Today the Daily Pilot published a lengthy special report on the residency of 68th Assembly District Democrat candidate Phu Nguyen. Turns out there is pretty good evidence (like the neighbors, like his own paperwork) he didn’t live in the district when he filed for office, which is a serious problem for him. A legal problem.

The funny part about this is this is waaaay down the list of Nguyen’s problems. Waaaaaaay down. But this makes for a pretty good kickoff of those issues, since at least the article is humorous if you like "Meet the Parents" type humor.

Yeah, I’m Republican candidate Allan Mansoor’s consultant, and I approve this blog because the article in question just makes Nguyen look like a damn liar.… Read More

Due to technical issues that are hard to understand, let alone explain, our main page will not be updated until the late morning. Our apologies.… Read More

Last night my good friend Lance Izumi joined Meg Whitman (and a few other friends and fans) at a special movie preview of “Waiting for Superman.” Izumi, for those of you who don’t know him, is the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy and co-author of the book “Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice” (and is featured on the FR home page today.) He is also featured in the new "Waiting for Superman" movie, which was made by Academy-award winning documentary director Davis Guggenheim ("Inconvenient Truth").

Whitman has seen the film and thinks it is a must-see for people who care about kids and… Read More

The Collective Bargaining Myth

Speaker John Pérez and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg are showing their true colors today. Apparently, the final hang-up in budget negotiations is pension reform — Governor Schwarzenegger and Republicans are insisting the Legislature roll back pension promises for state workers, while the Democrats want that to be achieved through “collective bargaining.” That would mean the unions themselves would have to agree to the rollbacks, instead of the Legislature imposing them.

It’s no surprise that Pérez and Steinberg would be arguing for collective bargaining: they don’t want the California Democratic Party to be on record voting to reduce compensation or benefits for its master and biggest benefactor – government employee unions. They also know that SEIU has so far refused to budge on anything in their talks with the Administration, so by insisting on collective bargaining, they are hoping to strengthen the union’s hand in its goal of extracting concessions in… Read More

Californians got to see the two top candidates for governor–Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown–debate the issues tonight. Televised statewide, the event gave voters achance to see both candidates in action and learn more about the differences between the two.

It was one of the better debates this state has seen in recent years. I believe that is because both candidates are genuinely decent people who respect the voters and the democratic process. They both clearly have a strong desire to improve the state’s economy and budget situation.But their approaches are vastly different.For those of us who see the economy, budget reform and improved education as our top issues, Whitman clearly is the stronger candidate.

Before John Perez was elected to the State Assembly in 1998, he worked professionally for organized labor — unions. According to his own biography…

Perez has always had the luxury in his jobs to not have to worry about where money comes from to hire employees and pay their salaries and benefits — that’s the kind of stuff that is on the "management" side of the ledger, not the "labor" side.

Well, Speaker Perez, in case it isn’t lost on you — at some point (probably about the time you got elected to the legislature, but certainly by the time you were sworn in this last March as Speaker) you have to have realized that… Read More

Tonight at 6pm is the first (and arguably most important) debate between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown. You can watch it online here.

I will be live-tweeting throughout the event here.… Read More

Each year when we publish our popular and well-read Top Twenty Bills To Veto column, where we instruct the Governor on which of the hundreds of bills on his desk are most toxic, we always get a lot of reader feedback on the various bills. Many of these terrible bills are not on the radar of even informed FlashReport readers until we run that column. One bill that we highlight which has really sparked a lot of feedback is Assembly Bill 482 (Mendoza) which, if signed by the Governor, would prohibit an employer from using someone’s credit history when deciding whether or not to hire that person. Seriously.

In sifting through the emails that I got on this bill, I received one that peaked my interest because the title of the e-mail – AB 482 and Richard Kimball. Fellow movie buffs… Read More