I’m posting this from my Blackberry, so pardon any formatting issues. But I have had a few people today tell me that a good friend of the FlashReport, Bill Christiansen, is coming onboard in the coming days at the Director of the coordinated State GOP Victory ’06 program. This is an important position as Bill will have the primary responsibility of working with all of the players involved in this cycle’s elections — The Governor’s campaign, the downticket candidate campaigns, any party-endorsed ballot measure campaigns, Senate and Assembly GOP campaigns, the RNC, NRSC, NRCC and all of the GOP infrastructure (State Party, County Committees, Vol Orgs,etc) – and getting everyone marching in the same direction. A Herculean task to be sure, but Bill will have a lot of help.

Bill brings to the table a lot of relevant experience to help him — most notably his two most recent political jobs — he is fresh off of a multi-year stint as Executive Director of the Arizona State Republican Party, and before that he was Executive Director of the Orange County GOP for the better part of a decade.

Bill brings… Read More

These days, central Orange County is a hotbed of political activity. The nucleus of the craziness is the bigger-than-life double-contested-primary race to see who will succeed State Senator Joe Dunn (D-Lives out of the district) in the 34th State Senate District. One of the candidates in the contested GOP primary for that seat is Assemblyman Van Tran. Tran’s Senate candidacy sets the stage for a GOP primary in his 68th Assembly District seat, which he has represented for only one term.

As has been mentioned on the FR before, there are two candidates running in this Republican primary (in the 68th, Democrats need not apply). One is long-time GOP activist and donor Jim Righeimer. The other is Janet Nguyen, who is a member of the Garden Grove City Council, and works as an executive with the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.… Read More

The FlashReport has learned tonight from Assemblyman Van Tran that he has decided NOT to run for the State Senate in the 34th State Senate District. Instead, he will sit out the Senate race, and seek re-election to the 68th Assembly Seat he has occupied since 2004.

Tran said that his decision was not based on his ability to defeat his primary opponent in the race, Lynn Daucher. Rather, he felt that coming out of a bruising primary would make it virtually impossible to beat the eventual Democratic nominee, especially with his feeling that there was a lack of unity from certain critical fellow Republican leaders.

There is still a primary match-up though for Daucher, with the opponent being long-time Santa Ana Republican activist Lupe Moreno. But clearly she will not be as formidable a challenger to the well-funded Daucher as Tran would have been. The most immediate ripple-effect here is that Tran will now seek reelection in the 68th district where a GOP donnybrook was in full… Read More

Then United States Postal Service as announced that they will be re-issuing the Ronald Reagan postage stamp soon at the new 39 cent rate, so that all good conservatives can put the Gipper on their mail once again!

Of course, any time we mention the 40th President, it is an opportunity to encourage you to read one or more of his major speeches which can be found here.

Here is an excerpt from one of his best, delivered at the 1964 Republican National Convention, entitled, "A Time To Choose"…

*While only a small fraction of FR readers are here at the State GOP Convention — this is a special request to each of you! For five years now, I’ve been publishing our famous (or infamous) "WINNERS & LOSERS OF THE GOP CONVENTION" column – and we’ll be doing that again later this week. Often times, many of the ‘awardees’ are determined with help from you all — so if you were at some or all of the convention, and would like to suggest a winner or a loser, feel free! All input is taken anonymously, so your friend won’t know you think he is a loser! Join in the fun!* Look for some comprehensive post-GOP convention analysis in the next day or so, but I will pen just a little here. One of the challenges of being a… Read More

*While only a small fraction of FR readers are here at the State GOP Convention — this is a special request to each of you! For five years now, I’ve been publishing our famous (or infamous) "WINNERS & LOSERS OF THE GOP CONVENTION" column – and we’ll be doing that again later this week. Often times, many of the ‘awardees’ are determined with help from you all — so if you were at some or all of the convention, and would like to suggest a winner or a loser, feel free! All input is taken anonymously, so your friend won’t know you think he is a loser! Join in the fun!* Look for some comprehensive post-GOP convention analysis in the next day or so, but I will pen just a little here. One of the challenges of being a… Read More

Datamar, the SD-based firm that made a big name for itself during last year’s special mayoral election, has released a survey of the approval ratings for the governor and legislature. The results include some other tidbits, including the public’s view of the Susan Kennedy selection, voluntary pre-school initiative, infrastructure proposal, and minimum wage:

San Diego – In the poll released today by Datamar Inc., a random sample of 2,068 California high-propensity registered voters—voters who voted in the 2002 recall gubernatorial election and the 2004 Presidential primary and general elections—gives Governor Schwarzenegger an approval rating of 42%, about twice that of the legislature (22%).

As to disapproval, the governor also fares much better than the legislature. Poll respondents give the governor a disapproval/approval rating of 50% to 42%. The legislature receives a whopping 66% to 22% disapproval/approval rating, with three times more respondents disapproving than approving the job performance of the legislature. See the entire survey results… Read More

GOP CONVENTION PRIMER Hello from the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose, California where over a thousand GOP leaders have gathered from all of our state’s 58 counties to participate in the California Republican Party’s Winter Convention. It is always fun and interesting to come to a GOP convention – I’ve been at virtually all of them since 1988, and except for the two years that I was Executive Director of the State GOP, I have been a voting member. Yesterday, Friday, is the ‘arrival day’ – so throughout the afternoon and into the evening, old friends are reacquainting, and new friends are meeting for the first time. There is something about coming to a place where everyone is more-or-less on the same play sheet that is reassuring. Perhaps the idea that this is the one place in California (for at least two days) where you can where a "Carlson for Treasurer" sticker and everyone knows that is Keith Carlson of Orange County, and that he is running for Treasurer of the State GOP. Conventioneers more… Read More