INTRODUCING TED GAINES!
One of today’s exclusive FR column comes to you from future Assemblyman Ted Gaines of Roseville, in Placer County. Gaines looks to be a rising star who will bring solid conservative leadership to our Assembly Caucus when he arrives in December.
If you blinked at all over the last two years, you probably missed the race to replace termed out Republican Assemblyman Tim Leslie in the 4th AD. That’s because for the last two years, conservative Placer County Supervisor Ted Gaines has been working tirelessly on his campaign for the Assembly.
That hard work paid off, as Ted earned the endorsements of local Republican leaders like Congressman John Doolittle, Senator Dave Cox, former Senator Rico Oller, and incumbent Assemblyman Leslie, as well as the CRA, YRFC, and the local central committees in the district. As a result, Ted received a whopping 80.6% of the vote in the Republican primary this past June.
Gaines’ solid fundraising skills will be a huge asset to Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia’s leadership team, as during his campaign for Assembly Ted has raised over $650,000 and has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the state party, local central committees, and Assembly candidates across the state.
Ted is a longtime Flashreport reader and Republican activist who will bring conservative leadership to the Sacramento area Assembly District. As a former vice-chairman of the Republican Central Committee in Placer County – California’s only majority Republican County at almost 52% – Ted was a seasoned conservative activist long before he was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2000.
Gaines brings a business perspective to the legislature, as he has ran his insurance company, Point West Insurance, since the early 1980s. Ted originally ran for office because he was fed up with how government treated small businessmen like himself.
I spent some time with Ted at the recent CRP Convention, and he indicated his desire to use his organizational and fundraising skills while in the Assembly to help build the Republican Party’s ranks across the state.
Today you can enjoy his column on what we all need to get behind Proposition 90, the Save Our Homes Initiative!
PRICE FIXING TO LOWER DRUG PRICES IS A PRESCRIPTION FOR DISASTER
During the last legislative session, Governor Schwarzenegger tacked significantly leftward and made unilateral agreements with legislative Democrats on a number of major bills. The Governor is finding out that the Democrats will always be there for him if he is willing to support bills that increase the size and scope of government. One of these ‘agreements’ was on legislation to have government artificially set the rate of prescription drugs for some, throwing the free-market system completely out the window.
Fortunately, it isn’t too late for the Governor to change his mind, and to decide that he should reject this bill. FR’s other exclusive column today is from Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia and Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, making the case, and the request, that Governor Schwarzenegger VETO this bill (which is one of our Twenty Worst Bills of this year!).
Speaking of the Twenty Worst Bills, this morning the MSM is reporting that the Governor is going to sign this legislation on his desk to make the government the ‘parents’ of every driver out there who is talking on their cell phone while operating their car a fineable offense. Here comes the Nanny State — VERY disappointing.
CONGRATULATIONS TO (ALMOST) EVERY CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN.
NOTABLE EXCEPTION: JERRY LEWIS…
Yesterday I wrote about some legislation that would be before Congress that would at least start to look at the issue of reforming the ‘earmarking’ process. This pretty simple bill would eliminate the 
practice of placing earmarks into legislation anonymously. Now, these requests will come with the names of their authors which will at least add accountability to the process. The one "NO" vote, predictably, was Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. SHAME on Lewis, who allowed his concerns about the bill being too narrowly applied to keep him from voting for it. If Lewis is willing to oppose this rather innocuous bill, what is going to happen when there are real attempts to crack down on Member earmarks!
It is unfortunate that our debate on how to reduce spending has been driven by those who have fostered a personal vendetta against the Appropriations Committee.
Lewis released a statement in which he starts out, "I support earmark reform. The Republican members of the Appropriations Committee universally support earmark reform. But we won’t really fix the problem if we limit it solely to appropriations bills."
Lewis complains that the bill was unfair in that it only applied to earmarks coming out of the Appropriations Committee.
He goes on to say, "It is unfortunate that our debate on how to reduce spending has been driven by those who have fostered a personal vendetta against the Appropriations Committee."
I can only tell you that Jerry Lewis may have served in Congress too long. It would appear that he has ‘gone native’ and is prepared to justify his way out of opposing anything that reigns in the earmarking process. Sure, this bill could be better. But almost all GOPers supported it as a reasonable first step. Once again, Jerry Lewis manages to embarrass the Golden State, and the Republican Party.
KOCE USES PUBLIC RESOURCES TO LOBBY GOVERNOR
I have penned an update concerning AB 523, the 2006 FlashReport Legislative Golden Trash Can 
Award, because I recently was made aware that KOCE President Mel Rogers has been sending our corresondence from his desk, on KOCE letterhead, asking KOCE supporters to pen a letter to the Governor to help encourage him to sign this bogus bill (this is the bill that lets the Coast CC District sell the station over the KOCE Foundation at literally ‘less than market value’ — a de facto $18,000,000 subsidy of tax dollars). You can read more on this right here.
Have a great day!
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