It’s interesting how the Governor tends to make a bunch of his appointments at ‘closing time’ on Fridays. Why is that?

Well, yesterday was no exception. At the end of the day, Arnold announced the appointment of 26 new Superior Court Judges… So as an excercize in editing, here is a brief summary of them, broken down by county and political party of the appointee. Before I go on, let me drop the good news and the bad news on you. Nearly 2/3 of the new judges are Republicans, which is a significantly higher GOP percentage for the Governor than we have (unfortunately) gotten used to. But, many of these appointments are to smaller (and definately more Republican) Counties. We’ll keep an eye out on how his appointments in the big counties look in the near future… The bad news? Well, if you are from San Joaquin County, both of the new judges are from the party of Hillary Clinton. And if you are from the Republican County of San Bernardino… Somehow with six new judges appointed there, only two of them are Republicans… … Read More

Late last evening, San Bernardino County Republicans elected a new chair of the county’s party. CountySupervisor Gary Ovitt has been elected by the party’s membership and will succeed my boss Bill Postmus at the helm of the party that has seen tremendous successin recent years.

In addition to Ovitt’s election as chair, a new executive board was chosen as well. This important panel will see new faces. Those who will be continuing leading San Bernardino County Republicans include the following:

Chair: Gary Ovitt

Vice chairs: San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane and Fontana City Councilmember Acquanetta Warren Treasurer: Biane Chief of Staff Matt Brown

Secretary: Assemblymember Bill Emmerson District Director Nan Rider

First Supervisorial District’s representative: Ovitt Chief of Staff Mark Kirk

Second District’s representative: businessman Dan Richards

Third District’s representative: Party activist James Tate

Fourth District’s representative: Chino Hills Mayor Pro Tem Curt Hagman

Fifth District’s representative:Immigration reform advocate… Read More

The last weekend is here before the special election in the 37th CD. LBReport has audio from the last debate. Race is a big issue in this race on the Deomcratic side between blacks and latinos playing that card. The only GOP candidate campaign representedat the forum was Police officer John Kanaly. Get the low down here. See previous post here.… Read More

Recently, I saw “Jersey Boys” at the Curran Theater in San Francisco. It was fantastic! (I think I was born too late, because somehow I knew every word to every song, many of which were released when I was just a gleam in my mother’s eye.) The production was excellent, though they dropped the F bomb a bit too much, and the re-enactment of the inspiration of “Oh, What a Night” was a bit shocking. Still, I highly recommend it for those over 18.

Now, before “Flash” bursts a vein in his neck, there is a connection to California state politics. (:

A few weeks ago, many of us at the Flash Report and in leadership positions in the CRP received an email from a man who gave us a glimpse into the mind of our most important Party asset…no, not our donors…our voters. Here is what he had to say:

I’m a lifelong resident of the state of California. I’ve actually been here long enough to have witnessed some good policies and politicians on both sides. In my 40’s I… Read More

Over at the Contra Costa Times politics blog, Lisa Vorderbrueggen is reporting that Democrat Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier has introduced a resolution in the Assembly to name the newly reconstructed Benicia-Martinez Bridge in the East Bay after a politician. But not Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or some other long-lost but nationally venerable leaders — he wants to name the bridge for the local, incumbent Congressman George Miller… Nice. I guess we are starting a new tradition now — if you bring back the pork, you get your name on the project. This is a terrible idea. Look, I don’t know George Miller, and this has nothing to do with him being a liberal Democrat. Republicans who famously procure pork for their districts shouldn’t be glorified either. For example, Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands)… Read More

Earlier in the week Mike Spence, our faithful LA County FR correspondent, posted some critcism of legislation recently passed in Sacramento (with the support of a good chunk of GOPers) that would ban alcohol on boats in the Sacramento River (whether the cans are open or closed). You can read Mike’s post here.

FR has receieved a ‘response’ to Spence’s post from Sacramento County Sheriff Jon McGinnis, which appears below. It’s a bit lengthy compared to Spence’s — but then, McGinnis is an elected official, and seldom is brevity the watchword of any politican…

For several years the frequency of alcohol-related violence and lawlessness has increased within a specific segment of the American River Parkway during major summer holiday periods. During the holiday periods of the Fourth of July and to a lesser extent, Memorial Day and Labor Day, thousands of young rafters converge on this stretch of the… Read More

California government is big, and it buys a lot of things. Actually, in government-lingo it is called ‘procurement’ and I wonder if many FR readers know that there is an entire department (the Department of General Services) that is responsible for spending vast amounts of taxpayer dollars on items ranging from batteries to tires, from signs to floor tiles, from fencing to fertilizer. If you think about it, every computer used by a state employee and every car owned by the state had to be purchased. (You can see a big list of the kinds of things purchased by your state government here). To be honest with you, I had never heard of the Department of General Services until I was recently talking to an FR friend who told me about an interesting situation… Just think, for your home you might spend a few hundred dollars for bedding. Now, pretend you are the State of California, where you have to buy bedding for tens of thousands of beds (just thing of all of the inmates in our state prisons). When you start to multiply that out — it is big business, and big bucks.… Read More

As Jim Nielson points out his column in today, two years after the Kelo decision California has not made any serious change in its statewide eminent domain policy. However, there is a bright light in our state’s political leadership when it comes to eminent domain. This month, the Institute for Justice, a national leader in the effort to fight government’s abuse of this takings law, published a paper, "Development without Eminent Domain: Foundation of Freedom Inspires Urban Growth," written by Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. In this paper, Pringle documents how his city has accomplished urban redevelopment without resorting to using eminent domain. In fact,… Read More