Tomorrow morning the official announcement will come from the Newt Gingrich for President campaign has tapped former California Republican Party Chairman (and longtime FR friend) Mike Schroeder, of Orange County, to be the Political Director of their campaign here in the Golden State. In addition, Schroeder will also be serving as a Co-Chairman of the California campaign for Gingrich.

This is a big pickup for Gingrich as Schroeder is considered to be one of California’s “heavy weight” political pros, and is a smart and capable political strategist. Schroeder is also known for his aggressive style of campaigning, so I would look for a lot of activity from what has been up to this point a virtually non-existent Gingrich effort here in the Golden State. Schroeder was the political director for Steve Poizner’s successful statewide campaign for Insurance Commissioner, and played an informal role with Poizner’s unsuccessful gubernatorial run. Schroeder, who headed up the California GOP from 1997-1999 also was the Chairman of the successful recalls of Assemblyman Paul Horcher and Assemblywoman Doris Allen. He is a former State President… Read More

As the Florida Presidential campaign explodes into a media frenzy — there is also a substantial battle for the Hispanic vote–IN the Republican party.

I was not aware that if populous Miami county that 75% of Republicans are Hispanic. Nor did I know that 10% of all Floridian Republicans are Hispanic.

Marco who argues that Republicans are in favor of legitimate immigration always seems to say the right thing at the right time.

Marco Rubio is becoming an iconic symbol for the future of our party. … Read More

Governor Jerry Brown and his closest advisers must be rolling their eyes, and wringing their hands in frustration. After all, this year Brown is going to try to do what many think is an impossible task — which is getting the state’s voters, in the midst of a recession, to raise taxes on themselves. One thing that Brown knows is that if he is to have a reasonable shot at this endeavor, the public must be convinced that these higher taxes are absolutely necessary. Certainly a critical part of Brown’s efforts include convincing the voters that he and the leaders of the State Legislature will be good stewards of their tax dollars. So when he watched yesterday as Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez held a press conference to publicly announce a lawsuit against Controller John Chiang (a fellow Democrat) because they were unhappy that Chiang wouldn’t let them pass an unbalanced budget, Brown undoubtedly saw this action as detrimental to his plans.… Read More

The following is a speech from the floor that I delivered January 23, 2011, and wanted to share it with FlashReport readers…

Madam Speaker:

Long ago, Jefferson warned, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” The exceptions to that rule have been few and far between recently, and ought to be celebrated when they occur.

One did this past week with the announcement that supporters of the so-called “Stop On-Line Privacy Act” and the “Protect Intellectual Property Act” have indefinitely postponed their measures after an unprecedented protest across the Internet.

SOPA and PIPA pose a crippling danger to the Internet because they use the legitimate concern over copy-right infringement as an excuse for government to intrude upon and regulate the very essence of the Internet – the unrestricted and absolutely free association that links site to site, providing infinite pathways for commerce, discourse and learning.

It is not the Internet per se that has set the stage for the next quantum leap in human knowledge and advancement – but… Read More

Next week the state’s redevelopment agencies are set to go out of existence — forever. Sure, some other lesser-incarnation of them may return, but if they do, they will be with much less influence, a lot less public funding, and (if I have anything to say about it) property rights protections placed on them so that no longer can eminent domain be used to take someone’s private property against their will so that local politicians can play a scary real version of “Sim City.”

There are a lot of reasons why RDA’s being abolished are a good thing — but this short commentary addresses just one today — which is that for some reason, RDA’s make Republicans act poorly. In theory, Republicans (whether in local office, or in partisan office) should be united around the principles of freedom, liberty, and the free market. Yet the entire way that RDA’s do business is counter to all of that. RDA’s take money using the force of the power of government, accumulate it, and then local government ministers start to spend those tax dollars to warp and influence the economic marketplace, changing the factors of supply… Read More

Yeah, it’s true — I DO fiendishly enjoy beating a dead iron horse — in this case, our California HSR choo-choo. But bear with me. New stuff! Three solid articles, as a matter of fact. At this point, it’s hard to imagine we Californians will continue with this HSR madness, but never underestimate the bull-headed stupidity of Democrat politicians — both state and national. Fortunately there now is a new stake (a silver spike?) that’s been driven through the putrid heart that sustains this beast. As an educational aside, let me suggest that this singleexample of government running amok at the behest of special interests — in this case, HSR train lovers, green religionists, labor unions and big rail business profiteers — a project justified by obviously fraudulent “facts” — could and should constitute an entire college political science course on how government REALLY works. Of course, it won’t make the course list (or even be mentioned as an aside in the classrooms), but collegiate pro-socialist bias (with the … Read More

Given my strong desire to see that President Barack Obama is returned to the private sector after only one term — it is pretty alarming to me how dispassionate, or non-interested I am in this new battle for the Republican nomination between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. While I had endorsed Texas Governor Rick Perry early on, and still feel strongly that of all of the contenders he would have made the best President, unfortunately he did not make the best candidate.

I could pen two entire columns (or more) on Romney and Gingrich, and the particular aspects of each that have them fall significantly short of where I need a candidate to be to get excited and motivated. I presume that as we get into the summer, and the throw-down with Obama becomes more imminent, that my need to get Obama the heck out of the White House will trump my current malaise about our Republican offerings, and inspire motivation and activism from this party leader. I sure hope so.

I will say that I did wake up with some clarity this morning, relative to the South Carolina victory of Gingrich last night. While I am not pro-Romney or pro-Gingrich (to be sure), I was very… Read More

In a partial rebuke to the City of San Diego that will likely have broader implications, a federal court today declared unconstitutional a city-hoped for $1,000 limit on the amount political parties can donate to local candidates, while further striking down the existing prohibition on candidates spending personal money 12 months in advance of an election.

In a summary judgement on nine separate cross-motions in the case of Thalheimer vs. City of San Diego, Chief Judge Irma Gonzalez of the U.S. District Court’s Southern California division ruled in favor of some of the plaintiff’s motions, while denying others, as follows:

City prohibition on candidates spending their own money prior to the twelve-month period — GRANTED for Plaintiffs. City barring the making and accepting contributions prior to the twelve-month period — GRANTED for the City. City imposing a $500 limit on individual contributions to candidates — GRANTED for the City. City ban on contributions to candidates by political parties — GRANTED for … Read More