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:

From today’s National Journal:

Rep. Campbell Begins To Fill Staff Positions The House’s newest member, Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., is settling in and recently filled staff positions in his Washington office. Jim Terry, Campbell’s campaign manager and spokesman, is now his chief of staff. Terry formerly worked for California Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, and as a National Republican Campaign Committee field representative in 2002. Before that, Terry was a caseworker in the district office of Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. Andrew Kiefer, formerly Campbell’s legislative director in the state Senate, is now Campbell’s senior policy adviser. Campbell’s legislative director is Julie Philp, former senior legislative assistant… Read More

Despitethe FR Publisher’s attempt to delete my post. See below. Here is the post Jon didn’t want you to see :).

In a move upsetting the long held assumptions about this race, Harry Scolinos dropped his bid for the Republican nomination in 59th Assembly District.

For my past report on this race click here.

Scolinos’s campaign needed to get get going in order to win this race. A successful lawyer and bisinessman, it looks like he liked making money instead of running for Assembly. (BTW nothing wrong with that)

This changes the dynamic in the raceinthree ways.

This self funding conservative dropping his bid should help front runner Anthony Adams. Clearly Anthony Adams looks like the most conservative candidate.

But in this district geography is an issue. You have the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County and the High Desert in San Bernardino County and a forest in between. Scolinos and the other two major candidates hail from the San Gabriel… Read More

In response to yesterday’s post on retired NFL cornerback Scott Turner making a run for Duke’s former congressional seat, which apparently resulted in a few media inquiries, I received a call from Congressman Duncan Hunter’s office this morning.

Scott Turner, although he has interned for the Congressman and assisted the office with support-the-troop efforts, is not an aide to, or in any way a paid employee of Duncan Hunter.

He is, however, running for Congress. (You still read it here first.)

I stand corrected, as does this blog, and I apologize for my reference to Scott as an "aide to Congressman Duncan Hunter."

I am, however, glad to know the media and congressional staff are reading the FlashReport.… Read More

Since it’s been a couple of months since we last updated you on Jessica’s Law, here’s the latest. The legislative package (SB 588 and AB 231) has run into Democrat opposition in Sacramento (as mentioned by Jon Fleischman in a recent commentary), most notably by Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata (D-East Bay) and Senator Dean Florez (D-Bakersfield). The Press-Enterprise editorial page last week called the Democrats’ position "disingenuous," adding that the Democrats’real objection is to the "harshness of the bill." Read it here. The editorial points out that "the Democrat-controlled Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees killed nearly 30 measures last session that would have placed greater restrictions on high-risk offenders."

Meanwhile, the proposed legislation, which would make California’s laws against sexual predators the most… Read More

This time of year we often reflect upon the things and people we are most thankful for. Given that traffic is the number one issue among voters in just about every Southern California community, most voters are thankful for just about any proposal to build new freeway lanes. And don’t be surprised if the voters, even the most conservative of the bunch vote for a massive bond measure or sales tax hike if they are promised more lanes.

Orange County Supervisor and OCTA Chairman Bill Campbell is pushing a good idea that would not cost nearly as much as widening a freeway. He along with his colleagues are urging Caltrans to allow carpool lanes in Southern CA to be used by all vehicles regardless of the number of passengers on off-peak hours. Additionally, the proposal is… Read More