Yesterday the front-runner to be the next Governor of Colorado (a GOP pickup!), former Congressman and former State Senate Majority Leader Scott McInniss, made a fundraising swing through the Golden State. One of his appearances brought him to my office (which I share with fellow GOPers Scott Baugh, John Clarey and Jim Righeimber) where he spoke to members of the Orange County Republican Party’s prestigious 400 Club — his remarks lasted about fifteen minutes or so. The best part came at the end, when he informed us that in his state, the Governor with the stroke of a pen can de-unionize Colorado’s state employees — and that upon his election, he intends to do just that! Wish it were that simple here!

Enjoy the remarks of Scott McInnis, and if you are inclined, help him out!

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The Secretary of State has announced the results of the random drawing for order in which candidates shall appear on the ballot…

Y, B, N, F, T, S, W, L, P, Z, V, X, Q, A, I, O, J, R, G, D, C, U, M, K, H, E

The way it works is pretty simple. Candidates are in descending order on the ballot by last name. If the first letters match, apply the draw to the second letter, and if necessary the third, and so on.

If candidates are running for an office that encompasses more than one Assembly District, the names will be rotated in each Assembly District.

To apply this draw to the GOP primary in the Assembly seat where the International HQ of the FlashReport is located — AD 70 — it would mean the order is Rich Wagner, then Jerry Amante, followed by Steven Choi. Since it is (by definition) all within one district, the names do not rotate.

All of you Central Committee candidates should check this out – since ballot order for those low-profile races is more significant!… Read More

This is the toughest entry I have had to write on the FlashReport blog since we started it up back in 2005. It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that my good friend, and a fellow FlashReport contributor Barry Nestande passed away earlier this afternoon. Apparently Barry was working out at his local gym and fell unconscious – and never woke back up. There is speculation that Barry suffered from a heart attack.

It is tragic that someone in the prime of their life, at 49 years of age, would be taken from us so abruptly. Barry was someone who had dedicated his life to his family, and to working hard in his chosen career of politics and government – always striving to work to promote candidates and causes that championed Barry’s core beliefs of individual freedom and liberty. For my part, I’ve known and worked closely with Barry for nearly two decades and can tell you that his was tireless in his dedication.

Most recently, Barry was serving as Chief of Staff to his close… Read More

Wednesday, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) publicly announced that he will switch his vote on the Health care bill from “no” last time to “yes” this time. With Kucinich’s vote, now all of the most liberal Democrats in Congress are supporting the bill. 87 Democrats co-sponsored a bill to immediately have full blown socialized medicine like Canada or Britain. It appears now that all of those Democrats are supporting this bill that the President and Democratic leadership say is not government-run health care.

Hmmm. So if it’s not government run health care, how did you get 100% of the votes of those who publicly support government run health care and you are having trouble only with the moderates who oppose it?

Because, this bill is designed to get to European stylegovernment health care with rationing and so forth. Here’s how it does it: There will be a government agency that will determine the minimum benefits that must be included in all health insurance plans. It will mandate much more coverage which almost no insurance plan has today,which in… Read More

Quote of the Day: “…if we can save money by adding 30 million people to our rolls, we need to go insure everybody in China and then we’ll be done with the deficit. This bill is a disaster."– Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

Sunday: It now appears that the earliest the Government -Run Healthcare vote will occur is Sunday afternoon. There is still strong bipartisan opposition. There is only single party support. As of now they do not have enough votes. Hopefully that will still be the case on Sunday. The President has again delayed his trip overseas to continue applying pressure on wavering Democrats. This is a change from his previous plan which was to have an Air Force jet fly him the bill in Indonesia to sign.

The Senate: We metyesterday morning with our Republican Senate Colleagues. They made it clear that they have 18 “points of order” that they can and will raise if a reconciliation bill makes it to the Senate. This will not enable them to kill the bill (it will pass with only 50 votes plus the Vice President) but they will significantly change it. So, any House Democrat cannot be… Read More

Welcome to the "spin room" as it were. The latest Rasmussen and Field Poll numbers are in (they are some of the many statewide surveys that are taken, showing snapshots of voter opinion at a given moment), and below is a memo sent from Meg Whitman’s public opinion consultants, John McLaughlin and David Hill, to one of her general consultants, Mike Murphy, outlining why they see the Field numbers as being great news for Whitman, terrible news for Steve Poizner, and very disturbing for Jerry Brown….

Memo To: Mike Murphy From: John McLaughlin and David Hill Date: March 18, 2010… Read More

It is the primary season in a year of Republican ascendancy. Conservatives have figured out that their fratricide of the last several years handed power over to the Democrats, and they have united (to a certain extent). That means that candidates have "seen the light," they have experienced their election year conversions, and all Republicans candidates are conservatives. They run commercials this time of year touting how conservative they are, how their opponents are not, and how they are going to implement [insert conservative agenda item here] when they get elected.

This year they will be elected. Whether they are running for Governor, Senator, Member of Congress, Legislator or other, they will be elected. As in 1994, they will suddenly have power.

However, for the last 16 years, many of these candidates have been sitting in their offices, their country clubs, their neighborhoods or in their homes, listening to the media, their friends, their office mates, or their business associates deride conservatives in office. They have been told how unreasonable conservatives are, how unrealistic they are, how important it is to work with liberals,… Read More

While House Democrats are plotting political gimmicks and backroom deals while vying for ‘yes’ votes on their health care bill, most Americans would be shocked and confused to learn that Democrats have included a plan – tied to the health care bill – to eliminate private-sector options for a government-managed direct student loan program.

In 1993, President Clinton expanded the government-operated direct loan program. While I didn’t support the move then, Republicans and Democrats aimed to strike a balance between government-controlled student loans and private loans. With this new super-Democrat majority, the days of negotiation have passed, and Democrats have made leaps towards a full government takeover of the student loan industry.

Not only are these two bills now being tied together in reconciliation, they also have eerily similar historic paths. Just as the Majority said they wanted to create a ‘government option’ for student loans, to only fully takeover the program years later; they are making the same claims about health care today. For Democrats, it starts with a call for a ‘government option,’ but make no mistake; the intent… Read More