Even as prolific a writer as I am cannot churn out new commentary every day. I’ve got a tight schedule this morning. But I will draw your attention to two things, which if you are an avid FR reader, you’ll have already read:

The first is my commentary from yesterday, concerning Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. The second is an entry I made to the Weblog yesterday in response to a question from my colleague and fellow FR contributor, Dan Schnur. It speaks from my heart.

In closing, while it is somewhat lengthy, I really encourage you to read the lead column today on the main page, from Ward Connerly. This man’s courageous crusade against discrimination is nothing short of heroic. And what he has been doing around the country after the successful Passage here of Proposition 209 has been amazing. He really details his current efforts in Michigan.

Have a great… Read More

Bill Leonard and Ray Haynes are both influential and important Republican officials in California. Leonard, currently on the State Board of Equalization, spend decades in the State Legislature, serving in both the Senate and Assembly. Haynes has also served in both houses of the legislature, and is now the senior (or tied for it anyways – I’m not sure). in the legislature.

Leonard and Haynes both have e-newsletters they send out. Below I am excerpting Leonards thoughts on both the Governor’s BIG BOND proposal, as well as on the issue of mandating a increase in the minimum wage.

Immediately beneath Leonard’s thoughts, I have excerpted some of Ray Haynes’ observations.

FROM LEONARD: ***The Price of Bonds*** … Read More

Congressman Jerry Lewis will not be pursuing a promotion in the Houseleadership.The Redlands Republican, who had been considered a possiblecontender for the majority leader post, announced today that he intends to remain as Appropriations Committee Chairman. To read the announcement, see www.house.gov/appropriations.… Read More

Tonight I drove down to the San Diego Republican Party’s monthly Central Committee meeting. Well, to be most accurate, State GOP Southern Vice Chairman Keith Carlson drove, and I warmed the passenger seat. County Chairman Ron Nehring ran an excellent meeting with about 200 Republicans in attendance – including many VIPS (the introductions took quite a while). Curiously, disgraced criminal Randy “Duke” Cunningham is apparently still a member of this committee. He didn’t answer his name when the roll was called – go figure – he’s not here. That said, it does seem like there may be 100 candidates here running for Duke’s seat. Apparently the rumor is true, that FR Contributor Duane Dichiara is no longer Chief of Staff to Assemblyman Mark Wyland. I just met his replacement. Fresh from the Congressional office of Florida Representative Dave Weldon comes Paul Webster. I don’t know much about Paul yet, except that he has good taste in employers – Wyland is top notch. The big speaker tonight – State GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim. The Chairman spoke about some of the Governor’s staff picks, and some of his… Read More

Conservative UCLAstudents used to say that UCLA is just ACLU scrambled.

I have to confess that I love UCLA. I enjoyed my years there. I was in student government there. I met FR Publisher Jon Fleischman, who while not a UCLA student came to campaign for me. I wrote a column for the Daily Bruinthat had someone spell check and editit for me. It was great.

I actuallyliked the Rose Bowl outcome.

However, I remember walking into the first day of a history class and having the Professor tell us he would approach this history class from a Marxist perspective. And believe it or not I was happy!Why? At least, I had an honest professor.Needless to say, many times you would find out too late that the Professor you had tolerated hate towards America andwas intolerant tostudents that didn’t hate America.

Andrew Jones from the Bruin Alumni Associationanother UCLA grad has launched a web site called UCLAProfs.com.. I do need to disclose that he asked me to be on the advisory boardalong with much more worthy… 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