Judges! Who knows anything about the judges on the ballot? I get asked this more than any other question. So the next few days I will be adding my two cents to some of these. First Los Angeles County has several judges up for election to Superior Court. The Los Angeles County Lincoln Club has a Judicial Improvement Committee headed by the able Richard Reinjohn. They make recommendations to the Governor for appointments. (He should listen more) and they make election recommendations. Their Nov 2006 endorsements are below. Pretty good stuff for people in LA County that need help.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Office 8 – Deborah L. Sanchez Office 18 – Daviann L. Mitchell Office 102 – Hayden Zacky Office 144 – David W. Stuart… Read More

Yesterday was a good day for Steve Poizner.

Just before noon, Chris Reed posted on the San Diego Union-Tribune’s blog about their editorial board meeting with Bill Lockyer where the Democrat Attorney General took out a sharp knife and proceeded to insert it between Democrat Insurance Commish candidate Cruz Bustamante’s shoulder blades, refusing to even say he planned on voting for the current Lt. Governor.

Then, at 2, Steve got to debate Cruz before the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board. If you didn’t get a chance to watch it this afternoon, you should take a look. Steve’s drubbing of Cruz was actually quite entertaining.

Just one snippet: One of the Chron’s folks asked Steve why Cruz repeatedly was misquoting how much money Steve had dropped into his campaign coffers. Steve’s dead pan response, “he can’t add right.”

I died laughing.

It’s fun when one of the good guys looks like he’s going to win, and if today was any indication, that’s what now looks to be just a… Read More

Today’s lead Editorial from the Orange County Register Are we borrowing trouble again? Audit finds millions misspent from parks, water and wildlife bonds passed in 2000 and 2002. An examination of annual state audits of four bonds passed in 2000 and 2002 shows "questionable spending on public relations, lobbying and even yoga classes."

The San Jose Mercury News, in stories published on Tuesday, outlined that some groups receiving bond money "failed to properly document expenses, claimed unallowable costs and went over budget because of inconsistent monitoring by state agencies."

California voters should keep such audits in mind as they consider five bond measures on the November ballot: Propositions 1B (transportation), 1C (housing), 1D (schools), 1E (levees) and 84 (water quality and parks).

The Mercury News studied audits from the California Department… Read More

My friend Nathan Barankin who works for Attorney General Bill Lockyer has to be having a good chuckle after reading the latest post on the Los Angeles Times Political Muscle Blog, penned by veteran political reporter Bob Salladay.

From the Tales of the Bizarre comes this story about some long-ago history on Claude Parrish, the GOP nominee for State Treasurer. Apparently once upon a time back in the ’80s, when Parrish owned an ice-cream company, he bought a pricey sports car, and according to records unearthed by the Times, he proceeded to not make his payments. The story of what happens from their is, like I said, bizarre. I would try to summarize it here, but I have to say that Bob Salladay does a delightful job of sharing the story. But with players like Claude Parrish, the "Cheap Detective Agency." and a Mercedes-Benz SL380 Roadster — we know it will be interesting.

I will make two observations, and then send you on to read the sordid details…

… Read More

Many politicos in San Diego and Riverside are chuckling over Monday’s SDUT story indicating that Democrat challenger Mark Hanson hopes to raise $1.6 million to unseat Senator Dennis Hollingsworth in the 36th SD.

Uh huh, right. The district is 50% Rep, 27% Dem, and elected Bush over Gore in ’04 by 30 points. Hollingsworth initially won the seat over the more moderate Charlene Zettel, even though he had way less money. Even SDUT reporter Phil LaVelle had to have written Hanson’s claim while smirking about such gravitas.

By all standards, SD 36 is a suicide seat for any Democrat.Hanson, who doesn’t seem to have any significant personal resources, raised $80k thru September 30, with $11k cash-on-hand.His unrealistic hopes may be based on the fact that Hollingsworth has only raised twice that and has a mere $56k on-hand.

OK, for some fun, email me and take a stab at how much Hanson will actually raise for the… Read More

Nationally syndicated columnist Bob Novak, most recognizable from his many years as a co-host of CNN’s Crossfire program, follows politics pretty closely. As a matter of fact, his Evans & Novak Political Report is a great e-mail to receive if you don’t get it already. It’s free, so you can check it out if you want (if you aren’t wary of feeding your e-mail to him, and whomever he sells it to). Anyways, Novak has officially placed Arnold Schwarzenegger in the "Likely Republican Retention Column" in his latest e-mail. Here’s his chart:

Republican-Held Governorships In Play… Read More

We will devote quite a bit of space in the FlashReport in the coming weeks to articulating why the five "big bonds" measures on the November ballot — Propositions 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 84 — should all be rejected by California voters. You’ve heard me make the case over and over if you are a regular reader, but if you are new to this site, I can sum up the main over-arching reasons to reject all of this borrowing in just a few paragraphs: For decades, the liberals who control the state legislature, along with a string of Governors who aided them with budget signatures, have neglected infrastructure investment in California. Instead, these liberals have taken the state budget (which is now well over $100 billion annually) and have put much of that money into their lefty social engineering programs and into fattening the state bureaucracy. Lack of proper funding for infrastructure has also been exacerbated because of initiative and ballot measures that have been passed by voters over the years that create ‘locked in’ formulas for spending – usually because the voters are taking into their own hands… Read More

Steve Poizner, the Republican nominee andfrontrunner inthe statewide race for Insurance Commissioner, warmed up for today’s debate with Democrat Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante during a campaign swing through Southern California Tuesday. He met with several groups of fellow business leaders before returning north for today’s debate on the Bay Area’s CBS5 TV.

One of Poizner’sstopswas at aluncheon hosted by San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus in Victorville. The high desert town is part of a booming valleywith a population approaching 400,000 that’s known as one of the state’s last so-called affordable housing markets near a major urban center. It’s an area where employers struggle with automobile, homeowners and workers’ compensation insurance rates to protect their margins in what’s considered a business-friendly region within a business-hostile state. Many in the audience were either in the… Read More