With the beginning of 2006, today marks exactly three months to-the-day that FlashReport.org went online! I would like to thank our thousands of readers for making our website kickoff a great one! It’s hard to believe that in just three months we have:
- Linked to thousands of articles and columns on California politics
- Assembled weblog with 15 outstanding contributors from all around California who created almost 450 original posts!
- Have published over two dozen exclusive, original columns.
- Published nearly 90 separate original daily commentaries.
Your readership, referrals, tips, suggestions, and ideas have really helped this site to grow even in its first few months! In the next week, we will be unveiling the newest feature to the FlashReport website, which will be the ability for you, as a FR reader, to opt-in to site registration, which will allow you to then post your comments to my daily commentaries as well as to any post on the FR Weblog! There are also a couple of new contributors coming to the site this month as well.
THE NEW YEAR…IS AN ELECTION YEAR!
The coming year promises to be an exciting one for those who are addicted to following politics, and the FlashReport will continue to keep its focus right here Golden State politics. We have election contests for United States Senate, all of our Statewide Constitutional Offices (including the Governor’s re-election), Congressional, State Senate and State Assembly, as well as thousands of local elections. We will be looking at the race for the White House in 2008 heats up (well, we’ll look from a California perspective) as well as what is going on in Congress (again, with a CA eye) — in addition, there will be ballot measures, and local initiatives to follow as well as the politics of state Republicans and Democrats, two immediate special elections (Congress in San Diego County, and State Senate in Orange County) and much, much more.
THE CROSSROADS?
This week will be an important one for Governor Schwarzenegger and the State Legislature. All eyes and ears will be on the Governor and his State of the State Address this Thursday, and on the State Legislature.
It really isn’t hard to figure out where conservatives (including most Republicans) are coming from when it comes to state government, we all believe the same thing: state government is too big — it taxes too much, it spends too much, and it regulates too much. It is really that simple.
So you can be sure that amidst the talk of massive bonded indebtedness for infrastructure, mandating that employers pay higher hourly wages, whispers of increased environmental regulation…conservatives are nervous, and will be looking for initiatives in his speech that: propose cuts in revenues (i.e… tax cuts), propose cuts in state spending, and propose reductions in and elimination of state regulations.
Today, FlashReport Capitol Correspondent Dan Schnur has penned a column that posits how conservatives are at a crossroads, as the Governor makes overt moves to try to work with the Democrat-controlled legislature (which really means the Governor will be trying to work with state union bosses – good luck!). Will conservatives hold their noses, with the idea that no matter how much government grows under a Republican Governor, it will be better than a liberal Democrat, such as Steve Westly or Phil Angelides? Or will conservatives lose their motivation, disheartened that even on basic bread-and-butter economic issues Governor has left the GOP? Fiscal conservatives are an important part of the base that recalled Gray Davis, and helped to elect Governor Schwarzenegger… All of this talk is a big premature, as the Governor’s big speech is still two days away. (Look for an exclusive column this Thursday from FR Contributor Bill Whalen, who served chief speechwriter for former Governor Pete Wilson, giving us a guide on what to look for as we all assess the State of the State Address.)
I remember the reason why I, as a conservative, supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor. At a time when Gray Davis (and his senior advisor, Susan Kennedy, now Governor Schwarzenegger’s Chief of Staff – groan) were raising taxes, increasing spending and regulation, Schwarzenegger campaigned against this, calling himself a "fiscal conservative" when running in the recall election. He said, over and over: "I don’t believe in spending. The first thing I would do when I go into Sacramento is put a spending cap on those politicians, because they just can’t help themselves, they’re addicts, they should go to an addiction place because it’s ridiculous to spend money they don’t have."
As I said above, Schnur’s piece today posits that conservatives are at a ‘crossroads’ — the reality is that the Governor is at a crossroads. I implore him not to embrace big government as a solution for California’s economic well-being. California has more than enough revenue to cover all of its infrastructure needs, present and future (read what State Senator Tom McClintock and Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association have to say about bonds) by changing the state’s spending priorities.
Well, we’ll see how all of this unfolds in the coming days!
In the meantime, please send me your thoughts, ideas, input, tips or constructive input via e-mail, or anonymously.
Sincerely,
Jon Fleischman
Publisher, FlashReport
PS: I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special shout-out of appreciation to those who contributed to get this site up and running, and to our advertisers who support the ongoing renovations to the FlashReport!
PPS: Look for a great exclusive column tomorrow, looking at California’s fiscal future, from a former California State Director of Finance…