A seemingly slow day on the FR blog. The other correspondents must be Christmas shopping.

In the effort to post something of a holiday nature, how about the following missive from Richard Rider’s San Diego Tax Fighters … somewhat of a Christmas present to Faulconer and Acle, to go along with their Union-Tribune endorsement … as long as they don’t mind being the lesser of evils. It’s fun reading, however you look at it:

San Diego Tax FightersE-mail: RRider@san.rr.com 22 December, 2005

SDTF Announces San Diego City Council Endorsements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Richard Rider, author

San Diego – San Diego Tax Fighters has made its endorsements in the two January special elections for San Diego City Council. As is often the… Read More

I’ve said before that I don’t see the world from the same perspective as columnist William Bradley, who writes for the Los Angeles Weekly. But I have also said that he is an extremely talented writer, who continues to produce some well-written and thought-provoking columns. I just read his latest one, and feel it is worth sharing. In it, he pens a version of how he believes Governor Schwarzenegger began his rightward/Republican shift (which, of couse, Bradley characterizes as "wrong"). Did it all happen the way Bradley pens it? Well, perhaps only the Governor, and advisors Mike Murphy, Pat Clarey, Rob Stutzman, and Richard Costigan know the answer. Nevertheless, fun reading:

You surf over 40 webpages each morning, and you are bound to miss something. I’ve always been annoyed that the Sacramento Bee carries one of their political columnists, Dan Walters, on their online politics page, but they ‘hide’ the other prominent political columnist, Dan Weintraub, over on their opinion page.

Well, today Weintraub has an excellent column that I totally missed. It will appear on the main page tomorrow, but it is definately worth a read. In it, he looks at whether the issue of reformining the abuses of the emminent domain system here in California (this is where government can take property from a private citizen over their own objection) will becom the next Proposition 13, in terms of being a rallying issue for property owners all around the state. The column takes a particular look at the efforts of State Senator Tom McClintock at putting forward a ballot measure that may appear on the ballot next year (coincidentally when McClintock himself will appear, as a… Read More

John Myers is the State Capitol Correspondent for KQED public broadcasting in northern California. Myers operates his own blog, Capitol Notes. Myers produces the Capitol Report for his radio station, and often has interesting items on his site (you can always check it via my Blog Roll above).

Today, Myers has a post concerning Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s calendar, which the Governor started making available to public scrutiny last year. Myers takes not that despite the making public of the calendar, there are a surprisingly high number of meetings that are marked ‘private’ with no details about them. Myers goes on to note:

The major candidates for the 50th Congressional and their teams are lining up. In this first report, I thought I’d concentrate on the “teams” which will consist of general consultants, pollsters, finance consultants, and campaign managers. I’ll update this regularly as I find out more information… if I make an error or there are changes in the line-up campaigns can simply email me and I’ll correct next time around. Consider this a “quick and dirty” version. And the required disclosure: Coronado Communications works for Bilbray. I’ll promise to be as neutral and fair as the OC guys are in the 35th!

In no particular order:

Richard Earnest. Former Mayor of Del Mar. Moderate. Team: unknown/changing

Howard Kaloogian. Former Assemblyman. Conservative. Team: consulting Russo Marsh + Rogers

Brian Bilbray. Former Congressman. Conservative. Team: consulting Tab Communications, Coronado Communications., BDPR, finance (local) Dorsee Productions & (DC) Todd Meredith

Bill Morrow. State Senator. Conservative. Team: consulting Joe Justin Company, finance (local) Lacee Beaulio, manager Vartan… Read More

[Funny when bloggers "post on top" of each other — please read Matt Cunnnigham’s post and analsysis below on this race – then you can factor in my 10 cents, along with my interview with Tran. Always full and complete coverage from the FlashReport! – Jon]

I just got off the phone with Assemblyman Van Tran, who shared with me that he has, in fact, launched an exploratory effort to gauge support for a run for State Senate in Central Orange County’s 34th District. This is the seat occupied currently by Democrat Senator Joe Dunn, who is facing term limits.

"I think that I have strong message to bring to the residents of Central Orange County – one of limited government, individual liberty and working to create economic prosperity," said Tran.

"I am very pleased that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, as well as two very esteemed former State Chairmen of the California… Read More

[Note: I totally OWE FR Los Angeles Blogger Mike Spence now — get this, he had this breaking news much earlier than me, and had posted it up as a "draft" in our system. When I heard about this, I called him, and asked if I could put up his post. He said to go for it. One wrong button pushed, and instead of putting up his draft, I deleted it! Oops. So this is my apology to Mike, and my pennance – I had to write a post on this – but Spence gets the breaking-news nod, and he may post his analysis (again?) on the ramifications – Flash]

In 2004, the only thing that stood between ultra-liberal Adam Schiff’s re-election and retirement was Republican candidate Harry Scolinos. Scolinos would be in Congress today were in not for the horrific ‘incumbent protection plan’ that redrew this Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena House seat from one that would elect Jim Rogan into one that… Read More

With all due respect to Duane Dichiara, one of the FlashReport’s San Diego Correspondents,, whom I respect immensely, I am very pleased that one of the candidates for Congress has hired you. Former Congressman Brian Bilbray had the foresight to hire you, and since he is a regular reader of the FlashReport, he knows of your role with us. I would be disappointed, disclaimers included, if you did not help out your client, on occasion, with a positive post (perhaps you can talk about his lawsuit arguing how wrong it is that illegal aliens pay less tuition in California colleges than his children).

That said, I will be making great efforts to personally cover this special election as I have endorsed no candidate in the race, nor has any candidate hired me (though two have purchased ads on this site…so far). So if you have any thoughts or input on this race, by all means send them to Jantz and Dichiara (and to our DC Correspodent, Jason Roe) if you want, but please send them… Read More