REPUBLICAN SENATORS: CAN THEY STAND TOGETHER?
Today, Senate President Don Perata will bring up the confirmation vote for Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education. Nunez is one of the top public employee labor union hacks in the state, and actually served as Chairman of the organized union-led effort to sink all of the meaningful and importance reforms that the Governor brought to the voters in the special election of 2005. If you look up Joe Nunez in the dictionary, you will see that he is a total union political hack. Senator Jim Battin penned a post on this site urging his colleagues to vote no. Voting against his confirmation, which under state law takes a 2/3 vote, should be one of the easiest votes that a Republican in the Senate has ever cast.
But it isn’t just an easy "no" vote, it is an important one. At stake is the relevance of Senate Republicans going into an important policy-making season in the Capitol. 14 Republicans united against Nunez will send the message to Senator Perata, and to the Governor for that matter, that there is political will amongst GOPers to stand together to block egregious measures. That will increase the influence of Senate Republicans greatly. We will be watching this vote carefully. Of course we will praise GOPers who vote the right way, and (should it be necessary) we will blast any GOPers that vote for this union hack! We commend Senate Republican Leader for his hard work to try and unify his caucus on this important vote!
CRP ELECTIONS ONE MONTH AWAY – MEET THE CANDIDATES FOR VICE CHAIRMAN
One month from today, about 1600 members of the California Republican Party Central Committee will gather to elect a new Chairman and Vice-Chairman, as well as elect or re-elect eight Regional Vice Chairman (I am running for Vice Chairman, South). The current Vice-Chairman, Ron Nehring, is running unopposed in his race for Chairman. There is a three-way donnybrook underway between three conservatives, however, for the position of Vice-Chairman — Tom Del Becarro, Tom Bordonaro, and Jalene Forbis. While I have not endorsed any of the three, it seemed like a good idea to help FR readers (which include many, many CRP members) become acquainted with the candidacies of these three ersatz Vice Chairmen. As such, today we feature columns from all three of them, Del Becarro, Bordonaro, and Forbis, which also includes contact information and a list of each of their legislative endorsements. Interestingly, in some cases, more than one candidate is claiming the endorsement of an individual legislator! I’m sure this will sort itself out pretty quickly! We’ll be providing more analysis of the race as the weeks go by, but we’re starting with this opportunity for you to ‘meet’ the candidates!
CONGRATULATIONS TO SUPERVISOR BRAD MITZELFELT!
In the November election, FR friend and San Bernardino County Supervisor Bill Postmus was elected to the post of County Assessor. Today, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to appoint former FlashReport San Bernardino County Correspondent Brad Mitzelfelt to replace Postmus on the Board of Supervisors. Mitzelfelt has served for years as Postmus’ Chief of Staff. FR readers were treated to a live blog by Brad’s FR replacement, Adam Aleman, as soon as it happened. Of course this is great news for Brad, but even better is that Brad will be an outstanding representative for the citizens of the 1st District. I’ve known Brad for many years, and is a thoughtful conservative who understands people, and public policy.
GOVERNOR UNVEILS PROPOSED CALIFORNIA BUDGET
The FlashReport commends the Governor for introducing a budget that purports to reduce the state’s ongoing deficit. That said, the fact that California has a $143,000,000,000 (those are billions) is staggering, and we think everyone should be alarmed that the state’s revenues have grown to that enormous size. We asked Republican Assemblyman Chuck Devore to pen a column for us with his initial take on the budget, putting it in context with the Governor’s new healthcare tax proposal and his State of the State Address.
ONE CA GOPER VOTES FOR A HIKE IN THE FEDERAL WAGE MANDATE
Yesterday, as part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s aggressive liberal policy agenda, Democrats brought up a vote on hiking the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. If you need a refresher on why this is a horrible policy move, read here. The FR congratulates California’s Congressional Republicans for voting against this measure (with the noted exception of Mary Bono, who voted for it)
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