the Texas Model of how low taxes and low government spending, a light and predictable regulatory environment, respect for property rights, and a business-friendly legal climate has turned Texas into America's jobs generating dynamo."

He won't be the only California transplant working for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Joshua Treviño, a former legislative and campaign aide to DeVore, serves as the institute's director of communications.

PHOTO CREDIT: U.S. Senate candidate, Assemblyman Chuck Devore, R-Irvine talks with Bee reporters at the Sacramento Bee Capitol bureau office in Sacramento on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. Randall Benton, Sacramento Bee.