I posted this over at Red County/OC Blog: the State Building and Construction Trades Council paid for what appears to be a district-wide mailer that his yesterday, alleging that Assemblywoman Mimi Walters is somehow weak on illegal immigration because she didn’t vote on a bill they back — a bill that vanished after passing a single Assembly committee.

Check it out here.… Read More

Lots to do on this quiet Summer Saturday, so our commentary today will be short and sweet. I thought that I would take a few minutes to clue FR readers into a fun way to "listen" to California politics once a week. One of the ‘veteran’ journalists that covers the goings-on in the State Capitol is KQED Public Radio’s John Myers (pictured). Not too long ago, however, John started publishing a once-a-weed audio podcast where he along with Anthony York from Capitol Weekly and Kate Folmar (formerly of the San Jose Mercury news) would do a political roundtable. Kate’s been out and about a lot, so John keeps brining in others to sit in the third chair. Now, as with anytime that I guide FR readers to MSM publications for getting news, I don’t agree with all of their analysis, and I suspect you won’t either. But I find it to be interesting and engaging, and worth a listen. Myers has his "Capitol Notes"… Read More

Mike Genest and I are indeed friends, and I appreciate his response.Hisresponse saidthat I said his piece in the Modesto Bee was an ad hominem attack. I most certainly did not say that. What I did say was that his piece, which ran in Senator Denham’s hometown newspaper, mentioned Senator Denham by name, and criticize Senate Republicans for not voting for the budget, was "naive to the fact that the Democrats were trying to recall Denham." This type of article does indeed aid and abet the recall attempt of the Democrats, and while it may not be "ad hominem" per se, it certainly, and actively, promotes the political goals of the Democrats, and undermines the policy goals of the Republicans.

It is not enough to say that "I am only reciting the facts" when there is an active attempt to remove a friend and colleague from office. At this time, the Republicans in the administration (the few that are left), must actively seek to protect and promote Legislative Republicans by seeking to resolve the budget impasse and pressing a Republican policy agenda, not by justifying the current budget.

In his article, Genest quotes… Read More

Have you ever heard that expression, "politics makes for strange bed fellows?"

Yesterday an organization called Taxpayers for Protecting Public Safety held a press conference in the State Capitol to announce that they have filed litigation to stop the State of California from issuing billions of dollars in bonds for prison construction. A perusal of this organization’s website shows that their preferred route of dealing with the state’s prison overcrowding issues are not those to which I would subscribe (new sentencing commission, paroling those on life sentences, yadda yadda).

But looking past the poor public policy direction that this group would like to take in the area of having a penal system that is tough on criminals and protects Californians, I will say that the legal proceedings in which they have engaged seem to be quite meritorious.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

Have you ever heard that expression, "politics makes for strange bed fellows?"

Yesterday an organization called Taxpayers for Protecting Public Safety held a press conference in the State Capitol to announce that they have filed litigation to stop the State of California from issuing billions of dollars in bonds for prison construction. A perusal of this organization’s website shows that their preferred route of dealing with the state’s prison overcrowding issues are not those to which I would subscribe (new sentencing commission, paroling those on life sentences, yadda yadda).

But looking past the poor public policy direction that this group would like to take in the area of having a penal system that is tough on criminals and protects Californians, I will say that the legal proceedings in which they have engaged seem to be quite meritorious.

Specifically, this organization has filed suit saying that the massive Prison Bond package that the legislature passed earlier this year was illegal because they were not approved by a… Read More

While much to-do was made over the recent non-binding resolution passed by the California Republican Party Board of Directors reaffirming our current party rules that say you must be a registered Republican vote cast a ballot in the Presidential primary, that did not mean that the issue was resolved. Former California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim had been making a case for submitting a formal change in our rules, to be considered at the State GOP’s Fall Convention in September, to allow non-Republicans to vote in the Republican Primary. Well, the deadline for submitting such a change for our September Convention has now come and gone, and Mr. Sundheim did not introduce such a proposal, nor did any other party member. As such, any question marks hovering over this issue are now gone. So all Republican Presidential campaigns can focus their message on GOP voters for our primary (and, of course, on efforts to take non-GOP supporters and get them to re-register to the party of Ronald… Read More

I know we have a policy here at the FlashReport of not reposting press releases that we receive. Mainly because when we do that, we just get a billion more press releases. But as Captain Barbosa said in Pirates of Carribean, our policy is is more what you’d call "guidelines" than actual rules. Today Senate Republicans put out a release that I actually thought was worth passing along to you as it was written (there is some work on our part, to activate links and such). Well, here it is… Can You Hear Us Now? A Review (Again!) of the Senate Republican Budget Concerns Since before July 20th when the Democrats forced… Read More

In response to Senator Ray Haynes’ post below, I recieved this response from Mike Genest, the Director of Finance for Governor Schwarzeneger, who is mentioned in Haynes’ post…

Ronald Reagan’s famed "11th Commandment" was to never speak ill of another Republican. However, my friend Ray Haynes has posted that my opinion piece in today’s Modesto Bee, which responded to some of the criticisms that Senator Jeff Denham made of the budget now before the Senate, was intended as an ad hominem attack. … Read More