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

I’d like to mine to collective expertise and experience of FR Blog readers to answer the question: what is "absentee ballot harvesting."

The reason I ask is the OC Democratic Party is having an "absentee ballot harvesting precinct walk" this Saturday to boost former Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg‘s candidacy for the Feb. 6 OC Board of Supervisors special election.

As I wrote on Red County/OC Blog, I’m not sure what an "absentee ballot harvesting precinct walk" is, but it sounds like Democratic Party volunteers and operatives going to the homes of absentee voters and asking them for their completed absentee ballots, i.e. "harvesting" their absentee ballots.

If that is what "absentee ballot harvesting" is, it would violate the California Election… Read More

I ran across a bit from John Myers Capitol Notes about the Speakers’ trip to Switzerlandfor the World Economic Forum in Davos. He will speak on the subject of AB32, passed last year,and all the wonderful things it will do to reduce those pesky greenhouse gasses. Because he will have to fly over in a fossil fuel burning aircraft, the Speaker will pay $136 to the Davos Climate Alliance for carbon offsets to mitigate the impacts of the trip. No word on whether the Davos C. A.will split that with the Climate Alliances of North America, the Azores, or Atlantis…… Read More

With all the talk of the folks in Sacramento moving the Presidential Primary from June to February (and for what it’s worth, the idea has moved from thedrawing board to the legislative calendar as odd couple of George Plescia and Ron Calderon have introduced legislation to do just that), it is worthexploring who would be most benefited by such a move.

The polling firm, American Research Group did a statewidepoll of the Presidential wannabes from January 11-17.

Yayaya, they did test Dems and independents, but as this is a Republican blog, I thought I’d point out the results among Republican voters.

Guliani – 33% Gingrich – 22% McCain – 17% Hagel – 4% Romney – 3% Hunter – 1% Undecided – 20%… Read More

I am a fan of C-Span and all it’s sister television and radio off-shoots. There is just something mesmerizing about watching the author of a biography on David Rowland Francis, Secretary of the Interior under President Grove Cleveland (from his second stint in the WH) that I can’t turn off.

So when I saw this job opening I had to share it with all of you in the hopes that someone I know would get the job and give "a shout out’ to me every once in while on the air.

C-SPAN is seeking a full time Announcer/Producer to write and voice transitions between programs. (see the full listing here).

I once met Brian Lamb (president and CEO of C-Span) on tour of the C-Span studio in DC. Women are always impressed when I tell them this.… Read More