I’ve heard a lot of outrageous Big Government stories in my day, but here’s one that wins the prize. LA Times’ Steve Lopez reports that owners of a mom and pop Chinese restaurant in the San Fernando Valley are under deep (and questionable) scrutiny by California state auditors, specifically the Board of Equalization, for allegedly under-reporting sales taxes.

As a candidate of the BOE (2nd district), I can assure you that I oppose tax evaders and cheats. The under-ground economy has disastrous consequences for society – look no further than Greece. However, I am equally opposed to big government harassing small business owners.

Let’s break down Lopez’ facts: 1.The owners, Sander and “Mama” Ho, are the sole workers at the Tasty China, the restaurant under scrutiny. 2.Lopez’ lunch for two, with tax and drinks, came to just over $12. 3.Many customers buy only a $1 carton of white rice. 4.The restaurant is small and rarely filled to capacity. 5.The Ho’s dwell in a one-bedroom North Hollywood… Read More

On occasion I get press releases that are good enough to pass along, verbatim. I got one yesterday from the campaign of Mark Lunn who is running for Ventura County Clerk/Recorder. Lunn, a conservative, currently serves as Chief of Staff to Supervisor Peter Foy — a second career for him, after retiring from the California Highway Patrol.

Lunn’s opponent in this open-seat race (the incumbent is retiring) is none other than Peter Foy’s former opponent in his run for Supervisor four years ago, Jim Dantona. I could devote a whole blog post to Dantona, but that isn’t the purpose of this post. It’s to highlight how Lunn has brought to light, with thorough documentation, how Dantona wants to be elected to an office of public trust, can’t keep his personal finances in order. The example in this release has to do with property taxes. But having been at this for a while, trouble paying one’s property taxes is the big "red flag" for opening up the hood and seeing a lot more trouble.

The moral of this story… Pay your property taxes on time, especially if you want other people to trust you to be their… Read More

Since we’re a website on California politics, I am not going to assume that all of our readers know that life-long Republican Charlie Crist, the Governor of Florida and a candidate for United States Senate, in recent days announced his departure from the GOP, choosing to re-register as an independent to guarantee his presence as a candidate for the Senate this November. Crist, you see, had been the prohibitive front-runner for the GOP nomination – but his strong embrace of President Obama and some of his most liberal policies (most famously the TARP plan) on top of years of embracing his own form of populism that demonstrated a severe lack of defining ideology – made him very unpopular with Florida’s Republican voters. His former primary opponent, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a strong conservative, had been an underdog against Crist, but then as Rubio’s message spread, and Crist’s embrace of Obama (literally) became well know, Rubio shot way ahead to the point where Crist was sure to lose the GOP nomination – hence his decision to bail on the Republican Party all… Read More

Dear Editors of California Newspapers:

Many local and regional newspapers will be endorsing in Republican primary elections in the coming days. This is just a little advice that you can clearly take or leave. In the end it’s your newspaper and you will print what you want.

Republican primaries are closed under current law. This means that conservatives often make up the majority of primary voters. Thus, when you decide to support someone in your editorial — trying to write something that actually works with the Republican primary voter would be helpful.

Take this editorial from the San Luis Obispo Tribune. They endorse this local County Supervisor and then go on to tell their readers the reason is that he is more moderate than his opponents and won’t sign the tax pledge. Way to help a brother out.

Come on. I think if i was a Republican candidate in the primary that had the "honor" of earning this endorsement I would have encouraged them to support someone… Read More

In case you hadn’t heard, we are getting closer to officially recognizing Ronald Reagan Day here in California. On April 8, by a vote of 34-0, the Senate approved SB 944, the Ronald Reagan Day bill proposed by Senator George Runner and me. SB 944 (Runner and Strickland) is the first – and so far only – Ronald Reagan Day bill in the nation to be passed by any legislative house. All other legislative efforts to recognize Ronald Reagan Day have been single-year resolutions or have not been approved by a legislative house. No one will get a day off under SB 944 (Runner and Strickland); instead, schools will be encouraged to teach about Ronald Reagan and his contributions. SB 944 (Runner and Strickland) was introduced in the Senate on February 3 and was approved by a 7-0 vote in the Senate Education Committee on March 24 before its unanimous passage in the Senate on April 8. We are expecting that SB 944 (Runner and Strickland) will be heard in the Assembly Education Committee in June. You can read the text of the bill at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_944&sess=CUR… Read More

We are pleased to share with FlashReport readers in this "scoop" that Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth and Senate Republican Leader-Elect Bob Dutton have set out a specific transition date for the "passing of the baton" of leadership from the former to the latter — it will be September 1st. This date, in theory, will be after this year’s budget has been adopted, and puts Dutton in the saddle for bringing home political victories for Senate Republicans at the ballot box this November.

Here is the text of the memo that they will be releasing with the details — attached below is the spiffy .pdf version on letterhead with initials and such…

May 4, 2010 TO: Senate Republican Caucus… Read More

This morning the California Pro-Life Council has released this statement exclusively to the FlashReport (well, for a few hours anyways) — it is an announcement concerning the United States Senate race taking place this year in California…

You have seen discussion of the CA Governor’s race in other places on this web site. Today we want to discuss the candidates and campaign for the U.S. Senate nomination to replace Barbara Boxer.. Months ago we were in an enviable position, both candidates were pro-life. Pro-life assemblyman Chuck Devore was running and Carly Fiorina, who had made public statements of being pro-life. What remained was assertaining just how real those commitments were. … Read More

Since we’re a website on California politics, I am not going to assume that all of our readers know that life-long Republican Charlie Crist, the Governor of Florida and a candidate for United States Senate, in recent days announced his departure from the GOP, choosing to re-register as an independent to guarantee his presence as a candidate for the Senate this November. Crist, you see, had been the prohibitive front-runner for the GOP nomination – but his strong embrace of President Obama and some of his most liberal policies (most famously the TARP plan) on top of years of embracing his own form of populism that demonstrated a severe lack of defining ideology – made him very unpopular with Florida’s Republican voters. His former primary opponent, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a strong conservative, had been an underdog against Crist, but then as Rubio’s message spread, and Crist’s embrace of Obama (literally) became well know, Rubio shot way ahead to the point where Crist was sure to lose the GOP nomination – hence his decision to bail on the Republican Party all… Read More