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

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

Robin Lowe has been allowed onto the June Primary ballot for the 65th Assembly District, a campaign spokesman has confirmed. The Republican Mayor of Hemetprevailed in Sacramento Superior Court today after having been disqualified from the ballot by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters for insufficient signatures. Read previous coverage here.

According to Lowe consultant Jim Nygren, four voters who had been deemed ineligible to sign nomination papers by the Riverside registrar were technically still legally registered to vote in the district even though they signed the papers using a new address. "They could have voted in their old precincts," said Nygren, adding, "I’ve been through a similar drill before."

The candidate was in court for today’s proceedings. Nygren said while the fight to get on the ballot was admittedly a distraction, Lowe never stopped campaigning. "Wealways thought she’d end up on the ballot," Nygren said.… Read More

Long Beach is huge city and like many large cities it has an elected auditor. This year incumbent Gary Burroughs has an opponent in Water Repleshiment District Controller Laura Wilson Doud. Burroughs has been Auditor since 1992. Doud worked in the office until 1996. Hell hath no fury like an employee scorned. All gloves are off in this one, including Doud attacking Burroughs for his Amway business. She says she was asked to join, but didn’t. If shehad only joined and been in his downline? A little residual income could have made this all go away. See the story here.… 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

The CRA continues to pound on Brian Bilbray in the 50th CD Special, unveiling a new website. Below is a screen-capture from the main page of www.bilbraytheliberallobbyist.com.

Welcome to the world of politics. You can see why Bilbray faught hard to NOT be a ‘lobbyist’ on the ballot, even though that is what he does. By no means do I think that Bilbray is any way the scoundrel that Jack Abramoff turned out to be. But Abmamoff has made ‘lobbyist’ a bad word, and in the 50th district where ethics is a key issue, it is no surprise that attempts are being made to connect dots between Bilbray and Ambramoff, who were in the same business.… Read More

President Bush has been taking heat from all sides on his effort to shepherd immigration reform legislation through Congress. Conservatives are upset with his guest worker proposals, while liberals are always going to rail against any efforts toward border security and interdiction. On the latter front, the Los Angeles Daily News reports this morning that a rally to defeat congressional efforts to tighten border security is expected to draw tens of thousands of protestors to the streets on downtown LA tomorrow. (The story is in the Daily News here)

Protests like these generally tend to have the opposite effect of their intent, causing a backlask that strengthenss support for most border security measures among most voters without intense feelings on either side of the issue. Language like this from the rally’s organizers indicates that the level of rhetoric at tomorrow’s event may have the same impact:

"This is going to be the mother… Read More

It is always so much fun to watch Democratic candidates’ efforts earn their party’s nomination. Take, for example, the story in this week’s Bay Area Reporter, a newspaper covering issues in the Bay Area’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, reporting how Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is on record for strongly supporting gay marriage while Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown is refusing to take a position on the issue. Gay and lesbian advocates are critical of Brown for signing a 1977 bill which changed the legal definition of marriage as being between two people to being between a man and a woman. While refusing to say if Brown today supports gay marriage, Brown’s campaign spokesman instead pointed to a 1975 law Brown signed that legalized adultery, oral sex and sodomy between consenting… Read More