You can blame Tony Strickland for Controller Campaign Manager Paul Hegyi for the brief 
commentary this morning. Paul, who hails from Sacramento was down in Sacramento (he is also Assemblyman Van Tran’s Chief of Staff). FR Managing Editor Nicholas Romero and I took Paul to see Bill Cosby perform at the Orange County Fair, and the evening went quite late from there. Paul was excited to share that early polling shows Strickland ahead of his opponent — which is a great place to start given the significant voter-registration advantage that Democrats enjoy over Republicans here in the Golden State. We’ll be spending a lot of time between now and November talking about the real potential in the State Controller’s race for a GOP win.
FR friend Martyn Hopper is the State Director of the National 
Federation of Independent Business for California. We actually met at a rally last year during the special election (it was one of those ‘bling bling’ Arnold rallies where the crowd is pumped up and the Governator rolls into the actual building via a cargo door in a big bus, with loud rock music playing – lots of fun!). Anyways, because of his position, Martyn has a unique perspective on the job performance of Governor Schwarzenegger because he sees California politics through a very unique prism — how do policies effect, positively or negatively, the climate for small business owners in California. This is important, of course, as small business owners account for a tremendous amount of the state’s economic activity. Martyn penned an exclusive column for the FlashReport which leads up the main page today.
I won’t spend much time talking about the "Maldonado apology" in my Commentary today, but you can read more about it on the FR Weblog, and in an LA Times story that is linked from the main page.
Actually, that story is right underneath another LA Times story that talks about how the Governor has expressed a willingness to support a change in California’s term-limits law (currently Senators can serve two four-year terms and Assemblymembers three two-year terms) if coupled with redistricting reform. The Governor is right on track when he talks about how the biggest problem in Sacramento right now is the unfair district lines ensure the minimum number of competitive legislative districts (virtually none). That said, I believe that there is a big challenge ahead of those who would advocate such a dual-proposal for changing these policies. You see, the electorate likes term-limits. And the electorate doesn’t like the legislature (according to polls). How you get the voters to buy off on loosening term limits is beyond me. But a good starting point would be two-fold: 1) qualify the measure via signature to demonstrate some level of popular support for the change; and 2) as tough as this will be to consider, authors of this proposal should not allow current members of the legislature to benefit from loosened term-limits. The measure has a much better chance of passing if it is not self-serving. That’s my ten cents for now on this.
Finally, as always, I strongly recommend reading the day’s Golden Pen winner — which is by Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education. Richman reminds us that soaring government revenues are not something to cheer. After all, the goal here is for Americans, and Californians, to enjoy freedom. Freedom is best preserved by ensuring a limited role for government at the federal and state levels. It really is worth a read — it might add to your perspective on things!
OK – I have to run — see you on the blog!
Jon
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