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

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

I know there are some thatwill readthis in disbelief. CRA has endorsed Bill Hauf in the primary for the 50th CD and I stand by that endorsement. CRA Fed Pacspent about $70,000 to stop Bilbray from getting the GOP Primary nod. What should a conservative do in the June special election run-off? Bilbray has voted to give money to Planned Parenthood, gone to the Clinton White House to celebrate gun control and voted for bigger government spending, albeit sponsored by the so-called GOP Leadership. Some conservatives are tempted to take a walk or vote for a third party candidate to punish the House or Bilbray for their past deeds. Believe me, I understand that sentiment. I met with Brian Bilbray for over an hour last week and asked serious questions about his record and plans. If he wins I hope he will vote better on these and other issues. … 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

On Sunday when I last posted on AD77 I missed a few relevant facts in my analysis which I’d be remiss in not posting. Based for the most part on cash on hand, but also on some earlier polling, and the amount of mail in the box, I’d narrowed the race to Dale (Wainio/local), Anderson (Nygren), and Beecham (Coronado). Turns out Beyer (Justin) dropped a fair barrage of mail that I missed in my pile o’ mail, and raised enough money since disclosure to put her campaign as much in the game as any of the other three. So in short this thing is basically a toss-up, with former Santee Mayor Jack Dale perhaps having a marginal lead. If campaigns send me mail, I’ll post the most entertaining of it in my next post.… Read More

Congressman Gary Miller was the speaket today at the San Bernardino Lincoln Club Meeting in Ontario. Gary hails from the Diamond Bar part of Los Angeles and has racked up Most Consevative Voting record from any California Congressman, several years in a row.

Congressman Miller talked about several subjects of interest. Most telling is his view that the Senate bill giving amnesty to illegals is dead in the House. I hope that is true, but a vote killing it would be nice too.

His comments on ANWR were very eye opening.He pointed out that the National Park Service is studying 700,000 acres in the San Gabriel Valley. See article here.And of course land use will beome an issue. The enviros are also trying to put together a wildlife corrider through Whittier , Yorba Linda etc…

Miller find that interesting because there are more oil wells on the surface originally drille in the 1900’s than there will be in the ANWR proposal. Some pristine environment!

Thanks to Marshall Riley, the chief of the SB County Lincoln Club for the invite.… Read More