For 11 years I never missed a CRP Convention, but when I termed out as the Treasurer of the Party in 2001 I began attending only sporadically. I came down to LA this weekend to fulfill my duties as a member of the Executive and Rules Committees and to see my good friend, and your humble publisher, Jon Fleischman. I also wanted to attend the Lincoln Clubs Breakfast which just concluded and say hello to good friends there.

In general, not much of substance takes place at these gatherings. They are primarily social affairs, and it is great fun to see old friends and political staffers, consultants, etc. There is the usual inside baseball activity in Initiatives and other committees, but this convention is very light on all the usual machinations. At this convention, all the action is in the initiatives committee, where the Governor’s bond issues will be debated.

The Friday Executive Committee luncheon was keynoted by former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, and while is speech was peppered with the usual, albeit long ago forgotten, Reaganesque principles, after about the fourth "we must do this, and we must do that" I came to my senses and… Read More

AN IMPORTANCE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Dear FR Reader,

This weekend many FlashReport readers will be attending the California Republican Party Convention in Los Angeles. It is an important convention for a lot of reasons, the most significant of which is that it is a great opportunity for grassroots GOP leaders from around the state to come together in support of our great Republican ticket as we are less than a hundred days from the general election. I know that I have already put in a lot of hours on behalf of GOP candidates for statewide and local office this year, and will invest a lot more between now and election day!

Of course Republican Party conventions are also a key opportunity to take some time to discuss the future of our party, where we are going over the coming weeks, months and years. This convention will be the last time that CRP delegates will come together until the… Read More

From the Capitol Morning Report today (subscribe here): Jason Kinney of California Strategies reports plans to launch a political website and blog for Democrats called The California Majority Report. The tag line on Kinney’s announcement reads, "THE political website for California Democrats who don’t play politics – they live it." It’s being published by three insiders of the former Gov. Gray Davis… Read More

Last night Mass Gov. Mitt Romney a likely WH contender wowed the crowd of 900 at the St. Regis resort in Dana Point.

The event included a vip reception, a free reception and an intimate dinner.

No other prez hopeful could replicate this, all the party factions were represented at the event.

I will have more on this soon but want to make sure the FlashReport readers got a different perspective from FR Managing Editor Nick Romero’s previous post. UPDATE: See Martin Wisckol’s post on OC Register’s Total Buzz blog here.… Read More

SCA 3, the Senator AlanLowenthal bill to reform the way districts are drawn, passed off the Senate floor late yesterday, 27-11, with mostly Democrat no votes, and actually pretty strong Republican support. However, Assembly colleagues I talked to didn’t seem too excited about the quality of the package. We’ll find out more detailsabout it today….… Read More

Looks like ‘for sure’ no redistricting measure for November’s ballot. The Assembly did not take up SCA 3 which was passed out of the Senate yesterday. However, a gut-and-amend measure was attempted during today’s session to cause theenabling language to be ready to place the still unfinished SCA 3 on the November 2006ballot. This, as most Republican members sawit, was putting the "caboose in front of the engine" in that SCA 3 hadn’t really beenexamined by our members, let alone voted out. How can you vote out the enabling language to place landmark constitutional change on the ballot when the ink isn’t even dry on the Amendment itself, let alone having not read it? Kinda reminds me of how the bonds were handled. [oops, did I say that?]

The net effect is it won’t be on November 2006, but we can still hear the bill during the last 2 weeks of this session and ready a measure that can be taken up on ’08’s ballot…still plenty of time before 2010 census. We could’ve been working on this allthis year to achieve reform, as promised by those that helped defeat Prop 77,… Read More

REDISTRICTING NOT DOA? WE’LL SEE Just when we thought that redistricting reform was completely dead, yesterday Senate President Don Perata injected one last chance for an opportunity for voters to be able to shift the process away from a self-interested legislature to a non-elected panel. While I am not too hopeful that the Assembly will follow suit under the iron-hand of Fabian Nunez, we can certainly encourage him to do so. Today, State Senator Roy Ashburn, the Republican co-author (along with Democrat Alan Lowethal) of the bi-partisan redistricting reform bill has penned a great column for the FlashReport, and it leads the news on the main page. ANGELIDES ENTERS "DESPERATION MODE" In what is his latest attempt in an unsuccessful series of attempts to ‘reinvent’ himself, Democrat Gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides released a ‘new plan’ yesterday that calls for billions of dollars in increases… Read More

The state GOP convention starts tomorrow in LA and along with the usual crowd and typical jockeying for resolutions, by-law changes an endorsements (or non-endorsements) for November ballot initiatives, the Governor will have a strong presence through volunteers and paid staff.

And if you want the latest in insider Arnold texted right to your mobile, they are telling convention goers to text "Gov" to 50555 and then reply with a "Yes" to confirm.

I expect you’ll get something every few hours about a rally or ice cream reception. I doubt it will be anything interesting but cool idea nonetheless.

You can also go to the campaign web site to sign up.… Read More