I had already read Tuesday’s Jon Fleischman Commentary by the time the FlashReport publisher called me later in the dayto ask if the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors had, as he had urged, rejected a proposal to "subsidize" to the tune of $700,000 the for-profit California Speedway. The proposal he spoke of was in the form of an agreement for title sponsorship of a new raceway venue and some upcoming NASCAR races.

I told Jon the Board had not rejected the proposal, and in fact approved it. Now I’ll start off by saying Jon is right to point out that San Bernardino County is a red county, and that its Board is dominated by a Republican super-majority. In fact, I believe the Board’s decision on the sponsorship package was justified based on some very sound and not un-conservative reasoning. There may be times when conservative pro-business principles seem to run counter to conservative anti-tax, limited government principles. But I don’t think this is… Read More

San Bernardino County is a red county. While it was not always the case historically, this sprawling Inland-Empire County has become a bastion of conservatism. This is evidenced by the significant partisan advantage that Republicans have in terms of the delegations to Washington, D.C., and to the State Capitol. But nowhere is this GOP influence felt more than on the local Board of Supervisors. On that board, you not only have a dominant Republican Super-Majority, but Bill Postmus, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors is also Chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Postmus has been a friend for many years, and his Chief of Staff, Brad Mitzelfelt, is the San Bernardino Correspondent for the FlashReport! So I was quite surprised to read in the newspaper a scheme that doesn’t sound very conservative at all…

I cannot tell you how disturbed I was to read an article in the San Bernardino County Sun newspaper that, if accurate, makes it sound like the Republican County Board of… Read More

San Bernardino County is a red county. While it was not always the case historically, this sprawling Inland-Empire County has become a bastion of conservatism. This is evidenced by the significant partisan advantage that Republicans have in terms of the delegations to Washington, D.C., and to the State Capitol. But nowhere is this GOP influence felt more than on the local Board of Supervisors. On that board, you not only have a dominant Republican Super-Majority, but Bill Postmus, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors is also Chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Postmus has been a friend for many years, and his Chief of Staff, Brad Mitzelfelt, is the San Bernardino Correspondent for the FlashReport! So I was quite surprised to read in the newspaper a scheme that doesn’t sound very conservative at all…

I cannot tell you how disturbed I was to read an article in the San Bernardino County Sun newspaper that, if accurate, makes it sound like the Republican County Board of… Read More

I just spoke with Andy Roth with the Club for Growth – and am excited to share some great news with FlashReport readers — one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress, Michigan’s Joe Schwarz (pictured to the right) has had his clocked cleaned in today’s primary, and was defeated by strong conservative former State Legislator Tim Walberg. Walberg was supported by conservative groups and blog sites from around the country and was able to successful trounce Schwarz. Schwarz was a leading opponent of making permanent the President’s tax cuts, and much more. You can read more about that here. A big FR thank you goes out to our readers — your generosity made a difference. Readers of the FR donated thousands of dollars to the… Read More

In a 260+ page report that took a year and a half to prepare at a cost of over $20 million of taxpayer dollars, Kroll Incorporated laid out a detailed explanation of the City of San Diego’s disastrous pension shortfall. This will probably be the best explanation we get until folks start rolling on each other in the courtroom.

In short: Carl DeMaio of the Performance Institute and whistle-blower Diann Shipione were right. And the city establishment – including many former current and former staffers and politicians – who tried to discredit them should take a few minutes to let that sink in. Like the report says in black and white: “the evidence demonstrates not mere negligence but deliberate disregard for the law, disregard for fiduciary responsibility, and disregard for the financial welfare of the city’s residents.” And the report puts much of the blame right on the shoulders of former Mayor Dick Murphy and the members of the City Council who were in office during the affair.

You can read the whole of the report at www.sandiego.gov. Particular attention should be paid to Section XI CONCLUSIONS AS TO INDIVIDUAL CULPABILITY.… Read More

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) today announced the return of his "Card Table Offices".

He sends a staffer out to a local library or other public location to offer constituent services on the spot. He truly is a man of the people. Or he is trying to get cheap press for little effort in which case I am feeding right into his plan…

[Adam had reproduced the whole press release from DeVore, but to ‘clean up’ the site, I will just say you can see the Assemblyman (or a member of his staff if he is busy playing pinochle) at the following places/times) at a card table at one of these locales below… Flash]

8/8/2006 Card Table District Office… Read More

People like to compare San Francisco to Chicago. Chicago is, hands down, my favorite U.S. city and San Francisco doesn’t hold a candle to the Windy City….except when it comes to politics. There I will agree that the two cities have much in common: city politics and governments dominated by the Democratic Party. Today’s Matier & Ross column in the San Francisco Chronicle highlights the questionable fundraising of a Board of Supervisors candidate, Jaynry Mak. Mak has lots and lots of big donations from minimum-wage type of workers, some of whom M&R couldn’t find when they doublechecked the donor’s info. Makes me think of… Read More

In the city of San Clemente the rights of property owners have been set aside by the council majority, but some residents are not taking it lying down.

While I am mainly a pollster, ever once in while I find myself running an independent expenditure campaign or even more commonly, I am the consultant people call to take on city hall or some other government agency that has overstepped their authority. It is a role I really enjoy, mostly because I am good at it–and almost always win. Fighting for the cause of liberty and getting paid well for the work is tremendously rewarding.

I am in the midst one such battle in San Clemente.

The OC Register today published a rebuttal to one of their editorials that called the city council in San Clemente out for their anti-property rights vote. The rebuttal, written by Jim Cogan, a leader among the "we don’t think our neighbors should be able to make home improvements and add on to their homes" crowd makes me the focus of his response.

Here is an expert from the rebuttal (… Read More