FR friend Bill Bradley interviewed Matthew Dowd, Chief Strategist for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election, last Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton hotel. The interview is below. Of course, lots of talk about the Governor’s success with his new ‘bipartisan’ approach to governing and campaigning. There is no doubt that this strategy has brought about electoral success – very much so. But becoming elected to office is a means to and end. Other than his firm commitment not to raise taxes, it is really hard for me to discern what is on, and what is off of the table in terms of public policy proposals for the Governor.

Part of the problem is that I thought I had a clearer picture of where the Governor wanted to take this state right after the recall of Gray Davis. I am hoping that the Governor will start to make it more clear where he is coming from so that we can all understand it. In the absence of specificity, I get very nervous.

There are a lot of very bad things that can happen to California at the hands of Don Perata… Read More

This race was going to be a no brainer. Margaret Mims, Democrat, Assistant Sheriff, against retired CHP and gang task force leader Cal Minor, aRepublican. Republicans have a 25,000 voter registration advantage in the County. Minor is endorsed by the Fresno Bee, the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, Congressman Radanovich and Nunes, Senator Chuck Poochigian and Assemblyman Mike Villines, Fresno Chamber of Commerce,Deputy Sheriff’s Association and Fresno Police Officers Association, the Republican Central Committee, and countless others.

It appears as if Minor has lost the race – and Mims might have scored the biggest upset win in decades in Fresno County. How did she overcome all the assets of Cal Minor?

She mostly benefited from the GOP implosion.

Minor’s apparent loss, by 770 votes out of over 140,000 cast, was driven by several factors, as… Read More

Did I misunderstand him or did the governor just compare Mexican immigrants to children?

His point is exactly right–just because people yell for something doesn’t mean the rest of us have to give in. But I can’t imagine that Univision or La Opinion is going to be happy about his comparison of Mexican immigrants to his children. Probably about as happy as California Republicans are about his comments that it was time for "new blood" in Washington, D.C.

Here’s what the governor said, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle:

Asked what would be his message to the Mexican people, Schwarzenegger noted his visits to date from his movie and bodybuilding days… Read More

I think that the Governor may be carrying ‘bipartisan’ a bit too far – or, he needs to think more carefully about how what he says at the microphone is going to be received by the people who read it — in this case, his core Republican supporters.

The State’s top Republican elected official is in Mexico on a trade mission.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Governor on his trade-mission, "hailed the Democratic takeover of Congress as heathy for Democracy, saying ‘Washington was stuck.’"

Apparently the Governor said, "I think this is good that we have new blood coming to Washington, that we have new people with new ideas coming to Washington."

Newsflash: The Democrats are not bringing NEW IDEAS to Washington, they are bringing OLD IDEAS about how to increase the role of government in the lives of Americans.

Don’t get me wrong, many Republicans have called for change in Washington, D.C., but our version of change was for Republicans in Congress and the President to get their… Read More

The FlashReport is on location at the Registrar of Voters in Orange County – the last place where the sun has not set election day.

The 34th State Senate District has been represented by Democrat State Senator Joe Dunn. Term limits have come along and it is now an open seat. The Democrat: Lou Correa, The Republican: Lynn Daucher. If you need more info on the candidates, you are failing CA politics 201. Currently Daucher is sitting on a 138 vote lead – it had been a mere thirteen votes on election night, but they’ve had one run of uncounted ballots that boosted Daucher’s number.

Speaking of uncounted ballots, I spoke with County Registrar Neil Kelley who said that there are likely 20,000 or so uncounted absentee ballots to be counted (the number isn’t clear, it’s based on division using the outstanding number countywide). In addition there are an estimated 3400 uncounted provisional ballots outstanding.

Representing “Team Daucher” are Bryan Lanza, Daucher’s CM, Joel Yang – here for Ackerman as the “numbers guy” – and batting cleanup is former FPPC Chairman Ben Davidian,… Read More

After meeting for hours today, Assembly Republicans have "unanimously" selected a new leader: Mike Villines of Fresno. Congratulations!! More to follow from the slower folks…… Read More

Lynn Daucher’s lead has jumped by several hundred after another day of counting – to over 500. As Chick Hearn would say, “the jello’s jiggling.”

Or, to put it more simply, Game Over.… Read More

Other than providing a 400,000+ margin to Democratic candidates for LG and SOS, there were some other results of interest in Los Angeles County.

Candidate wise, Illegal alien councilman Sergio Calderon did win his water board seat. See here. LA GOP Leader Norm Ryan lost his re-election bid not to Frank Colonna who didn’t run. But he lost none the less. See here.A big upset was that Assemblyman Paul Koretz lost his bid for a water board seat.

Some passed.

In Santa Monica, Measure Y passed. This means that pot smoking is a lower police priority than cigarette smoking. See previous note on campaign here. The good news they passed a parcel tax to clean up beaches of everything but the homeless.

Los Angeles passed an illegal alien housing bond in Measure H and changed term… Read More