Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia will be returning for a third term in the California State Legislature. Hers was the final legislative race in the state where the outcome was not considered official. Yesterday, enough of the remaining absentee ballots were counted in Riverside County to give Garcia an unbeatable lead — and her opponent, former Assemblyman Steve Clute, conceded the race. Congratulations Bonnie! You can be sure that Clute’s near-victory will mean he will try another crack at the apple in 2008 when Garcia will be precluded from a re-election run due to term limits.

Not one seat in the legislature changed partisan hands in the 2008 election cycle. It is a win for Democrats who control the status quo, and a win of sorts for legislative Republicans who staved off the ‘blue tide’ that crossed the country.

When you win a narrow race, you can look to just about every facet of your campaign and say that each part ‘made the difference’ in winning — but there is no doubt that one of the groups that played a major role in Garcia’s victory was the California College Republicans. Their Chairman,… Read More

I am very pleased to announce that our esteemed Sacramento Area Correspodent Tom Ross now has reinforcements. I was quite pleased when Republican strategist Tab Berg accepted my offer to come onboard with the FlashReport. Tab and I have had a long-time relationship based on mutual respect and admiration, but admittedly over the years, Tab has been the genius behind a number of moderate Republican candidates, officeholders and campaigns — folks that I wouldn’t back in a primary in a million years. But then, some of Tab’s clients — for example his successful Assembly candidate this cycle, Paul Cook — are quite conservative. And as we say here at the FR, we represent the center-right to the right-right. [Fascinating Fact: Tab, pictured above to the right, is a licensed whitewater river guide.] Anyways, the reason I reached out to Tab is because he… Read More

It’s been 14 years since Vice President Dan Quayle made headlines for criticizing Hollywood’s portrayal of the TV character Murphy Brown’s single motherhood. Unfortunately, his words of warning about the effect of single parenthood on childrens’ lives didn’t seem to take with the nation. Yesterday, the federal government announced that out-of-wedlock births have hit an all-time high, with four of out every ten babies born to unmarried mothers. Interestingly, while the out-of-wedlock birth rate rose, the teen birth rate dropped to the lowest level. It’s the 20-somethings that are had the most dramatic increase in out-of-wedlock births last year.

Once again, California seems to be setting the trend for the nation. After all, doesn’t seem like every time you pick up a People magazine there’s yet another Hollywood… Read More

Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia will be returning for a third term in the California State Legislature. Hers was the final legislative race in the state where the outcome was not considered official. Yesterday, enough of the remaining absentee ballots were counted in Riverside County to give Garcia an unbeatable lead — and her opponent, former Assemblyman Steve Clute, conceded the race. Congratulations Bonnie! You can be sure that Clute’s near-victory will mean he will try another crack at the apple in 2008 when Garcia will be precluded from a re-election run due to term limits.

Not one seat in the legislature changed partisan hands in the 2008 election cycle. It is a win for Democrats who control the status quo, and a win of sorts for legislative Republicans who staved off the ‘blue tide’ that crossed the country.

When you win a narrow race, you can look to just about every facet of your campaign and say that each part ‘made the difference’ in winning — but there is no doubt that one of the groups that played a major role in Garcia’s victory was the California College Republicans. Their Chairman,… Read More

Former State Senator Dick Monteith was named the winner for Ray Simon’s seat on the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors in his race against Modesto City Councilwoman Janice Keating. This race was as tight as it gets with Monteith declared the winner by 16 votes. Monteith (full disclosure, he’s a client) was vastly outspent in a race with most of the establishment lined up against him and knocked on doors every day until he broke his ankle a few weeks before the election. Keating was the leading vote-getter in the May primary and considered the odds-on favorite but was weakened by Monteith’s attacks on her for receiving large amounts of campaign funds from developers.

No word on if Keating will seek a recount.… Read More

A couple days after the election, I was asked to speak at a forum on the 2006 election. Prior to my chat, a high ranking Republican applauded V’06 as the most effective in CA history and blamed GOP losses in CA on the "Democrat tide" that swept the country.

Although I try not to be contrary – I had to burst the bubble and let them know the Democrat tide was a myth – at least here in California.

Dems did not win Congress — the GOP gave it away. There was a national anti-Republican tide, fueled by the fact that GOPers in Congress had stopped being Republicans a few years ago.

Take San Jose where the Democrat’s chosen one – Cindy Chavez – was the prohibitive favorite for Mayor. But despite almost $1 million from the Labor/Democrat party and personal campaigning from the Demo’s grand Pooh-Bah Bill Clinton, she was soundly trounced by Chuck Reed. Reed was supported by Republicans – a fact the Chavez campaign shared with voters many times. (Disclosure: TABcommunications ran the Chamber of Commerce campaign that folks believe helped defeat Chavez and the labor candidates).

Democrat/Labor… Read More

With the final count on the Garcia/Clute election, I expect to see and hear the same laments that I have heard from the media (and a lot of my Republican friends) about how the redistricting of 2001 froze the outcomes of California’s elections.

Of course, that is not true (just ask Richard Pombo). There is no question that the redistricting was a status quo effort (the Dems were supposed to end up with 50 Assemblymembers, 26 Senators, and 33 Members of Congress, with the Reps getting the rest), it didn’t end up that way. Reps have picked up 2 Assembly seats, one Senate seat (with a very close election for a second), and the Dems have picked up one Congressional seat, and gave the Reps a run for their money on two others. Nothing is written in stone in politics, and there is no excuse for not fighting to pick up seats in any election.

Too often, the redistricting plan is used as an excuse for laziness in politics. "We can’t pick up seats," we are told by the political operatives, "so don’t blame us if we don’t." The fact is four state legislatures in the 1990’s went Republican after a Democrat… Read More

Today the FlashReport is VERY pleased to be able to share with our readers that we have a new State Capitol Correspondent joining our team on the FR Blog — none other than retiring Assemblyman Ray Haynes! This is great news as Ray has been a strong conservative leader in the State Legislature since 1992, and has a true grasp and understanding of how to approach the challenging issues facing state government from the perspective of a strong constitutional conservative. Ray’s first post appears on the blog today, and we can all look forward to more insights from him as we go forward. Please join me in welcoming a true national conservative leader, Ray Haynes, to the FlashReport! Whatever else you read today, do not miss the "MUST READ" column, True Lies, by FR Bay Area Correspondent Bill Whalen, that is at the top of the main page today. This piece that Bill penned for the Weekly Standard online truly demonstrates his ability to pierce through all of the noise and get to the heart of the… Read More