The editorial page of the San Diego Union Tribune has quickly become a ‘must read’ page for the well-written, provocative opinions that are written there. Certainly no small part of this success comes from the addition of Chris Reed to the editorial board (Chris immigrated to the U-T from the OC Register).

Here is a choice piece from today’s paper:

Slick vs. oblivious: No wonder Democrats are unenthusiastic San Diego Union Tribune Editorial(read it online here)… 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

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

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

Today’s feature column is an important piece on why Californian’s should vote No on Proposition 82, liberal Hollywood producer/actor Rob Reiner’s latest attempt to create government bureaucracy. This is the measure that would increase state taxes and take the funds and create a government-run preschool system. Zaremberg makes some great points about how Prop. 82 simply is poor public policy.

NON-PROFIT RATES PROFITABLE FOR LACY I also took the opportunity to feature and interesting story in today’s Sacramento Bee. The article focuses on my good friend Jim Lacy, who is a prominent political law attorney in Orange County. Well, to be more accurate, the article focuses on how some people are upset that Lacy helps non-profit groups put out informational mailings that contain information on political candidates – for like 40% off the going rate for postage! How does this work? Well, read the article. I found it… Read More