This morning the Poizner for Governor campaign will announce that their candidate has 72% support amongst conservative tea party activists around California.

To be specific, Marc Harris, one of the leaders of California’s tea party movement has released the results of an survey that he and other tea party leaders undertook — the straw poll was conducted by a combination of telephone (1,417 respondents), and emails forwarded within and among one hundred eighty seven (187) established, grassroots Tea Party groups.

The other twenty-eight percent (28%) broke down as follows: Undecided 18%; Meg Whitman 8%; Other Candidates 2%.

In a similar poll taken in the first week of March, 2010, (sample size: 814) the percentages were: Undecided 53%; Poizner 14%, Whitman 23%; Larry Naritelli 9%; Others 1%.

In conjunction with the release of this "straw poll" of tea party activists, Southern Cal Tea Party leader Harris also released an extensive memo on why he thinks that Poizner is the best… Read More

I have been out of the office all day, and so this isn’t news to some — but I want to congratulate my good friend and FlashReport contributor Dan Schnur on his appointment by Governor Schwarzenegger to serve as Chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission. Schnur will fill out the term of former State Senator Ross Johnson, who retired for health reasons.

I would write something lengthy and flowery, but since Torey Van Oot and Anthony York have done a swell job at the Sacramento Bee and LA Times political blogs, respectively.

Congratulations, Dan!

Oh yeah, no pressure – but Dan, this is your chance to show that all of that work you did for John McCain’s Presidential bid back in 2000 was because… Read More

WHITMAN FOR GOVERNOR “Republican Leaders”, “Republican Voter Alert”, “Meet the Real Poizner” (TODAY’S WINNER), “Comparison” and “Liberal Poizner Behind the Wheel” (note: friends and clients have already gotten most of these some time ago so I figure there was some sort of postal screw up that led these to all come at once today. My various ‘mail reporters’ report having gotten one piece from Whitman today), YES ON 16 “Right to Vote” and “Politicians”, COOPER FOR SACRAMENTO SHERIFF “Toughest Beat”, and I got something from the CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT VOTER NETWORK “Primary Election” that could not have been more confusing (TODAY’S LOSER).… Read More

This election season, we’ve seen some pretty interesting campaign ads, including the Fiorina campaign’s viral “demon sheep” ad. But perhaps the most popular ad this year comes courtesy of Dale Peterson, the Republican running for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner. With almost 1.4 million views, it’s definitely a viral hit. The ad is so popular, that Peterson’s campaign web site has a page dedicated to its creator, Ladd Ehlinger Jr. If you’re one of the few whohaven’t seen the ad yet, check it out:

Sunday Political News Roundup….

http://sdrostra.com/?p=5065 … Read More

Updated 5-29-10 When the race for the GOP nomination for Congressional District 19 began, I thought we had four pretty upstanding candidates in the race. I knew that Fresno Council Member Larry Westerlund was an unlikely contender, and that former Congressman Richard Pombo would have a tough time as a former incumbent, but the race started off strong on the issues, and has since degenerated into a mess.

Between State Senator Jeff Denham and former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson, it was easy to understand that Denham would have a massive money lead due to power of incumbency in fundraising. What I didn’t expect is that Denham would push the limits of campaign finance law to the brink – and perhaps violate those laws in the process.

With $700,000 in his non federal accounts to start this race, money he is prohibited from spending by law in his Congressional run, Denham and his advisors instead opted for a more "curious", and perhaps illegal way to get those soft dollars into his campaign.

As his… Read More

CAMPBELL FOR US SENATE “President Reagan”, WHITMAN FOR GOVERNOR “Flood of Debt”, COOLEY FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL “A Plan” this piece would probably be THE WINNER OF THE DAY, but the back panel has more text than a New Yorker article, YES ON PROPOSITION 6 very clear and to the point WINNER OF THE DAY, KENNEDY FOR SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “On the Issues” decent piece, SCHENIRER for SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “Traveling” this is one of a series of mailers I’d be interested to figure out if they look enough alike for voters to pitch them, or whether the sports foul theme gets some attention. I thought Schenirer was going to pull this off earlier in the race with this grassroots program, but Kennedy’s mail has been superior, SERNA FOR SACRAMENTO SUPERVISOR “Force” this has to be the worst mailer of the year, maybe of the decade… it is tabbed together in such a hostile way that I literally ended up with the mailer in shreds, SLATEMAILER “2010 Taxpayer Voting Guide”, SLATEMAILER “Republican Endorsements”.… Read More

Believe it or not, in what is yet another whacked-out idea from ultra-left wing State Senator Alan Lowenthal, he has introduced legislation (SB 1299) that would establish what he calls a "VMT Fee" — which to the rest of us means he is proposing to tax Californians based on how much they drive their cars! (VMT = Vehicle Miles Traveled). I know, hard to believe that this is for real… Below our in-house cartoonist, Eric Eisenhammer, draws a cartoon about this bill… Here is his cartoon, "Odometer Tax…"

… Read More