This time of year is the silly season for candidates and their tripping all over each other to parade out their endorsements from newspapers. So I thought I would take a few minutes to share my ten cents about "newspaper endorsements" — which is this.

First and foremost — what IS the endorsement of a newspaper? In almost every case, it means that the editorial board of a newspaper has held some sort of vote and decided to put the good name of that paper behind a particular candidate for office. Who is on an editorial board? Well, to be honest, that varies from paper to paper. But it has been my experience that these are the editorial writers for the paper, and then add for good measure the editorial page director, sometimes it includes columnists, and even the local cartoonist. Decidedly NOT voting on the final decision to endorse a particular candidate are the political reporters from the ‘news’ side of a newspaper, though often the news reporters are invited to come and ‘explain’ the details of a race that they are covering, and answer questions from the editorial board. Of course, the important… Read More

The registration numbers and past history tell us that the election for the 18th Assembly District was over when Mary Hayashi won the Democratic primary in June. But this year, the GOP candidate, Jill Buck, is making the general election matter by running a smart campaign that has attracted Republican and Democrat supporters. Even elected Democrats are coming out to publicly support Buck’s campaign for the Assembly. Check out this quote by Dublin Mayor Jane Lockhart (which will be going out on a mailer to district voters): “As a life-long Democrat I look to my party to provide the best candidate. Sometimes that does not happen, and I must step outside my party affiliations and select the best person for the job. Jill Buck is just such a candidate. I know she will work hard to form a bipartisan team in Sa cramento and will represent ALL of the district’s… Read More

This time of year is the silly season for candidates and their tripping all over each other to parade out their endorsements from newspapers. So I thought I would take a few minutes to share my ten cents about "newspaper endorsements" — which is this.

First and foremost — what IS the endorsement of a newspaper? In almost every case, it means that the editorial board of a newspaper has held some sort of vote and decided to put the good name of that paper behind a particular candidate for office. Who is on an editorial board? Well, to be honest, that varies from paper to paper. But it has been my experience that these are the editorial writers for the paper, and then add for good measure the editorial page director, sometimes it includes columnists, and even the local cartoonist. Decidedly NOT voting on the final decision to endorse a particular candidate are the political reporters from the ‘news’ side of a newspaper, though often the news reporters are invited to come and ‘explain’ the details of a race that they are covering, and answer questions from the editorial board. Of course, the important… Read More

The Lincoln Club of Fresno County’s radio buy on Fresno’s KMJ 580 has had the desired effect – 25,000 downloads of our voter guide in just six days. New memberships, and better yet, lot’s of recognition in the area. Our objectives are simple: drive turnout for the downticket candidates, our local endorsed candidates and the defeat of all of the bonds and tax increases.

We also know that many of these downloaded voter guides will wind up emailed all over the State.

Assemblyman Mike Villines reads our next ad, starting Thursday. Check out our voter guide at www.fresnolincolnclub.org.

By the way, I am in Ohio this week. You want to see negative ads, come out here. It’s a bloodbath.… Read More

Nothing is more frustrating than the lack of information available about judges. I’ve already given the LA County Lincoln Club picks for LA Superior Court and told everyone to vote No on Supreme Court Justice Joyce Kennard. The same provision that allows us to vote on State Supreme Court Justices allows us to vote up or down Court of Appeals Justices. There is hardly any information.

Outside of LA, CRA has recommended a NO vote on Kathleen O’Leary- an extreme Davis appointee in the Orange, San Diego and Inland Empire area. As for LA I (not CRA) make the following recommendations.

But, First the method to my madness. I looked at their bios. If you were a Brown and Davis appointee–easy no. Deukmejian, Wilson served in ReaganAdministartion, — yes. The current Governor of course is wobbler on these things. So if you were a Democrat, Brown appointee and then elevated by Arnold- More Likely No. I… Read More

Supervisors today made San Bernardinothefirst county to approve ameasurefurthering the provisions ofJessica’s Law (Prop. 83) byunanimously givinginitial approval toa proposedordinanceby SupervisorsBill Postmus andGary Ovitttoexpand onsex-offendercontrol protections in the statewide initiative.

The County’s ordinance,scheduled for final adoption on Election Day, November 7,would prohibit sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of a daycare center and within one-half mile of a school. It would alsocreate 300-foot "Predator-Free Zones" around schools and parks inunincorporated areas.

In April,Postmus and Ovitt created a Child Safety Task Force to encourage municipalities and county departments to prepare to implement local-government provisions of Prop. 83.Postmus said the ordinanceis a result of that effort. He added thatit wasdrafted in a format to allow cities,where mostcitizens reside, toeasily be able to provide their residents suchincreased… Read More

What blogs do you visit to keep up on political issues in California politics? Obviously there is the FlashReport blog. But there are many others out there, and we want to make sure that we have them all. We’re getting ready to revamp the way that this website keeps track of the other blogs that cover California politics, to make it easier for our readers to monitor the ‘blogosphere’ for what else is going on, with the idea that the main page of the site right now keeps a pretty good eye on the main-stream-media, but not on political blogging. So please drop the FR a note, or post up a comment sharing any and all political blogs you visit that write on California politics. Thanks! We are pleased to let you know that while we are still working out a few bugs, the FlashReport development team has largely finished retooling the site to make it much easier to visit using a PDA. So whether you are on a Treo or a Blackberry, please surf the site and give us your feedback. We limited the fixes to the main page, the blog page, and the commentary page. But it should be much, much easier to navigate than it was before! Are you signed… Read More

What blogs do you visit to keep up on political issues in California politics? Obviously there is the FlashReport blog. But there are many others out there, and we want to make sure that we have them all. We’re getting ready to revamp the way that this website keeps track of the other blogs that cover California politics, to make it easier for our readers to monitor the ‘blogosphere’ for what else is going on, with the idea that the main page of the site right now keeps a pretty good eye on the main-stream-media, but not on political blogging. So please drop the FR a note, or post up a comment sharing any and all political blogs you visit that write on California politics. Thanks! We are pleased to let you know that while we are still working out a few bugs, the FlashReport development team has largely finished retooling the site to make it much easier to visit using a PDA. So whether you are on a Treo or a Blackberry, please surf the site and give us your feedback. We limited the fixes to the main page, the blog page, and the commentary page. But it should be much, much easier to navigate than it was before! Are you signed… Read More