Dana Point Councilwoman Diane Harkey lead the effort for her city to endorse the Cal Board Patrol Initiative. On a 5-0 vote last night it passed.

Harkey a co-chair of the initiative, is also a top contender for the 35th Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. John Campbell just after his Dec. 6 Special Election win for Congress.

The number one issue among GOP voters in the 35th is illegal immigration–Harkey has a pretty good head start on capturing the credibility on that important issue.

Assemblyman Tom Harman, also in the race for the 35th has endorsed the initiative.… Read More

With State Senator John Campbell running as the Republican nominee in a Congressional District that is so overwhelmingly GOP in registration that he is a shoo-in (the special ‘general’ election for this House race is in early December) – it means that the contest has already begun for a yet-to-be-called special election to fill his 35th State Senate seat. (Support the FR and click Campbell’s ad to the right, just for kicks.) Like the 48th Congressional District that was vacated by it’s incumbent, Chris Cox, when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as W’s appointee to be Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 35th District is safe, safe, SAFE GOP turf. So all of the action is the primary. The first candidate to jump into the race is Assemblyman Tom Harman, who represents a sizable… Read More

Okay, Schnur, Steinberg, Khachigian, Hewitt. Listen up. I’ve read all of your analysis. I respect your opinions, your knowledge, and your insight.

How do we get 500,000 voters in California to change their mind by next November? Arnold doesn’t get re-elected unless this happens. The same “highly regarded” teachers, firefighters, police officers, and nurses will all be carpet bombing the Governor next year. Does LA County and the cluster of Bay Counties suddenly retreat and vote for the Governor? And if so, exactly why? You say that the boyish Westly and stiff Angelides will be putty in Arnolds hand? Really. We elected a stiff in 1998 named Davis. And do we have the poltical creative talent to pull this off? If so, can you all give me a recent example of a big win that didn’t involve beating the worst Governor in California history with a charismatic celebrity? Let’s try to keep the example within, lets say, the past 15 years.

Do I resign us to defeat? No. But the suggestions and advice I’ve been reading all week don’t add up to 500,000 votes changing their minds, and I don’t have the answer. I… Read More

Commentary from Paradise: Day 2 on the Big Island (note photo!)

One of my favorite columnists to read is former Reagan speechwriter, Peggy Noonan. She has a regularly featured column in the Wall Street Journal each Thursday (which you can always access under the ‘Columns’ menu at the top of the FlashReport).

In her column, entitled "To Boldly Go…A peppery peep at the postelection players," Noonan references California’s elections (as part of a very lengthy column):

O.K., time to stick a fork in this one. Tuesday’s results in San Bernardino County were a mixed grill of (mostly) road-kill. The GOP performed on par with other counties in terms of support for the propositions compared with Republican registration. The County supported Prop. 73 (58%) and Prop. 75 (50.37%). The rest of the initiatives were defeated. Low turnout didn’t work in the GOP’s favor this time around, with a 36% total turnout and an unusually low 9.97% absentee voter turnout. In local races, with the notable exception of the City of San Bernardino (where Republican Chas Kelley missed getting into the runoff), a majority of the Party’s local endorsed candidates won.

Perspective? Well, you know how sometimes you see a carcass on the highway that’s been so thoroughly flattened you can’t even tell what it was when it walked the earth? If it’s deader than dead, what’s the point of asking what killed it? In a way, that’s how I feel about putting this election into perspective. But I’ll give it a try. We all know that if the people of California… Read More

In the spirit of Jon Fleischman, our illustrious FRFL (Flash Report Fearless Leader), here’s my election list of San Diego’s Winners and Losers:

Mayor-Elect Jerry Sanders – THE BIG WINNER

Duh. A no brainer. Not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination, yet over several weeks Sanders went from the guy who didn’t even request the County Party endorsement in the primary, to the anything-is-better-than-Donna-Frye Party-endorsed candidate a few days later, all the way to apparent GOP darling and ultimate winner. That had much more to do with the local Party closing ranks than Jerry making strides toward a strong GOP philosophy. Sanders proves that nice guys can win. Interestingly enough, former Mayor Dick Murphy was viewed as too nice. Sanders effectively cast aside any comparisons with Murphy by combining decisiveness and effectiveness with a nice-guy image.

Tax Increases – LOSER… Read More

Yesterday, Iwas attending a meeting in Sacramento. While there, Eric Hogue, atalk show host in Sacramento was lamenting the lack of turnout in conservative parts of California. You can read his blog here.

Below are some hints at motivating conservatives. Feel free to pass the on to whatever consultants the Governor is still listening too. It is clear to me they and others don’t know how to motivate conservatives.

Before I start, CRA and myself were committed to the four initiatives. I went out an debated 74, 76 wherever I could. That said. Here is the primer:

1. Fight. Conservatives love to fight. They will follow people who fight. Conservatives supported big spending, amnesty wanting Bush in 2004 because he was fighting the left.

The Gov. didn’t start fighting for these Propositions until September. Months after the war had begun. Nothing demoralizes conservatives than seeing someone get beat up and not willing to fight.

Another strain of this thought is that conservatives don’t like talk of compromise or negotiations.… Read More

This just in this afternoon….resigned Councilman Michael Zucchet acquitted by Judge of "stripper-gate" charges….retrial ordered on two counts only. Read it here.

Interestingly enough, if Zucchet is found not guilty in a new trial, he never needed to resign from the council in the first place. As trial sentencing was pending, the resignation was by his choice.

As noted this morning in SD Winners & Losers, Republican Kevin Faulconer led the field on Tuesday in the primary to fill Democrat Zucchet’s vacancy. Irony of ironies, Zucchet beat out Faulconer in the run-off when originally winning the seat.

Now it’s Faulconer’s for the taking, pending a huge battle in the January run-off election. If you wait by the river long enough, the body of your enemy will float by.… Read More