I was reading the Union-Tribune the other day and stumbled on a column by Ruben Navarette, who envisions a ‘cafeteria style’ system, wherein voters pick and chose from amongst various parties and candidates based on each voters preference. In theory, that’s a wonderful system. I dream columnists and professors love to discuss at length. And I have no doubt that among some small subgroups of the population this is and has nearly always been the case. But it simply isn’t the case todayand unless we undergo a cultural revolution, isn’t going to be the case for the lion’s share of the population tomorrow. While some Americans may follow politics day to day at every level in their jurisdiction, most voters follow politics as a ‘background’ to their day to day lives. Political parties offer the invaluable service of offering the majority of the voting population a shortcut of figuring what candidate best represents their basic political philosophy. After all, particularly with the long ballot, how many people are really going to research six dozen or more candidates and measures? Not many Ruben, not many…… Read More

If you can hear the thunder in the background, it is the sound of the Sacramento Bee attempting to change the current paradigm of how major newspapers deal with politics and the internet.

The Bee was on the front end of internet blogging, providing a forum and support for columnist Dan Weintraub as he attempted to pull together the first real blog on California politics with no road map to follow. From our end of things, how would it look? How often would he write? What would be the kinds of things he would write about? From the ‘back side’ — how do you integrate the real-time efforts of a blog with the idea that editors like to review what goes up on the website? Anyways, Dan plowed through all of the challenges, and the Sacramento Bee lead what has been large cadre of journalists who now blog for their newspapers, radio stations, and even some television stations.

Now, of course, with trends showing that all print newspapers are declining in circulation as more and more readers look to the internet to get their news (blogs, podcasts, websites and more) — the Sacramento Bee is now looking to see how they can make their… Read More

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer is termed out in 2008 and by all accounts will run for OC District Attorney.

Phil Paule posts about the field of potential candidates over at Red County/Riverside.

You can also catch a funny post there by Jeff Greene — chief of staff to Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries — about his retaliatory strike against Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez for misspelling Jeffries name.… Read More

Just a few minutes ago, I got off of the phone with a very excited Julie Soderlund. Those in the media, and anyone who followed the Gubernatorial Campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger know that Julie (pictured to the right) served as the Governor’s Press Secretary for his re-election effort. In that capacity, I got to deal with Julie quite a bit. I can assure all FR readers that she is a really great communicator, and a consumate professional. Julie was sharing the news that she has decided to take the leap into the private sector, becoming the managing director of Wilson-Miller Communications. The "Wilson" is Marty Wilson, who is a chief political advisor and fundraising coordinator for Governor Schwarzenegger (he played a similar role with former Governor Pete Wilson), and the "Miller" is Beth Miller, whom I have know for many years, and who has a long history of working for GOP candidates and causus.… Read More

He may be considered a longshot by many, Quixotic by some, but that doesn’t make his effort any less interesting to those of us living in the San Diego area…and especially those of us who have called him our representative for the last 26 years. Duncan Hunter will announce for Pres from South Carolina this morning. See Tuesday’s blurb in CQPolitics.com

A missive from Larry Cutting at the campaign:

YOUR CHANCE TO BE A PART OF HISTORYDuncan Hunter for President

Duncan is moving closer to the White House and we’re doing everything possible to help make it happen. He will be making his historic official announcement Thursday morning in South Carolina , and we are going to be there vicariously to inject our energy and support.… Read More

The California Republican Party, in conjunction with the Governor’s campaign embarked on a bold experimental Registration campaign in 2006.

All professional vendors were paid $13.00 an hour whether they produced or not. This effort was led by a Nathan Sproul of Arizona with his dba California Grass Roots Mobilization.Sproulwas paid over $2,100,000 last year.

This bold initiative was designed for threereasons: a ] to go to places where GOPers generally don’t , such as San Francisco. [ Sproul’s team never made it there ] and make it worthwhile to go door to door ,b] to avoid the nasty publicity two criminal investigations in San Bernardino and Orange County DA’s were conduction against fraudulent registrations, and c ] a new state law required, adding a considerableburden, that all registrations contain either a social security number or a driver license number. Who knew? . At $13,00 a hour how could this not work.

The Governor’s people, from the Bush 2004 campaign, insisted on the services of Mr. Sproul.

Sproul’s method of hiring was no different than anyone else in the registration business.… Read More

Okay, the Flashreport is supposed to be a site for interests of Californians. But today, the national interest must trump our State. Clueless Americans, being spoon fed a daily dose of negative news about the battle of Baghdad, just one front in the global war on terrorists (those that have killed our citizens, and want to end this country, placing her under Sharia law, or Islamic Courts), tell pollsters they don’t like the war. These poll respondents don’t have a clue about what is going on in Iraq, apart from biased news coverage. (What is the number one complaint of our troops abroad? Biased news coverage)

Politicians react to clueless Americans, so we get a clueless response in the form of a Senate resolution against the troop "surge" – emboldening terrorists to commit more terror as spineless liberals and a cheerleading press create a culture of surrender in this country.

Hagel and Warner – two more GOP Senators that deserve to lose – are doing Americaa great disservice as they themselves morph into "useful idiots". Is this 1930 or 2007? Hard to tell the difference. We need more Joe… Read More

Kudos to FlashReport for bringing attention to the race for CCA. One of the interesting dynamics in race like this are slates. Candidates put together slates to help show a qualified group of leaders and to get votes.

I know Linda Boyd has a a pretty impressive slate that includes as candidates:

CCA First Vice President, San Mateo County Chairman Karen King (like Linda a 3 time County Chair}

CCA Second Vice-President, Del Norte County Chairman Scott Feller (added GOP Voter Reg in his county)

CCA Treasurer,Ventura County Chairman Mike Osborn. (Mike ran one of my favorite PACs. ABATE. I loved it when they showed up in their Biker gear to work precincts.)

CCA Assistant Treasurer, Tulare County Chair Laura Gadke for CCA Assistant Treasurer. (Another competent County Chair)

CCA Secretary, Inyo County Chairman Thaddeus Taylor. (There should be a monument erected in Inyo county for the work he has done over the last 25 years)

It will be interesting to see how this race plays out and the role of slates. (Full Disclosure CRA has endorsed Linda Boyd) I haven’t found anybody that knows who is on Keen’s slate. If anybody… Read More