The the very Republican 4th Assembly District Beth Gaines bested John Allard by a slim 667 votes to win a runoff slot against the lone Democrat candidate Dennis Campanale. Gaines should be able to win the runoff without breaking a sweat.

While there are technically a few thousand ballots left to count (late absentees, provisionals) — not enough of those remain to statistically give Allard a shot at closing the gap.

Congratulations to Beth Gaines on her victory, and a shout out to her consultant Dave Gilliard.… Read More

In the current budget debate, HJTA has taken a principled stand against placing massive tax increases on the June ballot. The only circumstance, in our view, that would justify this proposal is if the California Legislature also agreed to put tax reductions on the ballot as well. Several legislators (all Republicans) agreed with our view as well as supporting other major reforms.

Other Republican legislators, while supporting substantive reforms, did not necessarily include tax reductions as part of an overall budget fix. Although we disagree, it is now apparent that these Republican legislators were nonetheless holding out for major structural reforms of a positive nature. Even this more moderate stance, however, has been rebuffed by the Governor and the Democrats in the Legislature. In frustration, it now appears that they have broken off talks with the Governor.

Although we continue to believe that any reform package should include tax reductions as an option, we acknowledge the efforts of the five legislators who yesterday signed… Read More

At some point we have to say, “stop the madness, stop the presses, just plain stop.” As many predicted, California has spent itself into oblivion. As a result, the Capitol is now besieged by onslaughts of the spend more-tax more crowd. The halls of the Capitol are swarming with specialist interest groups, lobbyists and citizens, all who are equally passionate about securing their share of a shrinking budget pie. But, there are few who come to the State Capitol to stand in the gap for those who cannot be at the Capitol from daylight until dusk – the taxpayers, the ones who pay the bills. Who comes calling to represent their interests? The Legislature keeps telling the taxpayers that we just need a little bit more of their money – money the citizens need to pay their mortgages, buy food, pay for utilities, and save for retirement. Two years ago, the Legislature approved what was termed a temporary tax increase to fill the state’s gaping budget hole and, in May of 2009, the voters were asked whether they were willing to extend these “temporary” taxes an additional two years. The… Read More

While debating the current state budget and Governor Brown’s $14 billion tax proposal it became clear that when the Democrats aren’t able to defend their desire for higher taxes or their unwillingness to adopt meaningful budget reforms, they just dust off the old playbook and blame it all on Pete Wilson.

The Democrats can’t order lunch without mentioning Prop 187.

Transcript from Univision’s Voz y Voto program which aired on Saturday, March 5, 2011. Univision, Reporter – Santiago Lucero: Are we in agreement with the reforms Senator? Because it is a good point, yes we need reforms in California. Is this the time to achieve these reforms? Sen. Kevin de Leon: At the same time we are… Read More

Yesterday in the news section of the Sacramento Bee, ace Capitol reporter Kevin Yamamura penned an article, The Reality Behind Recent Budget Rhetoric, in which Yamamura, among other things, provides this analysis on Governor Brown’s statement that an "all cuts" budget would cause a 4-5 week cut in the school year… Specifically, the article says…

Brown: "If you’re going to have $25 billion in cuts, and you’re going to cut four or five weeks of school, then I think people are very shocked if you didn’t ask their permission." Analysis: Cutting the school year by five or six weeks is highly unlikely. … Read More

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This election cycle, the FlashReport is going to be partnering with various public opinion research firms to try and provide polling information in areas of interest. Since we’re always covering polls that other people do, how about some of our own?

Because FlashReport’s Publisher, yours truly, hails from Orange County, I thought we would start by looking at a big issue coming up in this neck of the woods — the race to succeed Orange County Third District Supervisor and longtime FR friend Bill Campbell. For this survey, we partnered with Wayne Johson and Val Smith, of SmithJohnson Research.

Ever since the rather high profile parting of the ways between Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and former Assemblyman (and former Supervisor) Todd Spitzer (read: since T-Rack fired Spitzer who had been working as a Deputy District Attorney after leaving the legislature), rumors have abounded that Spitzer might run for… Read More

I like Alan Zaremberg, the President of the California Chamber of Commerce. He is a thoughtful man in a very difficult position. He knows he should be for small government and free enterprise, but he oversees the Chamber of Commerce in California, home of the Democratic National Socialist Party. One wrong step, and the next thing he knows, union thugs are calling CalPERS and CalPERS then threatens his board members with disinvestment. Think of this, you are on the board of a Fortune 500 company, and the largest institutional investor on the planet (CalPERS) calls you and says if you don’t control that guy at the California Chamber, CalPERS will pull its investment in your company. You have nightmares about the drop in your stock price, so you call Zaremberg and tell him to get with the program. Zaremberg toes the line.

Zaremberg did it again this week. Vote for the tax increase bill, and we’ll support you, says Zaremberg. He doesn’t make it partisan. He says it’s a tough vote for Democrats and Republicans, and we’ll support them all, he says. But the implication is–We’ll… Read More