At o’dark thirty, when I was compiling news stories, for some reason I couldn’t get onto the Sacramento Bee website. There is an article and two columns there that I would have put on the main page (I won’t bother since 2/3 of FR readers have read that page already. Though i will include both of the columns tomorrow. Anyways, here are the three links that should have been on the main site this morning:

DAN WALTERS COLUMN: Governor miscalculated, fumbled as he declared his war. Dan is penning a ten-column series critical of the Governor’s performance.

DAN WEINTRAUB COLUMN: If Arnold could just get ‘er done, he’d be fine.

If you really want to get angry, you can read about the latest chapter in big-government social engineering: Solar plan resurrected by PUC.… Read More

The 38th Assembly District takes in huge stretches of Los Angeles County before going into Simi Valley. The stretch includes Sunland-Tujunga, Santa Clarita, Valencia and parts of the San Fernando Valley. Republican registration is at 43% several points higher than the Democrats. In other words very safe GOP District. The GOP primary winner is the winner of this seat.

Liberal Republican Keith Richman is term limited and running statewide.

The race features two Republicans.

Cameron Smyth is the mayor of Santa Clarita and has the endorsements of the Runners, Tom McClintock and almost every politico in the district. He has raised decent money and is conservative enough not to draw an ideological opponent. Smyth is a former staffer for the late Sen. Pete Knight.

So far only one opponent has surfaced. Mary Barrientos has raised very little money—Like really very little. She does sport the endorsement of LA County Sheriff Lee Baca. But he endorsed Smyth as well. She has somecontacts in the San Gabriel Valley- Which is not in this district!

Done Deal. Smyth to Sacramento.… Read More

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top education advisor, Alan Bersin, thinks it is time to raise taxes to give more money to the state’s K-12 school system. According to the California School Boards Association website, Bersin recently gave a speech to the group in which he called for an end to the “gridlock” between the anti-tax forces and “those of us on the district level (who) are faced with absolute requirements for additional resources." Bersin called on the CSBA to help educate the public on the need for new taxes, praising them for "skilled leadership." (Did you forget, Mr. Bersin, that CSBA’s "skilled leadership" helped defeat your boss’ important reform poposals in the special election? Probably not.)

… Read More

Yesterday the the House overwhelmingly passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Act of 2005 after years of doing virtually nothing, in a post 9-11 world, to protect our borders. Whether this excellent legislation makes it through the process and onto the President’s desk for signature is another story. To become law, it must survive a tough conference committee process and a US Senate where all good ideas go to die. Two local Valley Republican lawmakers, George Radanovich, and Devin Nunes, voted no. I’m at a loss as to why. I understand the pressure from the US Chamber of Commerce and Western Growers Association. Maybe Radanovich and Nunes they knew the votes were there and voted no to heed big agriculture’s call. We DO need a flow of labor into the Central Valley to handle a year round agricultural harvest, and the labor supply, due to the Minuteman project and other factors, was the worst we’ve seen here in many, many years. Still, does getting grapes off the vine or lettuce out of the ground really rise to the level of an issue like Homeland Security? I don’t think so. Our members of Congress have to get their… Read More

I think today may be the ‘slowest’ news day in terms of reporting California political news since the inception of the online version of the FlashReport. I suspect we will be seeing more of these kinds of spare-story days as we get into the holidays. Political reporters and columnists put in a lot of time during this year’s special election, so it makes sense that they would be taking more time off – and this is on top of the fact that California’s politicians are also enjoying the holiday season.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of political news going on in the country (especially out of the Congress) — but the focus of this website is on California political news.

Today I will take an opportunity to draw your attention to some of the recent posts on the FlashReport Weblog. Of course, if you missed any of my daily commentaires, you can click here to review them all by time, and catch up on my attempts a being a cub-reporter/columnist.

* Last week the California Republican Party Board of Directors met with Governor Schwarzenegger to,… Read More

Last week, I wrote about how the pro Wal-Mart majority of the Rosemead City Council used a liberal ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to undue the scheduled recall against two ofthe majority’smembers. See it here.

Oops again. One memberof that majority (of courseshe is the one not being recalled)changed her mind after the federal government said they wouldn’t punish the city for violating the law. So now the recall is on. See the article here.

Some words of caution for Rosemead voters. In the early 1990’s, I was involved in a successful recall of all five council members in Covina after they voted for a utility tax. Well, guess what? The tax is still there. I’m sure we can all think of examples of recall elections that didn’t work out as well as hoped.… Read More

It’s Saturday. And Congress is in session. Worse yet, it’s a week before Christmas and Congress is in session. And Congress will be in session on Sunday. While this unfortunate fact is bad for most of us, it’s been good for newly minted Congressman John Campbell who was sworn in just one week ago.

One of the reasons that the Congress is still in session is immigration. The House GOP is bitterly split over the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner. The fight is over two issues: holding businesses that hire illegals responsible and guest-worker programs.

The bill has two sentences which seemingly appear to expand guest-worker programs but are in fact, merely a restatement of current law. However, some view this as an opening for the Senate to expand guest-worker. Others recognize that regardless of how tough the border security and law… Read More

During a news conference yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in discussing the GOP’s unhappiness with the left-wing Democrat activist the governor has chosen as his chief of staff, asked his party faithful to not judge him by his hires, but by his actions.

Here is the problem. Schwarzenegger cannot and will not be aware of every decision Ms. Kennedy will make in his name. She will take action, on his behalf, that will not reflect the principles for which people elected him. This is a woman who has been a true-believer and a party activist for the other side. Susan Kennedy may have made big business happy during her term on the PUC and she may be smart as a whip, but in the end, she is a die-hard, committed liberal.… Read More