The California Target Book today came out with one of their invaluable wrap-ups of who’s been spending what in the different legislative races.

For instance, the Indians have been doing lots of polling, mail and tv – while the Bay Meadows Land Company has gone to bat for two Dems in the Central Valley, but have done so more with lawn signs and radio buys.

I’m not judging, but with $300,000, I just think an IE committee can do better than lawn signs.

Most interesting, and I’m not kidding here, the ‘Legislative Black Coalition Committee’ has dropped $46,140 against Shirley Horton on ‘potholders production, postage, and distribution.’

Again, I’m not making this up. Nearly $50 grand. On potholders!

I could try to finish this post with some short little quip about what a waste of money this is, or how they just bought themselves Horton’s re-election… But really, it’s potholders. They wrote the punchline for me.… Read More

On the November Ballot, California voters are going to have a chance to make a loud statement about spending. On the ballot are nine different ballot measures that together would increase government spending in the Golden State by epic proportions. Today we are featuring the FlashReport’s 2006 General Election Ballot Proposition Voter Guide where we have tapped Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard (pictured to the right) to assist us in walking FR readers through our recommendations for the November ballot measures. Of course, we strongly recommend casting nine strong NO votes against the NINE SPENDING MEASURES on the ballot — Propositions 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 84, 86, 87, 88, and 89. If these measures are all rejected by California voters, and we send a strong team of Republicans, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom… Read More

On the November Ballot, California voters are going to have a chance to make a loud statement about spending. On the ballot are nine different ballot measures that together would increase government spending in the Golden State by epic proportions. Today we are featuring the FlashReport’s 2006 General Election Ballot Proposition Voter Guide where we have tapped Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard (pictured to the right) to assist us in walking FR readers through our recommendations for the November ballot measures. Of course, we strongly recommend casting nine strong NO votes against the NINE SPENDING MEASURES on the ballot — Propositions 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 84, 86, 87, 88, and 89.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail:

‘I’m Barely a Lawyer’ Is Jerry Brown’s Popular Boast

Ever since he was governor of California in the 1970s, Jerry Brown has focused on the very big picture, earning himself the nickname "Governor Moonbeam." As mayor of Oakland in the 1990s, he did come down to earth and record some progress on crime and development issues, but still he was never known as a detail guy.

Now he faces an embarrassing lawsuit in his current race to become California’s attorney general. One of the requirements of the office is that anyone seeking it must be a lawyer… Read More

The FR is revamping our Blog Roll and so I need to get some input from readers on which blogs to go to that carry items of interest to those following California politics, from the Right, the Center or the Left. Here is a list I am starting with (red is from the right, blue is from the left, black is from the center):

Let’s say you buy a bank-auctionedpiece of property in a slightly remote area with a junker of a house sitting on it, a fixer-upper at best. You put a significant amount of money and personal physical labor into it so as to make it your home, not simply a house. After the County Assessor shows up and completes a re-assessment of the property, your tax bill goes up significantly. You pay it.As time goes by, you pay all your property taxes as they progressively increase based on the limiting provisions of Prop. 13.

Years go by and you lose the home in a terrible fire. Through your long re-building process it becomes apparent the County Assessor failed all that time ago in adequately measuring the square footage of your then-house, thus under-assessing you in property taxes all those years.

A typical bureaucratic mess, resulting in a nightmare for you. Should you have known the professional county appraisers couldn’t handle a tape measure or do simple math? Would you have known such a thing? Your property tax bill doesn’t show your square footage.After all, the county did increase your assessment based on a physical inspection. They are… Read More

Let’s say you buy a bank-auctionedpiece of property in a slightly remote area with a junker of a house sitting on it, a fixer-upper at best. You put a significant amount of money and personal physical labor into it so as to make it your home, not simply a house. After the County Assessor shows up and completes a re-assessment of the property, your tax bill goes up significantly. You pay it.As time goes by, you pay all your property taxes as they progressively increase based on the limiting provisions of Prop. 13.

Years go by and you lose the home in a terrible fire. Through your long re-building process it becomes apparent the County Assessor failed all that time ago in adequately measuring the square footage of your then-house, thus under-assessing you in property taxes all those years.

A typical bureaucratic mess, resulting in a nightmare for you. Should you have known the professional county appraisers couldn’t handle a tape measure or do simple math? Would you have known such a thing? Your property tax bill doesn’t show your square footage.After all, the county did increase your assessment based on a physical inspection. They are… Read More

There is a situation brewing in the theme-park centered City of Anaheim that really deserves much more attention than it has been getting on the FlashReport. We’ll try to rectify that in the coming week, but let’s give FR readers the 30,000 foot view. Anaheim is one of Orange County’s largest cities, and is on the national map because it is the home to Walt Disney’s original theme part, Disneyland. It’s home to the Angels, the Mighty Ducks, and to former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, who is the city’s Republican Mayor — coasting to re-election next month. Trying to follow the politics of the Anaheim City Council isn’t too easy, and I am not really going to delve into that in this short summary. Suffice it to say that there is one candidate who is running for City Council that is being talked about not only in the coffee shops and around the water coolers of Anaheim — candidate Bill Dalati is quickly becoming a topic of conversation nationally. … Read More