RICO OLLER LOOKS AT TREASURER BID? Ever since last week’s bomb shell news that Bill Simon was dropping his bid for the GOP nomination for Treasurer, the FlashReport has been receiving a steady stream of e-mails and ‘anonymous tips’ on potential candidates to replace him in that primary. There is wide-spread disatisfaction with the remaining candidates in the field. Claude Parrish, a Board of Equalization Member from Southern California (and quite an odd fellow) has failed to ignite any enthusiasm for his campaign with six years to work a district covering a quarter of California’s voters. The other candidate in the primary, Keith Richman, is so far outside of the mainstream of Republican thought that he might almost be dismissed out of hand. His opposition to the Governor’s last budget because it didn’t raise taxes, his opposition to the parental notification initiative, and his strong support for the recent open primary measure are just a few of his extreme positions…

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Official Welcome to Three New Contributors!!

I have had such great feedback from readers all around California on the FR BLOG – especially when our contributors write stories from their area. Because of the interest from FR BLOG readers to get more "local" political blogging, we are expanding the regional correspondent ranks of the site, to try ensure plenty of content for all to devour.

The decision about whether and how to expand is a tough one. But in the end, this blog is visited frequently (multiple times a day) mby many, and so there is a responsibility on my part, as the Publisher, not have a measured amount of content. Up to this point, we’ve had great posts, but sometimes we’ll go half a day, or longer without ANY posts. So, here are the reinforcements thus far:

Barry Jantz joins Duane Dichiara as a second correspondent from San Diego. Barry is a long-time Councilman from the East County city of La Mesa. He has been involved heavily with Republican and… Read More

The first time I voted in an Oakland election, I had to choose between two mayoral candidates who both loudly declared their vegetarianism as a way to attract voters (Jerry Brown and Wilson Riles, Jr). Next year, I get to choose between a socialist and the father of a rapist for the city’s new mayor.

Last month, the ultra-liberal Ron Dellums announced that he intends to run for mayor in Oakland. Dellums, readers will remember, was elected to Congress in 1970 on an anti-Vietnam War agenda. When he arrived in DC, the former Berkeley City Council member set up a Vietnam War crimes exhibit outside his office which featured large posters of atrocities allegedly committed by American soldiers. Later,… Read More

FIELD POLL SKEWED TO THE LEFT I spoke last week on this commentary page about the insatiable appetite that the media has for these last-minute polls. Today there are many stores on the release of the "Field Poll." Let me start by reminding everyone that in order to accurately poll the electorate, you need to be able to figure out WHO IS GOING TO VOTE so that you can try to poll a REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE in order to be accurate. I haven’t found anyone yet who can tell me with any degree of certainty who it is that is going to turn out for this Special Election. There are so many different factors at play, from voter fatigue to trying to analyze which interests will mobilize for particular measures. So, before you get all concerned about these latest polling stories, remember this admonision.

Relative to the Field Poll itself, I would share these keen observations from a friend and expert on California politics… [I won’t cite him by name because I don’t know if he wants the… Read More

Sen. John Campbell was in Washington last week making the rounds and raising money. In a reception last Wednesday, Campbell brought in $80,000 and also found time to drop by areception hosted by Reps. Pete Sessions (TX), Mike Rogers (MI), and Jim McCrery (LA) for the top Republican challenger candidates of 2006. Each of those candidates raised over $80,000.

Vartan Djihanian, former communications director for Rep. Buck McKeon, has returned to California to serve as district director for Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside). Eventually, Vartan will move over to the campaign side and run Morrow’s campaign for Congress. Vartan got his start in 1994, while still in high school, as a volunteer on Jim Rogan’s first campaign for the State Assembly in the wake of Pat Nolan’s… Read More

The rise of local Republican Party organizations with strong volunteer precinct programs has coincided with the decline of the grassroots ground capabilities of most of the Republican affiliated clubs. There could be cause and effect to some degree, but the decline of grassroots oriented clubs probably began in the mid 1990’s. Many organizations were able to bluff about their capabilities for a while (a bluff I think most GOP insiders wanted desperately to believe because there were no alternatives). Many of the clubs essentially became speaker’s bureaus or lunch clubs with a Republican affiliated theme – noble and important aspects of any community and any political party, but generally not the means of accumulation of political power. Others deteriorated to the point of meaninglessness. A fewer number continued to run viable ground organizations, or mutated into something altogether different.

Generally, I believe for a political organization to have real pull it has to be able to demonstrate either the capability of raising and spending reasonable amounts of money (examples: California Republican Assembly, New Majority, or San Diego County Lincoln… Read More

I had to chuckle today when I sawboth the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and the Riverside Press-Enterprise editorially decryingpolitical parties’ involvement in local, "non-partisan" elections this November (here we go again). According to the Press Enterprise, "Local elected offices are nonpartisan for a reason. These officials handle the nuts and bolts of local government: mostly practical issues that transcend party lines." Read it here. The Daily Bulletin lamented the parties’ involvement as a "loss of political innocence" (how’s that for an oxymoron?): "We’d like to see community races stay nonpartisan, with voters evaluating candidates’ skills, experience and ideas on specific local issues rather than their political alignments." Read it here.

So let me get this straight. The single most useful piece of information that most voters rely upon… Read More

I’ve been a reader of the FlashReport since its inception. I had no doubt in those early days that Jon “Do You Have My Business Card?” Fleischman was just the person to sustain such an effort over the long term…that with his contacts and drive, the FlashReport would become a daily “read” of choice by many polunkies around California.

And, yes, for those of you new to this site, what was then an e-mailed collection of news articles and opinion from across California, supplemented by Jon’s preceding commentary, became a must read, thanks to every day getting himself up two hours early and reading darn-near everything.

So, when Jon announced he was taking the FlashReport to the next level, with a website, links to the important news around California, and blogs by experienced pols and pundits, I encouraged him.

But be-jeepers, when I saw Jon’s… Read More