In collegeI wanted to go out one evening with some friends, but was short of cash. Being an enterprising young man, I looked under the sofa cushions and found a couple bucks in change. That provided as you can imagine some good eatin’.

Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick has issues an audit of theLA’s transportation department that found over$12 million in funds that could be used for transportation. See the press release here and the news article here.

Shouldn’t local and state government look for these kinds of funds under the seat cushions before forcing taxpayers to foot more of the bill?… Read More

John and Ken’s radio juggernaut will feature a live,on-location Jessica’s Law ‘Drive-By Signature show’ in Riverside today from 3 to 7 p.m. San Bernardino County Supervisor Gary Ovitt,a statewide co-sponsor of theJessica’s Law initiative,will be one of the show’sfeatured guests. The event will be held at Q-Bonkers Billiards, 9364 Magnolia Avenue. That’s where David Allyn Dokich was caught violating his parole. On their top-rated AM-640 talk show, John and Ken have pointed to Dokich, a convicted sex offender who was paroled to Riverside County, as an example of why California’s laws protecting citizens from sexually violent predators need to be strengthened. These pages have featured considerable coverage of late regarding the Legislature’s failure to pass Jessica’s Law through the normal legislative process. Today’s event is hoped by the sponsors to put the related Jessica’s… Read More

My commentary today is my article from Capitol Weekly, which you can read here.

Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?

Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.… Read More

I previously posted that Cameron Smyth had the 38th Assembly District race all locked up. See it here. The fundraising shows him with over $200,000 and his GOP opponent Mary Barrientos has only $20,000. See the article here. This is a very GOP district and the June Republican primary victor will win.

The best quote about Smyth was fromone of the Democratic challengers Jim Alger.

"I think the fact that he’s well-known makes him vulnerable,"

Good Democratic thinking. We’ll see how thatworks out for you.… Read More

Congratulations go out to Representative John Boehner of Ohio who was elected minutes ago to succeed Tom DeLay as the new Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 122 – 109. On the first ballot, the ‘reform’ vote was split between John Shadegg of Arizona (the former head of the conservative Republican Study Committee) and Boehner. Shadegg’s dropping off after the first ballot moved all of the ‘reform’ votes over to Boehner, who defeated the Majority Whip, Roy Blunt, who was trying to move up.

I’m sure that there are a lot of ways to read and interpret the results of this closed-door voting session, but Californians can be hopeful that it means that we are going to see a CHANGE in the way that Republicans do business in the Beltway. Perhaps it means that we will see an end to an era that has seen a 33% growth in federal spending since Republicans re-claimed control of the House in 1994. Perhaps it means that the explosion… Read More

In the race for House Leader, two of the three candidates running already were in leadership posts. Roy Blunt was the current #3 in the leadership team as Majority Whip, and John Shadegg was serving in the #5 post as Republican Conference Chairman. Shadegg, believing strongly that you should leave one office if seeking another, vacated the #5 spot, while Blunt held onto his spot.

The vacancy in the Policy Committee Chairmanship (which was held by Californian Chris Cox before he was confirmed as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and then Shadegg took over for him) meant a race for a second "open" leadership spot.

A number of candidates got into the race, but for the purposes of informing FR readers, one of the candidates was California Republican Darrell Issa (pictured to the right), of northern San Diego County. The ultimate winner in the final ballot was a Florida Congressman, Adam Putnam, who by… Read More

FlashReport friend John Feliz, a senior strategist with the Liuetenant Gubernatorial campaign of State Senator Tom McClintock put together some very interesting numbers that are worth sharing.

At the risk of telling you how this book ends before you read it — Tom McClintock is clearly demonstrating an ability to raise funds, and that his base of support is wide and grass-roots driven. That said, please read this briefing, then applaud Tom for his accomplishments thus far, and then – most importantly – click here to get involved with his campaign!

Here is an excerpt from Capitol Weekly’s digest (by ace CW reporter Shane Goldmacher) today on the down-ticket campaigns for statewide office:

… Read More

Two years ago today, Mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled a "financial justice" program for the city of San Francisco: the Working Families Tax Credit. Modeled after the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), San Francisco’s WFTC was designed to give working poor people several hundred dollars in additional income per year. (The federal EITC is a program which effectively gives cash grants to working poor people. Although it was designed to help offset taxes for the working poor, it has morphed into a federal welfare program, giving more money back than some people actually paid in taxes.) At the time the program was announced, Newsom said he believed the WFTC would stimulate the local economy and "reduce tax inequity by providing… Read More