Down in OC 5th Supervisor District, gazillionaire Cassie DeYoung has spent nearly $2.5 million in her quest to become an Orange County Supervisor.

DeYoung is waging the nastiest political campaign OC has seen in a generation, and her target has been opponent Pat Bates, the former Assemblywoman (full disclosure: I’ve done some consulting work for Pat’s race).

DeYoung’s mail paints Pat of being a liberal illegal immigrant lover who gets teens hooked on smoking while destroying the ocean and our coastlines at the behest of the oil and gambling interests. I’m sure there are other smears I’ve missed, but you get to the point.

But suing Marian Bergeson? Isn’t that taking things just a tad too far? Tjis is from OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit yesterday:

Marian Bergeson came up to me backstage at the Performing Arts Center during our last Follies… Read More

This morning I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of my thoughts about goings-on in San Diego County. It’s a crazy time in the county just to the south of my own…

Congressional District 50 – a.k.a. "Oatmeal vs. Acid" What do you do when the Republican candidate in the special election doesn’t excite conservative voters? The only issue on which he seems to be campaigning where he is in line with conservative voters is on the immigration issue, where he has been paid to be hardcore as he has represented (as a federal lobbyist) a hard-line immigration reform group. Bilbray moved into the district. He was tapped by D.C. power-brokers. He defeated a horribly split field of conservative candidates to eek out a plurality, most likely with the help of non-Republican voters. On many issues that I care about, he is only marginally better than the liberal Democrat Francine Busby. And so I read in ‘insider… Read More

This morning I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of my thoughts about goings-on in San Diego County. It’s a crazy time in the county just to the south of my own…

Congressional District 50 – a.k.a. "Oatmeal vs. Acid" What do you do when the Republican candidate in the special election doesn’t excite conservative voters? The only issue on which he seems to be campaigning where he is in line with conservative voters is on the immigration issue, where he has been paid to be hardcore as he has represented (as a federal lobbyist) a hard-line immigration reform group. Bilbray moved into the district. He was tapped by D.C. power-brokers. He defeated a horribly split field of conservative candidates to eek out a plurality, most likely with the help of non-Republican voters. On many issues that I care about, he is only marginally better than the liberal Democrat Francine Busby. And so I read in ‘insider… Read More

From today’s WALL STREET JOURNAL POLITICAL DIARY

Whistling Past California’s 50th District

Republican officials in California are less nervous than their national counterparts about the prospects of holding onto the San Diego congressional seat being filled next Tuesday in a special election. Republicans have been unlucky in the seat ever since the previous incumbent Randy "Duke" Cunningham went to prison for taking bribes and cast a corruption pall over the race to succeed him. The GOP primary was a contentious affair in which a former congressman turned lobbyist named Brian Bilbray came out on top with only 15% of the vote in a divided field. He now faces… Read More

A friend called me up yesterday, laughing, saying, “Well, I’m sure this is the first and last time I’ll see a lawn sign for a Democrat in your front yard.”

She may be right, unless I continue to live in Oakland where no GOP candidates even bother to file for the mayor’s race (or my assembly district!).

Normally, I’ll just cast a vote and ignore the rest of the campaign (in 2002, I voted for the more conservative candidate in the race for mayor—Jerry Brown).

This time, I’m a little more invested in the race. Not so much on behalf of the candidate I’m supporting—City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente—but because I cannot sit back and allow the wackos in this city install Ron Dellums in the mayor’s office. I do not want to foot his travel bill to Cuba or his self-esteem meetings for the poor kids kicked out of school because they… Read More

The Memorial Day observance ceremonies this past weekend really give one pause to reflect where we are as a nation. Spending time with these veterans and listening to their concerns about politics, veterans issues, or just fishing opens a discussion about what they fought for and what we’re doing to uphold and preserve their efforts to preserve our liberties.

It is really moving to watch duringa ceremony, these WWII veterans especially, some that could barely walk or stand, snap to attention and give a tightsalute to the color guard, salute the pledge to the flag or to the playing of taps. I could see one of the WWII vets getting tight in the throat and eyes tearing up at the singing of the national anthem. Iknow he wasn’t the only one.The reverance and affection for our nation and our flagand those that have fallen defending it, by these veterans, is remarkable to behold as is the beauty of the surroundings atany of the ceremonies where there isan ‘avenue of flags’ displayed.Usually, they are the special extra long ‘casket’ flags that have been loaned or donated by a family of a… Read More

Cash on Hand in the last days of a campaign is crucial. There has been a lot of focus on what thedollar figure is in different races.Brad Mitzelfelt writes about the war in the 65th AssemblyDistrict below. (if too lazy to scroll down, click here). A good piece. The reason it caught my attention was the over $200,000 COH that Jim Ayres had.

CRA is supporting another candidate, Brenda Salas. So, I looked at those reports earlier. To me it looks like over $100,000 of Ayres money CAN"T be used in the primary, because it was raised for the general election.

The way campaign finance law works in California, a donor can max out to candidate in the primaryAND the general election. Of course they CAN’T spend it until then. For candidates assured nomination like Poochigian or McPherson it is no big deal, but in a contested primary it is.

Many candidates do this to inflate their fundraising numbers. It isn’t wrong, but when a candidate says they have X amount of money in the bank, you have to… Read More

This weekend only! Special limited offer! No reasonable offer will be refused!

My firm is going to conduct a statewide poll this week and I am offer Flash Report readers the chance to propose questions that you would pose to the California voters.

So send your most creative, interesting, inflammatory (I like them the most) questions that no other pollster has bothered to ask and I will consider adding them to our poll. The results will be released next week.

Don’t limit yourself think politics, public policy, pop culture or whatever! We once asked which voters prefer, a candidate with hair or a candidate who is bald…We have also asked who voters would rather date their daughter from among a list of well know celebrities…

Email me at adam@flashreport.org or give me a call (949) 855-6400. Question suggestions will be kept confidential unless you want to the publicity in which case we’ll make sure you get it if we use your question(s).… Read More