Update: The link to both the Democrat and Republican surveys in the 50th is here.

Leave it to team Furlong/Babcock at Datamar to be running numbers at this point:

Republican Voters Not Wild Yet About Any One Republican Candidate

For Every Republican Candidate in the Candidates-crowded April 11th 50th Congressional Special "Mixed" Primary Election the Combined "Neither favorable or unfavorable" (neutral) and "Unfamiliar with the name" responses Far Exceed the Combined "Favorable" and "Unfavorable" responses San Diego – In the poll released today by Datamar Inc. regarding Republican candidates in the mixed-parties 50th Congressional Special Election to be held April 11th, the combined "Unfamiliar with the name" and "Neither favorable or unfavorable" (neutral) responses exceed the combined "Favorable"… Read More

The knock on Bill Morrow going into the special election to replace the Duke of Wiretapping has been the perception that he won’t be able to raise the money to be competitive. Morrow shattered that perception with his announcement earlier today that he raised over $200,000 in the 4th quarter – an impressive number for anyone given the challenges of raising that money in the current environment and the holiday season.

Also, conservative Congressman Gary Miller joins a majority of the elected California Senate and Assembly members in endorsing Morrow.

Those that counted Morrow out early, should take notice. With more candidates to come, this race will be a free-for-all.… Read More

The word tonight is that after only one term National City Mayor Nick Inzunza will not seek re-election in November, likely ending the career of the guy considered only a few weeks ago as the front runner to succeed Juan Vargas in the state assembly.

To partially recap, the Union-Tribune in mid-December published the results of a months-long investigation into Inzunza’s several slum-like properties. I conjectured in a prior post that the U-T’s surprising but rightful use of resources to pursue such a story was the result of Nick being the brother of convicted former San Diego Councilman Ralph Inzunza of stripper-gate fame.

Within days of the U-T revelations about Nickthe slum lord, the paper also caught him in a bald-faced lie about the ownership of the properties. In the last several… Read More

That was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s response on Friday when given his first opportunity to reassure voters that his infrastructure bond proposal was fiscally responsible. He’s going to need to do better.

This upcoming week’s budget announcement provides Schwarzenegger with an opportunity to explain in detail how a building campaign of this magnitude can be done without hemorraging red ink for the next several decades. While many leading conservatives have immediately denounced the bond package, it appears that the window may still be open for Schwarzenegger to explain how his proposal can be financed in a responsible way.

State Senator Tom McClintock, Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Lew Uhler of the National Tax Limitation Committee, perhaps the three most respected voices of fiscal conservatism in the state, have all reacted cautiously to Schwarzenegger’s proposal. Each has acknowledged the need for California to address its transportation requirements, and each has offered guidelines under which a project like this would be acceptable. Wall Street has weighed in favorably, pointing to the… Read More

I wanted to wait for a few days to react to the Governor’s speech. This will be brief. I haven’t changed my mind from previous posts, which you can read if you like. The special election was the Governor’s re-election and he lost. Republican strategists have no answer for nurses, teachers, firefighters, prison guards and cops. Republicans cannot buy votes by outspending Democrats, so the State of the State speech was of little consequence to Arnold’s re-election bid. Bill Whalen succinctly outlined what the Governor didn’t say in his speech.

Let me add a couple of items to this list. While the Governor correctly outlined the massive infrastructure deficit faced the by the State, what he didn’t say is that the Legislature has made choices over the years to spend windfall tax revenues on programs, not infrastructure, and that this is the only reason bonds are necessary to finance these projects. He also didn’t point out the obvious – there is waste, fraud and abuse in State Government, and… Read More

Dan, I have had a couple of days to ponder your open question to the FlashReport contributors, and so I thought that I would take a shot at answering a few of your questions. First, a brief historical note. As you know, on the GOP philosophical scale, I am pretty much bumping up on the right end. A red meat conservative with a healthy amount of libertarian ‘marbling’ throughout. My credentials include three years as State Chairman of California Young Americans for Freedom (the conservative youth organization founded by William F. Buckley, Jr, in 1960), two years as State President of the California Republican Assembly, and while my service as Executive Director of the State GOP years later isn’t a reference to my degree … Read More

I wish I could tell you when I read, with interest, the column by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Debra Saunders in which she reveals the connection between admitted-criminal Jack Abramoff and Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, that I was surprised. Hardly. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t surprised at all, which is too bad. If you aren’t familiar with the Traditional Values Coalition, it is an organization that has done a lot of good work over the years advocating for socially conservative causes. But they have been plagued over the years by sometimes public and often private … Read More

Two interesting columns in today’s LA papers on the Governor’s new direction. One is from the Los Angeles Times and columnist Steve Lopez. He expressed concern over CRA members health during the State of the State. I emailed him that we are all accounted for. His column can be found hereor from the link on FlashReport.

The other is from the editorial pages of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune (also usually the same as the Pasadena Star-News and the Whittier Daily News.)These newspapers are sometimes overlooked, but reach the millions of people in the San Gabriel Valley. Here is their editorial "Cooperate Doesn’t mean Cozy"… Read More