Things have been hectic since Arnold turned on all of us. I meant to post this a little sooner.

The 59th Assembly District is one of those districts drawnin a very gerrymanded way.It goes from Monrovia in LA County along the 210 to the San Bernardino County Border. It then shoots north through the Angeles National Forest over to Hesperia.

Dennis Mountjoy is termed out. There are four candidates at this point running in the GOP Primary. No Dems need apply. You can read Brad Mitzelfelt’s take here.

I have endorsed no candidate. I know or have met with them all. CRA has not endorsed a candidate. Obviously, that could put one over the others.

Bart Doyle is a former Sierra Madre City Councilman. Nice guy.He has ties to Antonovich and a small base in the murky world of transportaion and government committees. To be honest I don’t see how he gets to 1st in a GOP Primary.

Chris Lancaster is a former Covina City Councilman and son of former Assemblyman Bill Lancaster. Bill represented much of the LA County… Read More

John Fund and Brendan Miniter weigh in from Manhattan with their talented pens…

December 1, 2005

In today’s Political Diary: Darn It, He Just Can’t Resist Anyone Named Kennedy

An episode of the TV political drama "The West Wing" could never top the bizarre appointment Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made as his new chief of staff, the top administrative post in his government. Susan Kennedy is the former deputy chief of staff to Gray Davis, the discredited, spendthrift governor whom Mr. Schwarzenegger replaced after a… Read More

OK – the headline should have read: RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, speaking at the RGA Meeting in San Diego County, criticizes anti-war Dems.

It would be nice if Chairman Mehlman would explain why the RNC raised so much money out of California but made no transfers of cash (that I know of) to the Caliornia GOP to assist with GOTV efforts in our statewide election. The RNC shares a portion of the responsibilty for that defeat. But I guess that will be a different speech on a different trip. He will give that one flanked by the only nine Republicans in California who opposed redistricting reform (coincidentally, all Members of Congress!).

Ok…ok… Back to Mehlman and the Republican Governor’s Association meeting. The GOP Governors are meeting at the posh La Costa Resort and Spa near Carlsbad for a few… Read More

I think most of California’s political community is scratching their heads over the Susan Kennedy COS appointment. Even if you are a liberal, sorry progressive Democrat you have to wonder how it all happened.

We Republicans especially are searching for answers. I have identified a few reasons, thoughts and some options, some rational, some not.

>"It is 99% Maria and 1% desperation," says Probolsky [Note to media, feel free to use this as long as you attribute to me and Flasreport.org]. -Call me vain for quoting myself, but I think this is the best explanation. It is no secret the insider pull the Governor’s wife has. If Maria trusts someone, and I gather there are few people she trusts, they have a pretty good shot at becoming [fill in high level government job here]. > "Some would suggest it… Read More

THE FISCAL FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA This week, the FlashReport has been featuring some great original columns from folks we think are experts on California’s finances, and have very real concerns about where we should go from here. On Monday we featured a great piece from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, on why the idea of massive infrastructure bonds right now are a poor public policy choice for California. Today, we have a piece from State Senator (and soon to be Congressman) John Campbell, that look as where we should be going, in terms of fiscal policy, after the defeat at the polls of Proposition 76. Campbell, too, opposes a massive bond-obligation scheme without meaningful (and unlikely) fiscal reforms. Tomorrow we will be featured yet another piece from a prominent authority on why the borrowing scheme is a bad one, with some constructive input on handling California’s infrastructure… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger was never a friend to conservatives, he was just a palatable choice who had some sex appeal, and could win we were told.

Credit was given to him for kinda-sorta fixing workers comp and talking a good game on improving the business climate. And I have opined that the Governor’s Special Election while a lose took guts and should be recognized.

WHAT HAS CHANGED

Since the Special Election we have seen a slide, shift, some sort of movement away from Republicans and Republican principles first with the suggestion that it was GOP donors who didn’t put a big enough money sack in the pot to win the Special Election when we all know it was the Governor’s failure to defend himself for months against the relentless union attacks. Next we saw the proposal for his $50 billion bond further saddling the state with debt. And now the Kennedy chief of staff appointment. Her appointment is stick in the eye to ever Republican that held their nose and voted for him. Worse yet putting a liberal Democrat activist in charge demonstrates to the GOP party faithful that our… Read More

Here is the email sent this morning from Pat Clarey, the Governor’s former Chief of Staff, passing the reigns of her office:

Props go to William Bradley for e-mailing out the news a couple of hours before me. Ironically, I didn’t know it because I wasn’t on his email list. I am now. Perhaps, if you want to be in the loop, you should be… To get on it, email Bill. Bill gets all of the credit/blame if you do or don’t like what he says in his columns. But he gets an "A" for aggressive reporting.