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:

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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

Does this guy (who is an Irish citizen) even pay US taxes?

Bono pushes to increase aid to poor By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Thursday, February 2, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) – Quoting from Islamic, Jewish and Christian texts, rock star Bono called Thursday for the government to give an additional 1 percent of the federal budget to the world’s poor.

Speaking to President Bush and members of Congress at the National Prayer Breakfast, the U2 front man said it’s unjust to keep… Read More

Yesterday I got an interesting “don’t quote me” email with some news in the June race for the heavily Republican San Diego County 5th District Supervisorial race between incumbent Bill Horn and former Assemblyman Bruce Thompson. The Horn campaign, as expected, is cash rich with only more to come. On the other hand, if the information I got is accurate, Thompson’s campaign finances are really lacking. My information says the Thompson campaign will show 31k raised and 14k cash on hand. Unless Thompson has a really hefty checkbook, or newly resurgent county labor unions decide to play, this spells real trouble for his campaign. This showing is worse when you consider Thompson has the endorsement of Congressman Issa, State Senator Hollingsworth and some other notable local officials. This sort of support should translate into campaign funds, but apparently hasn’t.… Read More

Looks like a new entry in the 50th Congressional… V. Eric Roach of E-Trade fame. Large cable and broadcast buy scheduled to start Monday February 6. I hear he’s a Vietnam vet… but lots of rumors are flying around North San Diego County right now… red hot phones…

[From Forbes.com: Mr. Roach has served as a director of Altiris, Inc. since February 2002. Mr. Roach served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of eLance, a professional services marketplace, from May 2000 to October 2001, and he is currently a member of the board of directors of eLance. Prior to joining eLance, Mr. Roach served from September 1997 to January 2000 as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Direct Business division of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, an investment bank. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Mr. Roach founded Lombard Brokerage, a brokerage company, and served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from May 1992 to September 1997. – Flash]… Read More

Steve Maviglio, spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, sent this item over to me in response to the Spitzer piece and my commentary today:

There’s a reason the Attorney General, California Police Chiefs Association, and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault supported AB 50 – and strongly opposed the unanimous decision by Assembly Republicans to remove $23 million for GPS surveillance of high-risk sex offenders and SAFE teams to monitor sex offenders.

• The Runner legislation says an offender cannot live within 2000 ft. of a school. It does nothing to stop offenders from trespassing… Read More

Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Russ Bogh (R-Yucaipa) has endorsed Anthony Adams (pictured left) in the 59th Assembly District Republican primary. And by way of further update on the contest for this equally divided L.A. County/San Bernardino County seat, I want to provide some additional thoughts on the heels of Mike Spence’s excellent post yesterday. Read it here. (Mike doesn’t have a dog in this fight. I do — It’s Adams.)

The two candidates with six figures cash-on-hand are Chris Lancaster ($150,000), from LaVerne in L.A. County (pictured right),and Adams ($108,000), from the high desert in San… Read More