UPDATE: See my analysis of the selection here.

Here is a first blush at those applying by last Friday’s deadline, as well as any web links I can find for them in a very cursory look (party registration in parentheses)….

Eric Kangas, a teacherof 37 years (unknown).

Vickie Butcher, a several-time candidate for El Cajon City Council and former member of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, appointed by Gray Davis (Democrat).

Pamela Choice…can’t find anything on her, although she may be a good Choice…do I see a campaign slogan here? (unknown).

John Johnson…way too many JJs on Google (unknown).

Marilyn Kistler…a doctor (Ph.D perhaps?) and a campaign chairperson forthe… Read More

John Boehner’s ascent to Majority Leader could mean San Bernardino County gets a third House Chairman: Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (pictured right).This would be in addition to Rules Chairman David Dreier and Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis.

Boehner is the current chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee. The post would have come up in ’07 or ’08, but is now open. The current Vice Chair of Education is Tom Petri of Wisconsin, who is the Ranking Member of Transportation and Infrastructure, and who is in line to take over that committee in the next Congress. The Education and Workforce Committee is important because it oversees the Department of Education and the Department of Labor. It will continue to be a key committee because, among other reasons, it will have oversight over "No Child Left Behind" when provisions kick in during 2008 possibly resultingin takeover of failing schools by states, charter schools, or ultimately the federal… 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

The 67th Assembly District campaign has been pretty sleepy with OC Supervisor Jim Silva as the presumed winner. Diane Harman (wife of sitting Assemblyman Tom Harman) is also in the race as is Cypress city councilman Mike McGill.

The OC Blog reports that McGill was the strongest fund raiser this period. This is a big surprise since Silva is a sitting county supervisor with the ability to raise BIG money, but apparently hasn’t.

Silva does have more than double the cash on hand of either one of his opponents.

Silva has excellent name ID having served on the city council in Huntington Beach (the largest city in the District) and now on the Board of Supervisors for more than 10 years. Diane Harman has never stood for office and I have never seen her at anything GOP in Orange County, she is trading largely on her husbands name. McGill has been on the Cypress council since 1998. He gained some notoriety for voting with the majority to, well I will let Steve Greenhut of the OC Register explain:

(from back in June 2002) On Tuesday night, in a… 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

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