The outrageous claims and behavior of those protesting proposed immigration legislation this past week are a direct result of a "deer in the headlights Congress" and White House that have effectively traded border and national security for an increase in political support from Hispanics. End of story.

In the four plus years since the terrorist attacks Congress has squandered an opportunity to fix immigration for national security reasons – and won’t have the opportunity again until America is attacked by terrorists for the second time. Its hard to play the race card against national security but Americans are already forgetting 9-11, so the race card is out again.

Liberals and Mexican activists in effect want America to turn a blind eye toward those whose first act in entering the US is to break the law. Employers want the labor supply, so they paralyze GOP members of Congress. The situation is a crisis and a mess. Inaction will only heighten the problem and tensions in society are sure to rise with these protests.

We must utilize technology to fix our system of tracking immigrants before we establish a guest worker… Read More

It usually only happens once or twice every election cycle–the piece of campaign mail that is worthy of my sample mail file (because I might just use it myself in a future campaign, just changing the names and photos).

A cross between a timeshare sales brochure and what I imagine Don Lapre would use to promote his latest infomercial product, it’s a damn good piece of direct mail.

Dave Gilliard (GBW&A) is running Diane Harkey’s campaign for the 35th Senate District against Assemblyman Tom Harman. Giliard’s "Harman Method" highlights how Harman has ‘gotten rich’ off being a legislator. My research firm is doing Harkey’s polling.

Some people might think the piece is too cute, but it is well done and is even designed to be at first glance, a pro-Harman piece. Which is all the better because once you start reading it, it’s clearly not.… Read More

Yesterday I wrote about Steve Schmidt, who is now closing in on two months as the campaign manager for Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election. There was a story in the Capitol Weekly that was focused on Schmidt’s first three paychecks, which were pretty large. As I said in my piece, Schmidt not only got a hiring bonus (remember, he relocated his family to California from a pretty sweet-gig in the Administration in D.C.) but also may be the best investment that the campaign makes for the discipline and organizational skills he will bring to the campaign. This will pay off the most dividends if Schmidt can introduce some ‘consulting reform’ to the statewide campaign. A look back at traditional statewide campaigns and ballot measure efforts, most definately including the Governor’s past campaigns in both regards, show that a small group of consultants walk away with… Read More

Yesterday I wrote about Steve Schmidt, who is now closing in on two months as the campaign manager for Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election. There was a story in the Capitol Weekly that was focused on Schmidt’s first three paychecks, which were pretty large. As I said in my piece, Schmidt not only got a hiring bonus (remember, he relocated his family to California from a pretty sweet-gig in the Administration in D.C.) but also may be the best investment that the campaign makes for the discipline and organizational skills he will bring to the campaign. This will pay off the most dividends if Schmidt can introduce some ‘consulting reform’ to the statewide campaign. A look back at traditional statewide campaigns and ballot measure efforts, most definately including the Governor’s past campaigns in both regards, show that a small group of consultants walk away with… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger is making a bad call in saying that he will not appoint a new Chairman to the California Prop 10 Commission, which would have the effect of terminating Rob Reiner, who was appointed by Gray Davis, and who’s term has expired (apparently you serve ‘until replaced’). In today’s San Diego Union Tribune, the paper editorializes against this unfortunate decision. The piece can be found here.

The Governor should reconsider this decision. And, oh yes, he should also come out publicly against Reiner’s tax-increase measure right away.… Read More

We continue to highlight the appointments made by Governor Schwarzenegger — late last week, the Governor made two important appointments, Republican Lynn Jacobs as director of the Department of Housing and Community Development and George Valverde as director of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Here is more information about them:

GEORGE VALVERDE Valverde has served the State of California for thirty years, much if it in managerial roles, with a focus on operations and budget issues. He has served the State and Consumer Services Agency (SCSA) as undersecretary since 2004. Valverde was previously deputy secretary for fiscal operations from 1995 to 2003. Prior to his tenure with State and Consumer Services, he served in the Department of Finance as an assistant program budget manager of the Capitol Outlay Unit from 1990 to 1995, principal program budget analyst from 1985 to 1990 and budget analyst from 1981 to 1985.… Read More

Police estimate the a half a million people showed up for a rally against some anti illegallegislation in Congress. Here is the story.Of course some of them were illegal, but many weren’t. This rally shows what happens when a nation refuses to enforce our laws for two decades. Of course many want the system to stay broken. They have two decades of exploiting it.

Or maybe this was a commercial for buying land in Idaho.… Read More

The lead story on the FlashReport today is penned by Shane Goldmacher in the Capitol Weekly. Goldmacher, in going through campaign reports, found that the Governor’s new campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, has already received three paychecks of $26,250 in six weeks. I guess that would be an eye-popping number in a paycheck, except for two factors…the first being that the numbers reflect a signing bonus. The other factor is Schmidt himself… (Let me add here that while many, many FR readers know me, thousands of you do not. I am not into gratuitous flattery or heaping praise where it is not due. As a matter of fact, if you’ve been a reader of this page, you know that I have no trouble be brutally honest with my praise or criticism, no matter the political party or ideology of my subject. That said…) Let’s remember that Schmidt, who is fresh off of major victories in Washington, D.C., for the administration where Schmidt was most recently the point man for the successful confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. This role came as a part of… Read More