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FlashReport Weblog on California Politics

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Duane Dichiara

Let’s Move Forward Now

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Romney’s California Team in Boston

Monday was another historic day in presidential politics. Nearly a thousand Romney supporters gathered on the floor of the Boston Garden to raise money for his campaign.

We had done it before in January (at the Boston Convention Center that time) and raised over $6,000,000 on that day. Although the numbers are not all in, we probably pulled in at least a few million yesterday. This is not your usual name-tag-at-the-door, chicken-veggies-and-a-speech fund raiser.

The Romney Team does everything better, faster, bigger.

Sunday evening over 1,000 Romney supporters had a barbecue at Fenway Park where the Boston Red Sox Play. Governor Romney rallied the troops, his wife Ann did too. His son’s four of five of whom are working full-time campaigning for their dad told some funny stories about the campaign trail.

But the best part about Sunday evening was getting to go down on the field at Fenway and walk where so many legends of Baseball have played.

This photo shows us at the ball park. From… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Bob Novak: Is Arnold A Republican?

Last week, I had an opportunity at the invitation of the California Chamber of Commerce to participate on a couple of panels at a meeting of their advocacy council at the Chamber’s amazing offices a block from the State Capitol. Right before lunch, as a panelist, I got to take on 3-1 odds going up against three proponents of weakening term-limits, Rob Stutzman, Tim Hodson, and the iniative’s chief flack Gale Kaufman. The lunchtime speaker at the event was none other than conservative syndicated columnist Bob Novak. Below is an article that Novak penned, inspired by his recent visit to the Golden State…

As I read it, I tried to remember the Governor, in all of his recent lobbying of Congress to take on the battle against global warming, just once call for making permanent the tax cuts passed a few years back…Read More

Jon Fleischman

Of course the President’s Immigration Bill is Amnesty

Once again, today, I had someone try to tell me that the President’s proposal to grant amnesty to the millions of criminal aliens here in America is actually NOT amnesty.

According to the latest White House propaganda sheet on the Bush/Kennedy package, they make the following case as to why the proposal is not amnesty:

This Proposal Is Not Amnesty Because Illegal Workers Must Acknowledge That They Broke The Law, Pay A $1,000 Fine, And Undergo Criminal Background Checks To Obtain A Z Visa. To apply for a green card at a date years into the future, Z visa workers must wait in line behind those who applied lawfully, pay an additional $4,000 fine, complete accelerated English and civics requirements, and compete in the merit system based on the skills and attributes they will bring to the United States.

Apparently the folks at the White House aren’t familiar with the term proportional justice, which essential says, "Let the punishment fit the crime."

It would seem that the President and supporters of… Read More

Jon Fleischman

It’s true, Part 2

Just wanted to verify Jubal’s (Matt Cunningham) scoop – the CRP Board of Directors just voted unanimously to confirm Bill Christiansen as an interim Chief Operating Officer of the party. Bill has agreed to serve until he is replaced.

I caught up with Steve Schmidt, formerly the campaign manager for Governor Schwarzenegger last year, who worked extremely closely with Bill, and he was very pleased with the quick, decisive action of bringing Bill onboard, adding, "The selection of Bill to be the CRP’s new interim COO is an outstanding one. He was the director of our party-based Victory Operations last election cycle, and I was one of a great many who were impressed with him. He is experienced and well qualified."… Read More

James V. Lacy

Soft Money case resolved by Supreme Court – McCain-Feingold law gutted

Readers will know I have been covering progress of the Wisconsin Right to Life case, which challenges the portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law that bans late election issue advocacy communications that mention a candidate’s name, but do not contain words of express advocacy of election/defeat of a candidate. The Supreme Court today decided the case in favor of the First Amendment rights of Wisconsin Right to Life, an Internal Revenue CodeSection 501(c)(4) advocacy organization. This is a big win for issue advocacy speech in an election context and couldchange the way issues are addressed in an election context — it means nonprofit advocacy groups funded by unions and corporations will not be afraid to speak out during election periods on the records of legislators and candidates, as long as their underlyingintent is to address their issue, and not the election itself. The court, in a 5-4 vote, upheld an appeals court ruling thatthe anti-abortion group should have been allowed to air ads during the final two months before the 2004 elections. The ads asked voters to contact the state’s two senators, Democrats… Read More

Barry Jantz

Kamburowski’s Lawsuit Against Uncle Sam

Attached is former GOP COO Michael Kamburowski’s 2005 lawsuit filed in United States District Court (New York) against U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.… Read More

James V. Lacy

“New” express advocacy in election campaigns

I am participating in a national conference call right now with election lawyers and professors, and am concluding that the consensus view is that the Supreme Court’s decision today in Wisconsin Right to Life does gut McCain-Feingold, but also establishes a new standard for regulated electorial speech: express advocacy of a candidate PLUS words about candidate character/qualifications/fitness for office. And interestingly this is anEXPANSION of the old Buckley v. Valeo case. Nevertheless, the sum is less regulation of speech in elections. If a policy-oriented communication from a nonprofit, corporation or union avoids the types of words mentioned above,it can mention candidates and be outside the realm of FEC/FPPC regulation. This is a big win for the First Amendment, because McCain-Feingold banned such communications based on timing, regardless of content. Thus, the new analysis is content-based, ad-by-ad, so political consultants: careful review of text is critical.… Read More