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

The results of Public Opinion Strategies’ latest tracking poll is in, and it has Lt. Governor nominee Tom McClintock up 4-points.

The survey, conducted over the last few nights with a sample of 800, has Tom up 39-35 with 15% undecided.

Further, of those who’ve already voted, Tom’s up even bigger: 43-35.

And despite attacks against him, Tom’s overall image rating remains in the neighborhood of 3:1, with his negatives still in the teens.

Last, of those left undecided, Tom’s image rating stands higher than Garamendi’s.

Going down to the wire, Tom stands in a great position to win.… 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

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

Yesterday I posted about a million dollar Independent Expenditure ad buy that the Indians had put togetherfor Tony Strickland, and about a ~$66,000 initial buy that some high-tech business folks had done for him.

Today, the other $934,000 of that buy came through.

Given his almost 1.5 : 1 advantage in slates, now $2 million in tv, Arnold’s coattails, and how close this race has been all along, Tony has to be considered the favorite coming down the stretch.… 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