Yesterday, I posted my endorsement of Mike Pence for Republican Leader. Here is the endorsement letter I sent to fellow House members putting my support behind John Shadegg for Republican Whip.

Dear Colleague: I come from the business world. In that environment, if your company’s earnings disappear and your stock price drops through the floor, the market requires that you replace your leadership and your methods. This usually involves changing all of the management team regardless of how much or how little each individual member had to do with the company’s problems. If you don’t do that, the market has no reason to reinvest in you. Our market, the voters, sent us a clear message last week. Just like a company, we need to prove that we understand our faults and are willing to correct our ways. John Shadegg represents the new direction that is needed in the position of minority whip. You heard John in conference before the election, and I’m sure you received his e-mails as I have. He is fresh. He is motivated. He is inspiring.

This afternoon President George W. Bush announced that he has nominated Orange County Superior Court Judge James E. Rogan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Central Valley!

Rogan, of course, is a superstar on the Republican side of the aisle. While originally a Democrat, Rogan found his heart and soul in the Grand ol’ Party of Abraham Lincoln. He has had a storied career — as a successful gang murder prosecutor, a judge up in Los Angeles County, GOP Majority Leader (yes, we had one of those once!) of the California State Assembly, a Member of Congress (where he served as one of the handful of managers of impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton), and went on to serve President George W. Bush as an Undersecretary of Commerce and as Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and was recently appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to fill a vacancy on the Orange County Superior Court.

The… Read More

San Francisco saw its Olympic dreams go down in flames this week after the 49ers announced that they were moving the team to Santa Clara. The San Francisco 2016 committee had planned on pitching a new stadium at Candlestick Point as the home for the opening and closing sessions of the summer Olympics that year. But by yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom had sent a letter telling the U.S. Olympic Commission that the city was withdrawing from the competition to be the American city recommended by the USOC to the international committee. Chicago and Los Angeles are still in the running. Newsom’s letter told the USOC that it didn’t make any sense to “drag out what in the end would clearly be a… Read More

Richard Costigan, who has served admirably as Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggers top point person with the State Legislature is leaving his Deputy Chief of Staff post and going into the private sector, where we hear he is going to work for the prominent, well heeled PR/Law firm of McKenna, Long and Aldridge (then again the last time we ‘heard’ where he was going, not only was he not going there, he wasn’t going anywhere). Nevertheless, the source is credible. We here at the FlashReport wish Richard the best of luck — we have no idea how anyone could stand up to the rigors of that post under quasi-normal circumstances, let alone the absolute craziness that he has had to endure. I caught up to Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and asked him to comment on Costigan’s departure. He had this to say: "Richard did an excellent job in trying to push the Republican agenda and sometimes difficult situations. We wish him the best luck in his new endeavors." Of course, Richard’s departure sparks the question of who will be hired to fill this critical role in the… Read More

Well, it may be a bit unconventional coming from the North California correspondent on OC election numbers, but, hey, nobody else has posted on it yet….and FR readers deserve the news ASAP! My colleague Lynn is holding to a 302 vote lead after 20,239 county wide ballots were processed today, a drop of only 59 votes, probably heavy on election day ballots. Thanks to Senator Ackerman for the updated numbers each day, they estimate about 4000 absentees left to count. Hmm, I like those odds.… Read More

Was Victory ’06 a success? After over 20 million dollars spent that is an open question for me. I have my doubts. The Governor was on the way to victory long before the GOTV operation was needed. Maybe Poizner benefited. Although he really benifited from Bustamante.

First, I want to point out that I know something on this scale has not been tried before. I know many Victory ’06 staffers. Many of them are great operatives. People can work hard and effectively in campaigns and still not achieve objectives. To be successful in the future requires us to take a hard look at some of these things.

I admit to only knowing a few things. Turnout in GOP areas was lower than four years ago. Imagine that. A "GOP" Governor is winning by 17% and turnout is worse than when we lose by 5%. What gives?

There are definitely someoutside factors at work. The National GOP collapse didn’t help. The Governor’s refusal to appear with or speak kindly about down ticket candidates was a factor. His message of a bigger bond debt and more nanny statism appealed to Dems, but not GOP voters.… Read More

The FlashReport’s Beltway Correspondent, Congressman John Campbell, has just endorsed Congressman Mike Pence for House Republican Leader. We will follow his lead as a publication, and I want to announce that the FlashReport endorses Mike Pence for Republican Leader of the House of Representatives.

We have been following, and applauding the conservative moxie of Pence for a couple of years now, since he took over the reigns of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus within the entire GOP conference.

When Republicans take the kind of drubbing they took last Tuesday, the honorable thing to do is for the existing leadership TEAM (yes, all of them, not some of them) to step aside and let new leaders emerge to try and win policy and political battles in the next session and election. Unfortunately we have a couple of leaders in the House — John Boehner and Roy Blunt — who are suffering from a classic case of "it wasn’t me" syndrome. I have news for both of… Read More

I thought the readers of the Flash Report would be interested in reading the following letter. It is a letter I sent a couple minutes agoto my fellow Republican House members endorsing Mike Pence for the position of House Minority Leader:

Dear Republican Colleague: I would like to ask you to join me in supporting Mike Pence for Minority Leader. My support of Mike is not due to any real or perceived shortcomings of either of his opponents. They are both fine men with excellent records, but I believe Mike will bring a new voice to leadership that can lead us back into the majority.

An axiom in politics is to win by securing your base then extending from it. Arguably, we did neither in this past election. First and foremost, we must show the country and our base that we have gotten their message and understand that change is necessary. By putting a fresh face in leadership who is dedicated to the core principals of our party and can skillfully articulate these principals, we can restore the country’s confidence in the Republican Party. Mike Pence… Read More