THE CELEBRITY AND THE IDEOLOGUE Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock are shoo-ins for their respective GOP nominations for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, respectively. Being from the same political party may be the strong tie that bind these two unique individuals, who are very different from one-another. In Schwarzenegger, you have the ‘larger-than-life’ movie star who loves to take on BIG projects and put on a show. He is moderate on social and (apparently) economic issues. He enjoys smoking cigars, and driving his Harley Davidson motorcycle. In McClintock you have much more a policy-wonk. A strong conservative, McClintock will often be the lead voice from the legislature on any move away from the right (which has included, at times, criticism of the Governor – such as his signing the ballot arguments against Proposition 57 & 58).… Read More

THE CELEBRITY AND THE IDEOLOGUE Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock are shoo-ins for their respective GOP nominations for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, respectively. Being from the same political party may be the strong tie that bind these two unique individuals, who are very different from one-another. In Schwarzenegger, you have the ‘larger-than-life’ movie star who loves to take on BIG projects and put on a show. He is moderate on social and (apparently) economic issues. He enjoys smoking cigars, and driving his Harley Davidson motorcycle. In McClintock you have much more a policy-wonk. A strong conservative, McClintock will often be the lead voice from the legislature on any move away from the right (which has included, at times, criticism of the Governor – such as his signing the ballot arguments against Proposition 57 & 58).… Read More

FR friend John Howard, the Editor over at Capitol Weekly just shot me an email, apparenly having scooped the MSM and the cyber-core on the newest hire over at the California Republican Party. Apparently the CRP has hired Patrick Dorinson (pictured at the podium in the photo to the right) to fill the very large shoes left behind with the departure of Karen Hanretty, who decided to stand up her own public relations firm. I don’t know Mr. Dorinson – I don’t believe that he or I have ever met. That said, I will tell you that he certainly represents an ‘out of the box’ hire for the State GOP. I have to admit, before going over to Capitol Weekly, I did what so many others do when they are trying to find out something – I "googled" Patrick Dorinson. The third item that came up was some… Read More

In the post immediately below this one, I talk about the newest hire of the California Republican Party, Patrick Dorinson. Dorinson replaces Karen Hanretty, who did a great job in that difficult post. Here is what she has to say:

"I have a great deal of respect for Patrick Dorinson and consider him a good friend and Republican colleague. I met him on the recall campaign when he came to work in the press office, booking Schwarzenegger on conservative talk radio shows. Almost immediately we forged a bond as only two people who can’t stop ranting about Democrats can forge. Since then, we’ve exchanged countless email and phone calls about how the world is versus how it ought to be. Patrick is always good for advice on a pithy soundbite and has a talent for putting current … Read More

I have written several times about the Governor’s seemingly inability or I think unwillingness to appoint Republicans to the bench in Los Angeles County. While, LA County is one of the worst in terms of GOP to Dem ratio, the rest of the state isn’t that great either. On Friday the “Republican” Governor appointed three judges to the LA Superior Court. Jon the masterful owner of FR posted about them here. He asked for counts on judges appointed by Arnold. I did have an unofficial count at one time. See it here. An alert FR reader alerted me to the fact I had under counted some of the appointments. Her count is accurate and she had some releases I did not. … Read More

On the San Bernardino County side of the 65th Assembly District, the candidate who seems to be drawing the most local support is Banning Councilwoman Brenda Salas. Although she’s from Riverside County, she’s secured the support of three members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors: Paul Biane (R), Josie Gonzales (D), and Gary Ovitt (R); aswell as San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos (R), and a host of business, developer, and local-types.

Salas’ consultant, Joe Giardiello, has worked San Bernardino County for a number of years, and has already proven he can listen to advice, in this case that given by fellow FlashReport contributor Phil Paule. The Salas campaign’s walk piece focuses a great deal of attention on her opposition toillegal immigration, which Phil was concerned about, in addition to her work as a regional chair of Jessica’s Law, HJTA membership, and why she joined the Party of Reagan after starting life in the Party of Jefferson — William Jefferson Clinton that is. Salas has a good team and enough money to get her message out.

The presumed frontrunner, San Jacinto Councilman… Read More

Speaking of shooting, not that anyone was, veteran North County consultant Jack Orr fired off this interesting missive to media outlets, entitled "Oceanside: The gang that can’t seem to shoot straight"…

Just when you thought Oceanside politics couldn’t get any goofier, the Mayor and two members of the Oceanside City Council (Wood, Sanchez and Mackin) are proposing a Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Ordinance.

That’s O.K., in principle, but unfortunately the ordinance is inspired by Mayor Jim Wood’s irrational and intense dislike and/or distrust of lobbyists in general, and of me especially. I might add that the Mayor seems to hold the news media in low regard as well. Consider the section of the ordinance which seems to exclude members of the news media:

In addition to excluding public employee labor union lobbyists from registration and reporting requirements, Sec. 16C.6 (b) provides the following so called exclusion for the news media:

"Any newspaper or other periodical of general circulation, book publisher, radio or television station (including… Read More

The Fresno Bee has started a new blog here which I encourage those reading this column to look at. In its post yesterday, the blog referred to a potential challenge to local Congressman George Radanovich from a presumably wealthy challenger on the Democrat side. I have long opined that Radanovich as well as other California incumbents are safe from Democrat challengers but that taken as a whole, the House may be up for grabs due to inaction on illegal immigration, and profligate spending that would make Democrats blush. But I have never opined that GOP incumbents are safe from strong primary challengers, because many of them are not safe. If a wealthy Republican threw $2 million into a race against any GOP incumbent it would be far more interesting than a race against a Democrat… Read More