SURVEY ON CALIFORNIANS AND THE FUTURE

WHAT ELECTION? CANDIDATES SKIRT THE ISSUES, VOTERS TUNE OUT Voters remain skeptical about cost of bond measures; Majority want Democrats to control Congress, but also want third party

Over the next couple of weeks, the FlashReport will be profiling a few campaign MVP’s for our readers… When looking at all of the campaign operatives on the GOP side of the isle this cycle, a small group of notables rose to the surface, the first of which we are happy to recognize as our pick for Team Arnold MVP — and the winner is… Katie Levinson, the Communications Director for Californians for Schwarzenegger! Congratulations, Katie!

You can actually probably tell the day that Katie Levinson started with her important and central position with the Governor’s re-election campaign — that would be the day that someone turned "on" the power switch, and the Schwarzenegger Public Relations Machine has been operating at full speed ever since. Levinson is rather famously an import into the California political scene as a part of "Team Schmidt" — the young and energetic group of folks that worked with Schwarzenegger Campaign Manager Steve Schmidt… Read More

If you have been around the Capitol, you know Brian Johnston. He is the Western Director of the National Right to Life Committee and Executive Director of the California ProLife Council.

The last two days have been wild in Tennessee. And Brian was caught on film as one of the two Pro-lifers trying to attract attention to Democrat Harold Ford’s abortion position. Ford has a bad record but is portraying himself as pro-life. Controversy erupted when some people thought that Ford’s father called Brian and the director of Tennessee Right to Life a "cracker". It went nationwide. They claim now it was "tracker". You can see the story here and check out the video here.… Read More

What could be more fun than watching "progressive" candidates in Berkeley duke it out over how to improve the city’s business climate?

One city council candidate, George Beier, has an 11 point plan, including ideas such as such as building a "People’s Café" in Berkeley’s (in)famous People’s Park and creating a "Free Speech Trail" to point out historic free speech places on Telegraph Avenue. Now, that’ll really draw new companies and jobs to their wacky city!

Berkeley residents are still reeling from the closure of their beloved Cody’s flagship bookstore on Telegraph Avenue. While they would love to point the finger at the big retailers, they have only themselves to blame for the loss of this independent bookstore. Telegraph can be a nasty… Read More

While Cruz Bustamante can’t seem to scrape togetherenough nickels to keep from having to continueto pullads off the air, Steve Poizner today went up with another newad – a good comparison spot highlighting some great newspaper quotes on the differences between the candidates.… Read More

That’s Jerry Brown’s explanation for Jacques Barzaghi’s sexual harassment of an Oakland City Hall female employee during Brown’s tenure as mayor. Barzaghi was Brown’s longtime political aide, confidante and roommate who ended up leaving Brown’s employ and the country in 2004 after spousal abuse charges surfaced (sexual harassment charges just earned him a cut in pay).

Former Oakland City Hall employee Nereyda Lopez-Bowden, who says she was harassed by Barzaghi, held a press conference today in Sacramento with Sen. Chuck Poochigian. Lopez-Bowden contacted the campaign because she wanted to speak out after she was outraged by the Brown campaign’s claim that the Mayor handled the scandal "professionally." This was the first time… Read More

Proposition 90, the Protect Our Homes initiative, has earned the endorsement of the Redding Record-Searchlight, one of the largest newspapers north of the Sac Bee. The opening thought in their endorsement editorial said,

"Should a city be able to seize property through eminent domain simply because a rich developer has a nifty idea for the land? Most freedom loving Americans would answer no…. Despite all the deceptive ‘sky is falling’ rhetoric about taxpayer traps and not being able to build any infrastructure in California, Prop 90 still soldiers on strongly in polling and in the hearts and minds of regular folks. Of course, the goal of Prop 90 is tolimit eminent domain takings as a last resort to appropriate uses, such as infrastructure projects that the public truly benefits from, not eliminate it entirely.

Of course that isn’t what you hear from the land grabbers or the folks in local governments that are… Read More

Read what Dick Morris Reports has to say…..

’06 ELEX: BACK TO TOSS-UP By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

October 24, 2006 — The latest polls show something very strange and quite encouraging is happening: The Republican base seems to be coming back home. This trend, only vaguely and dimly emerging from a variety of polls, suggests that a trend may be afoot that would deny the Democrats control of the House and the Senate.

With two weeks to go, anything can happen, but it is beginning to look possible that the Democratic surge in the midterm elections may fall short of control in either House.

Here’s the evidence:

* Pollsters Scott Rasmussen and John Zogby both show Republican Bob Corker gaining on Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee, a must-win Senate seat for the Democrats. Zogby has Corker ahead by seven, while Rasmussen still shows a Ford edge of two points.

* Zogby reports a "turnaround" in New Jersey’s Senate race with the GOP candidate Tom Kean… Read More