It may be hard to believe from my slight build, but in high school I played football. My position was defensive end or “wing” on the right hand side of the line, which is humorous because the rule was I was to never let anyone from the other team get to the right of me. That rule served me well over time. It also put me in the time honored position of blind-siding quarterbacks. I’ve found that talent to be less useful over time.

While politics is full of comparisons to sports and war, and sometimes the comparisons are a bit tired and worn, over the last few days I’ve experienced what I think is an apt comparison between politics and sports.

Playing football, you learn over time that the mental game is often as important as the physical. On any given day, a small town team like mine with good morale could beat a big city team with poor morale. And many things could break the spirit of an otherwise strong team and lead to mistake after mistake as the group got more unsure of itself. Most teams were only a few fumbles or sacks away from broken morale. And most teams were only a few sacks or recovered fumbles away from good morale.… Read More

FR friend Matt Rexroad is one of California’s most capable political consultants. He has worked in many capacities in political campaigns and in government offices. Currently he is a partner with Meridian Pacific, and in that capacity, he is playing a very hands-on role in GOP campaigns. Most recently, Matt has become involved in helping to quarterback some major independent efforts to help Tony Strickland become the next Controller. This is in addition to his direct efforts on behalf of Bruce McPherson’s campaign for Secretary of State, and a host of other conservative causes.

Believe it or not, while he doing all of this, and being a great husband and father, Matt is on the City Council of his home town of Woodland, and is running a hard-fought race for Yolo County Supervisor. His platform is one of property rights, fiscal… Read More

FR friend and former FR State Capitol Correspondent will once again be providing insights and wisdom as a guest on the Fox News Channel’s Hannity and Colmes program, airing from 6 – 7 p.m. (Pacific time).

Karen will actually be appearing live from the U.S.S. Midway Aircraft Carrier, which is now a museum and permanently birthed in San Diego’s Mission Bay.

We were sad when Karen left our Blog Roll here, but we are pleased that it was to start blogging for the ABC affiliate in Sacramento. You can read her stuff here.… Read More

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 on President Bush’s 2004 re-election efforts, whom… Read More

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