All right, it is now time to talk about the so-called yacht tax that thankfully was defeated last week. Newspapers and Democrat bloggers have spent lots of time, ink, and electrons beating up on Assembly Republicans for helping the "rich" in that vote, but they ignore basic economics. To them, a tax raises revenue, no matter what, and not raising a tax "deprives poor children of the health care" these lefties thought would come from this increased revenue.

Let’s ignore the fact that most government programs deliver money to bureaucrats, lobbyists, and those who get paid hundreds of thousands dollars from government, and that the alleged recipients of government largesse are mostly an excuse for politicians to take money from you and me, and give it to their political friends, whether those friends are government unions or government rent seekers.

The fact is that rule number one in any decision about taxes is that RAISING TAXES IS ALWAYS WRONG, no matter when, no matter how, no matter who pays them, no matter what the alleged program that is supposed to benefit from the tax.Since it is always wrong, anyone who decides to… Read More

It’s the fall of 2006, and the midst of a very intense General Election here in California. With a host of down-ticket races providing some modest distraction, the attention of those driving the California Republican Party Victory ’06 program are focused relentlessly on the big prize, re-electing Arnold Schwarzenegger to a full four-year term as Governor of California. At the height of the effort, a decision was made by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, his campaign manager Steve Schmidt, and then State-GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim that is still having reverberations today.

You see, while the Governor’s re-election campaign was going well, and his numbers were looking solid, the Victory Program was rapidly running out of money heading into the final month — a month of critical importance to be up with television advertising. Then came the big decision (the Governor always thinks BIG) — to literally "bet the bank" and have the State GOP take out a THREE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN from a friendly contributor’s company, thus providing the necessary injection of cash into the CRP coffers to run a full campaign to the end. Chairman… Read More

It’s the fall of 2006, and the midst of a very intense General Election here in California. With a host of down-ticket races providing some modest distraction, the attention of those driving the California Republican Party Victory ’06 program are focused relentlessly on the big prize, re-electing Arnold Schwarzenegger to a full four-year term as Governor of California. At the height of the effort, a decision was made by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, his campaign manager Steve Schmidt, and then State-GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim that is still having reverberations today.

You see, while the Governor’s re-election campaign was going well, and his numbers were looking solid, the Victory Program was rapidly running out of money heading into the final month — a month of critical importance to be up with television advertising. Then came the big decision (the Governor always thinks BIG) — to literally "bet the bank" and have the State GOP take out a THREE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN from a friendly contributor’s company, thus providing the necessary injection of cash into the CRP coffers to run a full campaign to the end. Chairman… Read More

From today’s Roll Call Newspaper… Conservative Hero McClintock Testing the Waters in Two California Districts By David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff Although it now appears likely that California state Sen. Tom McClintock (R) will run for Congress in the Golden State¹s 4th district, he has yet to completely rule out a primary challenge of Rep. Elton Gallegly (R) in the 24th district, according to a Republican insider familiar with McClintock¹s plans. … Read More

I’ve gotton to know Steve Francis a bit. A successful businessman, we served together for a time on the Board of Directors of the California Republican Party. Francis was unsuccessful in 2004 in a bid for Mayor of San Diego, losing to Jerry Sanders.

Well, Francis is back. He has retooled his image for this next go-around, smoothing the edges a bit. We’ll keep an eye on this race, as San Diego is a huge city, and what happens there matters not only in that city, but in the region and the state.

Francis in this commerical below emphasis that he is taking no campaign contributions whatsoever. He is funding his entire campaign from his own (deep) pockets.

He’s now up on television with his first buy. You can see the spot below. He has purchased $200,000 in advertising for the next two weeks, and his campaign says that he will stay on the air through election day in June.

I guess by way of pushing his "independent" credentials (a label that must poll well with San Diego City voters), Fracis’ campaign volunteered that his ads are produced by the same company that works with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg!… Read More

FR Friend Craig DeLuz sent in this thoughtful commentary, which I wanted to share with you…

21st Century Republicans or 20th Century Democrats? by Craig DeLuz “The Republican Party … is a broad party. There is room in our tent for many views; indeed, the divergence of views is one of our strengths. Let no one, however, interpret this to mean compromise of basic philosophy or that we will be all things to all people for political expediency.” – Ronald Reagan’s Address to the California Republican Assembly, April 1967 … Read More

State Senator Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) has been elected by his colleagues as the new Senate Republican Leader. We here at the FlashReport extend our congratulations to Senator Cogdill, and also would like to praise Dick Ackerman for the years of outstanding service he gave to his caucus and his party during his years in that position.… Read More

Update: The Senate bill, SB 8xxx,concerning the RV’s, aircraft, and boats use tax, did come up as "promised" and was defeated on the Assembly floor again, this timein it’s Senate iteration. It received less "aye" votes than last week, 47, where it had 49 before. The Assembly today [Friday, Feb 15] passed 6 bills that in some way addressed the mid-year budget shortfall under the emergency declaration by the Guv. Disappointingly, much of it was borrowing or putting off making payments, but there was also contained in the bills some reduced mid-budget year spending. It is a bit of progress towards our huge challenge budget-wise the rest of the year. All the bills passed with very strong bipartisan support, all of them receiving at least 70 votes if my memory serves.

What did not happen was the proposal to affect owners of aircraft, RV’s and boats with a plan to expand the time from 90 days to one year that the vessel would have to remain out of state to not be taxed as a new vessel or other technical reasons,etc. Some look at it as closing a loophole, others as a… Read More