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

Yesterday morning, in the State Capitol, Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured) approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, furiously waving a printout of the Assemblyman column which was featured yesterday in the FlashReport…he uttered profanities at Spitzer, telling him he had gone to far. The issue brought to the fore in Spitzer’s column was that the Democratic majority on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, hand picked by Speaker Nunez, is "pro-criminal" – regularly voting down common-sense tough-on-crime measures on a party-line vote. Of course, the Speaker has stacked this committee with some of the most left-wing members of his caucus! This confrontation was a precurser to the Assembly floor session later where the lower house of the legislature was debating the passage of a crime bill package (Assembly Bill 50) that represented a significant watering down of the tough-on-crime elements introduced as… Read More

I had been meaning to draw the attention of FlashReport readers to a post by FR friend Matt Rexroad over at the Cal-Races website. I thought it an interesting analysis couched in terms of Congressman Richard Pombo’s re-election challenge, but is really Matt’s assessment that those on the right who are attacking the Governor for his recent shift from a "Live Within Our Means" theme to a "Bond it, build it" theme.

Matt’s post begins like this:

Senator Dianne Feinstein has reported $5.7 million cash-on-hand as of the end of last year. In the last reporting period, she raised the better part of a million bucks. Of course, this says nothing for her vast personal wealth.

On the GOP side, conservative former State Senator Dick Mountjoy had not entered the race before the 12/31/05 cut-off. Mountjoy, popular among the GOP right, has a strong grassroots network, but is not known for his fundraising prowess.

If there is a political handicapper anywhere in the country who doesn’t have at least 100-1 odds on a reelect for DiFi, I would be surprised.

It’s too bad, given that Feinstein (despite her lack of ‘stridency’ compared to her colleague, Barbara Boxer) is easily to the left of most California voters.… 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