INFRASTRUCTURE, YES! MEGA-DEBT, NO! With all of the ‘noise’ of the Governor’s controversial pick for Chief of Staff, the FlashReport is committed to keeping our eye on the ball of exposing the lousy idea of floating mega-billions of dollars in bonds for infrastructure needs. We’ve already heard from Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and from State Senator John Campbell, both expressing their strong opposition to such a scheme.

Today in the FlashReport, we feature a column from George Passantino, a senior fellow with the well-respected Reason Foundation. In this piece, George also lays out a… Read More

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

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.

Wall Street Journal Editorial Staff Writer John Fund has been a longtime friend of the FlashReport, back to the beginning of our e-newsletter in 2001. He’s been a personal friend of mine going back much further. John, a native Californian, keeps a remarkable finger on the pulse of California politics with a network of friends, operatives and contacts that would make many reporters who actually live in California quite envious. He has written two California stories today in the WSJ’s Political Diary (a subscription based publication, but John gave me permission to print these) — one on the Governor’s appointment today of Susan Kennedy, and the other most post-mortem on the Duke Cunningham debacle:

… Read More

Since the Congress went into recess after the November 18 battle royale over Rep. John Murtha’s Iraqi withdrawal resolution, Washington has been very quit. Until Monday of this week when Rep. Duke Cunningham, another Vietnam War veteran, announced his resignation and detailed his astonishing level of corruption.

The already competitive race for the 50th district got more interesting last week when Assemblyman Mark Wyland, who many believed to be an early favorite, dropped out, opting for an easy election to the state senate seat held by Bill Morrow. However, Cunningham’s announcement, which triggers an early spring special election, has given Wyland reason to reconsider. With his personal wealth, a compacted race would give him a significant advantage. Wyland is reconsidering but as of this writing, has yet to make up his mind. His district director, and likely campaign manager, Chip Englander, is leaving for Oklahoma to manage Congressman Ernest Istook’s campaign for governor.

Other competitors for the 50th are Senator Bill Morrow, former Congressman Brian Bilbray, former Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, and… Read More

In this, his latest battle, Randy “Duke” Cunningham found himself surrounded by MIGs. They were not piloted by a foreign enemy this time, but by federal prosecutors from the nation he had first sworn to protect in the 1960s, and which in Vietnam he had done so with honor, distinction, and courage. In this battle, the United States Government, if not having superior firepower, certainly had overwhelming evidence against him.Randy Cunningham had no choice but to surrender.

I first met Cunningham in the late 1980s, after his retirement from the Navy and Top Gun.He was being touted as a potential candidate, and clearly had the credentials.He was speaking to some now forgotten group of Republicans, but I remember his story.It was the first of many times I heard it in the subsequent years.How, upon landing on an aircraft carrier after he and Willie Driscoll downed an enemy fighter, one of the deck crew ran up to him and exclaimed , “We… Read More