This week the Republican members of the California State Senate and State Assembly will hold a ‘retreat’ at Donald Bren’s posh Island Hotel (formerly the Four Seasons) in Newport Beach, California. This multi-day affair is an annual tradition, and affords a chance for nearly fifty GOP legislators to come together and spend some ‘quality time’ — getting to know one another (over a quarter of these legislators are taking office for the first time next week), and look at their political and policy strategies for the upcoming legislative session and election cycle. If FR readers will recall, on the Thursday after the election, Assembly Republicans caucused for several long hours and emerged with a new leader – Mike Villines of Fresno. We featured a column from Villines on this site the very next day, where the new Assembly Republican Leader talked about his priorities, paramount of which is trying to bring fiscal discipline and sanity to state government.

Because of the way California’s Constitution is worded, it takes a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature to enact a tax increase, or to pass a… Read More

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took on Federal election campaign finance reform yesterday and stated that the McCain-Feingold law, intended to restrict "soft money" in Congressional elections, has resulted in restricted First Amendment rights and more negative campaigning. McCain-Feingold and its amendments have indeed resulted in some bizarre situations. Here in California, Congressman Darrell Issa was the unfortunate target of a months long FEC administrative action becauseof his support for the recall of former Governor Gray Davis. The FEC objected to the Congressman’s fundraising effort to support collection of recall signatures. The FEC would have limited the Congressman’s ability to raise funds for a state effort by artificially imposing the "Federal" McCain-Feingold limits onhis state electioninvolvment. That case was ultimately dropped, but McCain-Feingold was the pretext, and the FEC hasn’t really completely clarified the rules going forward. The case illustrates that when a California Congressman gets involved in a state race, ballot proposition, or recall, he/she really doesn’t have the same First… Read More

When we lament about the ‘Blue Wave’ that swept Republicans out of control of Congress, and arguably washed out the close elections of Tom McClintock, Tony Strickland, and Bruce McPherson, it is frustrating to feel like the GOPers in Congress truly don’t understand that a big piece of the blame goes to the Republican embrace of federal spending (up 44% since 2001!).

Check this out from FR friend Stephen Moore in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary:

Wake-Up Call…or Snooze Button?

The political finger-pointing and recriminations are beginning in earnest among Capitol Hill Republicans, and it’s not a pretty picture. In the few days… Read More

So far, most of the reporting on my Assemblyman, Mike Villines (R) Clovis, has been a joke. The new Assembly Minority leader, described by some in the media as some kind of over the top conservative, is a Pete Wilson alumnus with a keen eye toward fixing California’s budget catastrophe. It is not hard to see this mess coming – $73 billion in bonds, mixed with a structural (and illegal) state budget deficit of $4-6 billion, and a Governor who wants to insure 6 million Californians without cutting any other programs – is a roiling recipe for the biggest fiscal train wreck in California history.

There are only 46 people in California that can stop this mess from happening – 32 Assembly Republicans and 14 Senate Republicans. It is Villines job to literally save California from this financial meltdown – and keep his Assembly caucus unified.

There are only two conservative principles at work here – and they both have the coveted "centrist" appeal. First is a balanced budget, and second is a firm line against tax increases. Villines and most other elected Republican leaders rightfully understand that… Read More

Apparently the Governor’s Cabinet Secretary (which is a fancy title for the Governor’s liaison to all of his Agency Secretaries) Fred Aguair is joining the growing list of folks who are leaving the Schwarzenegger Administration.

Fred Aguiar is a pretty conservative Republican (back in the day, he seemed more moderate, but the entire ideological paradigm that defines conservatism has been shifted — also, Aguiar is certainly moderate in his temperment) — and his presence will be missed in the Governor’s Office. Many of us who sit on the outside of the Governor’s inner-circle fancied that Aguiar represented a senior and respected Republican who had his own relationship with Governor Schwarzenegger, not having to go through Susan Kennedy (the Democrat Party Executive Director turned Arnold Chief-of-Staff) to have time with the boss. Then again, that probably wasn’t really the case.

Anyways, the point is this — like all other policy makers, the Governor’s counsel… Read More

Back on November 15th, the Governor announced ten appointments — but I got busy and never penned a post on them… 6 Republicans and 4 Democrats…

So here they are — one Republican to the Recreational Trails Committee, Laura Zabkar of Foresthill — and nine appointments to Regional Water Quality Control Boards: Jack Clarke (R), 64, of Apple Valley, to the Lahontan District; Francine Diamond (D), 63, of Pacific Palisades, to the Los Angeles District; Maurice Gallarda (R), 53, of Yorba Linda, to the Santa Ana District; Amy Horne (D), 52, of Truckee, to the Lahontan District; M.E. "Red" Martinez (D), 75, of Banning, to the Colorado River Basin District; William E. Peacock (D), 65, of Portola Valley, to the San Francisco Bay District; William Ruh (R), 47, of Montclair, to the Santa Ana District; Gary Shallcross (R), 59, of Monterey, to the Central Coast District; Seymour Van Gundy (R), 75, of Riverside, to the Santa Ana District.

Oh yes, I always like to emphasize that there are qualified individuals of all political parties to serve in positions of public trust. That having been said, how someone chooses to register gives you… Read More

Welcome aboard to these 2 legislators… from the far North Californialegislator. [2ndAssy. district Jon, not 4th] Ray’s comments and insight are always welcome and interesting, especially since we’ll be missing those floor speeches, such as speech #2 on Spending, or the Partridge in A Pear Tree speech about all bills creatingthe:5 new commissions, 4 new task forces, 3 new studies, 2 new agencies, and yes, Ray isstill a legislator til Nov 30 at midnight. [did you know that there is NO Assembly and only half a Senate from then until Dec 4 at noon? Go do something that hasn’t been legislated or regulatedagainst during that 3 1/2 days!!!]

And Anthony, don’t worry about putting foot in mouth on the FR, or on the floor. Since you’re a freshman, I as a senior am just looking for an excuse to do a Toby Keith with my size 12 boots…it’s the American Way. I’m just most disturbed that my picture is moving lower and lower down the blog author list….Jon?

Welcome guys, it’s a lot of fun and will be more so with you on board.… Read More

NEW LEGISLATIVE BLOGGER Next week, there will be about a dozen new Republicans sworn into terms in the California State Assembly. We are very pleased to announce that one of these incoming GOP freshmen, Anthony Adams (pictured to the right), has agreed to come onboard as a new State Capitol Correspondent for the FlashReport Blog! Anthony was elected as the new legislator representing the 59th Assembly District, which has been represented the past six years by Dennis Mountjoy. The 59th District is a large on that is split roughly in half — with one part being the far east end of Los Angeles County, and the other part going into San Bernardino County, shooting up into the high desert. I’ve known Anthony for some time, and he has just the right mix to be a great addition to our team — he is conservative, he is smart, and he is technologically savvy — thus… Read More