A hearty congratulations from everyone here at Team FlashReport goes out to our friend Assemblyman Mike Villines of Fresno. Last week, Villines was tapped by Assembly Republicans (and their leader, George Plescia) to head up their elections and political efforts going into the fall elections. Villines, a strong conservative, is considered by many to be a rising star among Republican legislators in Sacramento because of his political acumen. Clearly this must be a sentiment shared by his colleagues as he has been tapped with a very important post. We’ll try to find out who will be serving on this important committee with Villines. In the meantime, I caught up to Mike this morning while he was driving across the Fresno County/Madera County line (I kid you not, on his way to a "Flatlanders Parade" — pretty funny). I spoke with him about his new role, and he is pretty excited about it.

"I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves, and working with my colleagues to… Read More

A hearty congratulations from everyone here at Team FlashReport goes out to our friend Assemblyman Mike Villines of Fresno. Last week, Villines was tapped by Assembly Republicans (and their leader, George Plescia) to head up their elections and political efforts going into the fall elections. Villines, a strong conservative, is considered by many to be a rising star among Republican legislators in Sacramento because of his political acumen. Clearly this must be a sentiment shared by his colleagues as he has been tapped with a very important post. We’ll try to find out who will be serving on this important committee with Villines. In the meantime, I caught up to Mike this morning while he was driving across the Fresno County/Madera County line (I kid you not, on his way to a "Flatlanders Parade" — pretty funny). I spoke with him about his new role, and he is pretty excited about it.

"I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves, and working with my colleagues to… Read More

In deference to the women in my life (mom, wife, daughter), as well as so my daughter and I may appropriately serve breakfast in bed to her mom tomorrow morning — instead of me tapping away at the keyboard — consider this late nite Saturday post my weekly Sunday San Diego.

Standing up for Soledad… Speaking of moms, I think I made mine proud several years ago when I first engaged in the battle to save the Mt. Soledad and Mt. Helix crosses. That was 1989…same anti-cross judge today…and the legal battle continues.

For those who don’t believe there’s a difference between Mayor Jerry Sanders and almost Mayor Donna Frye, here’s an issue that spells out a huge chasm in philosophies between the two. Frye has consistently voted against upholding the will of the people to save La Jolla’s Mt. Soledad Memorial. Sanders, alternatively,last week stood BIG TIME in support of the Memorial, along with backing Duncan… Read More

President George W. Bush will be addressing the nation Monday evening, primetime, to discuss his plan for dealing with illegal immigration. I’ve been on the phone and email all morning sort of getting a feel from folks far more connected to me, and here’s what I came up with. Speculation is part of his program will be some kind of ‘guest worker’ program that includes those illegal aliens currently in the United States. The program will fall short of amnesty, but offer a path to citizenship.

More important will be the President’s plan to deal with increasing security on the border. After all, all the plans in the world to deal with the illegal aliens that are already here don’t mean a hill of beans if several thousand more of them are allowed to cross every night. In fact, the new plan to offer amnesty or guest worker status will probably cause another increase in illegal aliens, like the last few amnesty plans did.

We’ve already been burned once, I think around the time of the last campaign, when the President talked about all the new Border Patrol agents that would be placed on the border. For the most part, they… Read More

THE DEATH TAX HAS TO GO… One of the biggest challenges facing Republicans in Washington, D.C., is that while there is technically a Republican majority in Congress, it is a weak majority at best. Actually, you have to things working against you if you are the President, anxious to have some legislation reach your desk that will excite and motivate conservatives. The first challenge is that a number of the "Republican" United States Senators, such as Jim Jeffords, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Spector (there are a few others) look to themselves as ‘mavericks’ of sort — with that word being code for ‘squishy’ — or maybe I should say that these GOPers really are not committed to reducing the size and scope of the federal government. It is this group of ‘squishy’ GOP Senators that is responsible for porking up the latest appropriations bill, sent over from the House, with funding for the War on Terror and for Katrina recovery efforts.

But as if this particular group of… Read More

THE DEATH TAX HAS TO GO… One of the biggest challenges facing Republicans in Washington, D.C., is that while there is technically a Republican majority in Congress, it is a weak majority at best. Actually, you have to things working against you if you are the President, anxious to have some legislation reach your desk that will excite and motivate conservatives. The first challenge is that a number of the "Republican" United States Senators, such as Jim Jeffords, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Spector (there are a few others) look to themselves as ‘mavericks’ of sort — with that word being code for ‘squishy’ — or maybe I should say that these GOPers really are not committed to reducing the size and scope of the federal government. It is this group of ‘squishy’ GOP Senators that is responsible for porking up the latest appropriations bill, sent over from the House, with funding for the War on Terror and for Katrina recovery efforts.

But as if this particular group of… Read More

We knew this little gem was hiding somewhere. Carla Marinucci is one of the state’s better political writers, out of the stable of good talent over at the San Francisco Chronicle. I had heard that she was making the rounds at the recent Westly/Angelides pillow fight-debate where voters really only discovered a pair of lackluster, unimpressive politicians, hopping over each other to so who could out-liberal the other (okay, those are MY words, not Carla’s).

Anyways, I had been keeping an eye out for Carla’s story, which I knew would be fun reading. She didn’t let us down (though perhaps her techies did, as this story was posted too late to make the morning summary of stories).

So, without further pitch, Carla’s take on the debate starts out:

Democrats’ dustup brightens outlook for Schwarzenegger in November

The Democratic candidates for governor didn’t… Read More

Ken Moser sends the attached Bilbray mailer along, providing a look at the urgency of the message the campaign is sending to Republican voters: "Due to the special election rules, Republican Brian Bilbray’s name will appear twice on your ballot…you MUST vote in both places in order to insure your congressional seat stays in Republican hands!"

No holds barred in a pretty decent mail piece, considering how convoluted the message has to be if one is concerned their base may not understand to vote twice. Another message: "Your Official Republican Nominee is Brian Bilbray." True, or half true, depending on whether a vote is being cast the first time or the second time on the ballot. Heck, I’d say the same thing if I were in Brian’s shoes.

Lastly, where the official ballot is mocked up in the piece, with Bilbray’s name circled in red (and this is why you have to view the attachment), look who is NOT on the list: Bill Hauf. Sure enough, there’s Busby listed right under Brian in the special run-off portion of the ballot, and Eric Roach and the handful of other… Read More