I think today may be the ‘slowest’ news day in terms of reporting California political news since the inception of the online version of the FlashReport. I suspect we will be seeing more of these kinds of spare-story days as we get into the holidays. Political reporters and columnists put in a lot of time during this year’s special election, so it makes sense that they would be taking more time off – and this is on top of the fact that California’s politicians are also enjoying the holiday season.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of political news going on in the country (especially out of the Congress) — but the focus of this website is on California political news.
Today I will take an opportunity to draw your attention to some of the recent posts on the FlashReport Weblog. Of course, if you missed any of my daily commentaires, you can click here to review them all by time, and catch up on my attempts a being a cub-reporter/columnist.
* Last week the California Republican Party Board of Directors met with Governor Schwarzenegger to, among other things, confront him on his audacious hiring of one of the architects of recalled Governor Gray Davis’ pay-for-play administration, Susan Kennedy. The board met in shrouded secrecy, with strict guidelines that no one would speak publically of what was said in the meeting. Apparently the guidlelines did not prevent someone from speaking about things that were NOT said. As Governor Schwarzenegger left the meeting, State GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim stepped out with him – the two then spoke to a masse of waiting reporters. Sundheim told reporters that the Kennedy matter was behind us, and that "we" (the party?) support the Governor in his decision to hire Kennedy. Really? Or not really? I’ve talked to several board members who were in that meeting, and that’s not how they remember it. Unfortunately, it was Duf’s version of the meeting that carried the headlines in four major California newspapers. Doesn’t seem very fair to the board members, and, of course, it gives a FALSE impression to California Republicans (well, the ones reading the news) that the GOP is just fine with a partisan Democrat, a former Executive Director of the California Democratic Party, running the day-to-day operations of the Arnold Schwarzenegger administration. Read FR San Francisco Bay Area correspondent Jennifer Nelson’s insightful piece on the importance of the Chief of Staff position here. Read FR Capitol Correspondent Dan Schnur’s humorous piece here, where he wonders if Sundheim is traveling to the middle east to ‘declare that there is peace’ in the region. I have penned a piece as well, after reading the statements from Duf in the paper.
* One of our San Diego Correspondents, Duane Dichiara, uses the recent release of the California Republican Assembly’s annual legislative scorecard to emphasize a point that, in general, Republicans are voting more together as a group than ever – and the chasm between GOP and Democrat ideology is bigger than ever. Duane brings up a good point, and I would remind readers that these days, it is not enough to ‘rate’ your legislators on their voting records. Some other factors that I consider when assessing a legislator include: who do they endorse in contested primaries? Do they work to articulate the reasons why the vote the way they do? Do they hire staff people who believe like they do? Do they raise money and help elect others who believe like they do? Do they support their local party? Do they speak to and foster the growth of political grassroots activists? These are additional, and especially in a minority party, additional critical benchmarks from which you can judge a legislator’s overall performance.
* Democrat Assemblyman Juan Vargas has hit term limited, and the race is on to fill his Democrat-dominated South San Diego County seat. Our other San Diego correspondent, Barry Jantz, writes about the revelation that the front-runner (or former frontrunner?) for that seat, Nick Inzunza, has been exposed as, pretty much, a slum lord. It’s worth reading about. Also notable is that Inzunza’s brother, Ralph, was one of the San Diego Councilmembers who famously resigned over the ‘stripper-gate’ incident.
* Sacramento Area correspondent Joe Justin, in his own way, praises local Stockton-based Congressman Richard Pombo for returning some campaign contributions received from figures implicated in the growing scandal out of Washington, D.C. He openly questions when Congressman John Doolittle will do the same. These scandals rocking the GOP majority in the Congress could very well take down that majority, and at minimum are severely hiking up voter cynicism of government, and skepticism of the integrity of the Congress. Turning back the funds is an easy step in the process. Doolittle, and everyone with money from these folks should give it back. Furthermore, Congressional leaders should be taking every opportunity to denounce this kind of activity. How about letting the official mohagany door of Congress slap the butt of disgraceful Congressman Duke Cunningham on his way out by passing a resolution of Congress condemning his behavior, and affirming the resolve of Congress to crack down on those who would sully the good name of the United States of America?
There are SO MANY more great posts on the FlashReport weblog. These above are a sampling from SOME of just yesterday’s original posts. Take some time to read them – I think you will be impressed with the quality and diversity of the topics that our team brings to the site!
Have a great day!
Jon
P.S. If you missed it, there was a ‘must read’ column featuring the FlashReport in this week’s issue of the Capitol Weekly.