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

Lancaster School District in Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley has adopted a new science philosophy that allows debate in science classrooms about Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Lancaster becomes the latest school district that specifically hasentered into this debate. See the article here.

Alex Branning, the parent that initiated the policy. Says his next target in Los Angeles Unified. Hate to break the news, but LAUSD needs a "Big Bang" to start all over again. This policy won’t do that.… Read More

In this business of politics we sometimes forget that the men and women who become policy makers are not necessarily themselves the biggest reason for thier own success. The fact is, George W. Bush would be no where without Karl Rove (George W.’s ‘brains’). For every successful politician there is a man or woman, some times a team, but more regularly on person that is their political brains, foot soldier and all around goto guy or gal. This column is written not just in tribute to them but to highlight just how important the politicians ‘brains’ really are.

I am going to present this list as a start of something bigger and encourage readers to give me their thoughts on who else to include on future lists. Today’s list will include ten elected officials and their ‘brains’ mostly from Orange County, but some from other parts of the state.

ASSEMBLYWOMAN MIMI WALTERS

ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF MIKE CARONA

ORANGE COUNTY SUPERVISOR LOU CORREA

ASSEMBLYMAN TODD SPITZER

ASSEMBLYMAN TOM UMBERG

ORANGE COUNTY SUPERVISOR BILL CAMPBELL

ANAHEIM MAYOR CURT… Read More

FR friend Bruce Bialosky sent me this column weeks ago, and I told him I would run it. Somehow I never did, and after a gentle reminder from Bruce, here is his piece, which is definately from the heart, which he has entitled, "Why Arnold is Losing the Republicans"… Bruce has been involved with helping to raise funds up in LA for Republican candidates and causes for years.

The recent semi-annual California Republican Convention was an attempt by Governor Schwarzenegger and others to solidify his support with the base of the party. Despite his efforts and those of State Senator Tom McClintock, Arnold has failed as of now. Schwarzenegger positions have left the base feeling that supporting him for reelection may not only be the wrong thing to do, but may also be… Read More

GOVERNOR ’06 – Arnold banks, The Dems spend. The big news of the day is that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has really put his campaign fundraising into gear, raising millions of dollars since the beginning of the year – out raising each of his Democratic opponents. Actually, this highlights the financial advantage of running unopposed as the Republican Party’s pre-primary endorsed nominee for Governor — Schwarzenegger is not only putting money in the bank for the fall campaign — but his two opponents are spending money like crazy on television ads as they wage a hard-fought campaign for their party’s nomination. Of course, all three candidates for Governor are quite wealthy in their own right, multi-millionaires all. That said, there are a lot of news stories today that talk about the extremely deep pockets of E-bay co-founder Steve Westly, who has a personal fortune measured in… Read More

GOVERNOR ’06 – Arnold banks, The Dems spend. The big news of the day is that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has really put his campaign fundraising into gear, raising millions of dollars since the beginning of the year – out raising each of his Democratic opponents. Actually, this highlights the financial advantage of running unopposed as the Republican Party’s pre-primary endorsed nominee for Governor — Schwarzenegger is not only putting money in the bank for the fall campaign — but his two opponents are spending money like crazy on television ads as they wage a hard-fought campaign for their party’s nomination. Of course, all three candidates for Governor are quite wealthy in their own right, multi-millionaires all. That said, there are a lot of news stories today that talk about the extremely deep pockets of E-bay co-founder Steve Westly, who has a personal fortune measured in… Read More

The last line in the Capitol Weekly’s piece today profiling the three Democrats running to replace termed out Assemblywoman Wilma Chan in the 16th Assembly district race reminds me why it’s so lonely in the Bay Area at election time:

"No Republicans have filed to run in the district, where GOP voters are outnumbered 6-to-1 by Democrats."

That line made me think of my 10-year-old daughter asking me the other day if John Kerry is from California. "No," I said. "He’s from Massachusetts."

"Well, then why does everyone in Oakland have his bumper sticker on their cars?" she asked.

Mind you, it’s March ’06. Kerry lost the election in November… Read More