FlashReport is pleased to present this week’s cartoon from our in-house cartoonist Eric Eisenhammer. In this piece, entitled No Free Parking, Eisenhammer lampoons legislation introduced by State Senator Alan Lowenthal that would actually create incentives for local government to start to phase out… free parking. Seriously. You can read more about it here.

Lowenthal told the LA Times, "Free parking has significant social, economic and environmental costs. It increases congestion and greenhouse gas emissions."

You can’t make this stuff up.… Read More

This morning I read an article in the Riverside Press Enterprise that looked at voter registration figures, and it showed the despite growing unpopularity with this President, Democrat registration in the state is slightly up, and in several key areas of the state, Republican registration is going down. The part that I found to be most interesting was some of the places that were specifically mentioned in the article where GOP registration is dropping, and DTS registration is going up — Stanislaus County, Monterey County and San Bernardino County. There were big Democrat gains in Fresno County.

These are areas of the state represented in the legislature by Republicans who in a very high profile manner violated their voluntary, written pledges not to raise taxes last year — and in fact voter for higher taxes on income, sales and automobiles — and voter to place the doubling (in length) of these taxes before voters. Needless to say it was controversial and generated a lot of attention in those areas especially.

Now there many be a lot of different factors that effect voter registration in those specific areas (localized paid efforts, etc.)… Read More

FR friend Eric Reslock put together this video highlighting some of the more "fun" moments of the Maldonado Lt. Governor confirmation hearing in the Assembly Rules Committee yesterday.

The Assembly Rules Committee voted to allow the full Assembly to vote on the matter, but without recommending his approval.

We here at FR recommend the rejection of his nomination. It was bad enough last year when Maldonado rather boldly withheld his vote on the February budget deal only until he forced the legislature to place the so-called open primary measure on the ballot. We add insult to injury if we now "promote" him and give him this high office from which to campaign for that measure the next four months. If you vote to confirm Maldonado, that is de facto support for Proposition 14.

… Read More

Just got this sent over from the CRA — a letter they just faxed around to all California legislators:

February 9, 2010 Re: Opposition to the Confirmation of Senator Maldonado Dear Senator/Assemblyman: The California Republican Assembly is strongly OPPOSED to the confirmation of Senator Abel Maldonado for the position of Lieutenant Governor of California. On behalf of the California Republican Assembly, the California Republican Party, and all the citizens of… Read More

Okay, I made the quote in the headline up. The County Supervisors didn’t really say that to SEIU when taking today’s action on a June ballot measure to ban PLAs. Not publicly, at any rate.

From the Del Mar Times…

http://www.delmartimes.net/news/265750-supervisors-consider-measure-to-ban-labor-agreements

Supervisors consider measure to ban labor agreements

The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to consider putting a measure on the June 8 ballot that would ban project labor agreements on developments being undertaken by San Diego County.

A project labor agreement mandates that government contracts for public construction projects go only to union contractors.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to direct its lawyers to draft ballot language that would amend the county charter to prohibit project labor agreements. The panel also asked staff to craft an ordinance… Read More

Last week longtime FR friend Martin Garrick was sworn in as Assembly Republican Leader last week.

Today Garrick announced the appointment of his final leadership team members — the Republican Whips. By way of describing the roles of whips, I pull this language from Garrick’s release…

The following Republican Assembly Members were named today as Republican Whips:

I admire the passion of Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Having gotten to spend a lot of time with him over the last five years or so, I know him as someone who really pours his heart and soul into just about everything he does. I figure it takes that kind of drive to have his level of epic success in business, and it certainly takes an Energizer-Bunny type level of activity to get elected to statewide office as a Republican in California, let alone to now be running for the Republican nomination for Governor. I know Steve to be a good man, who is passionate about making a difference.

I preface this column with these comments because I don’t want FR readers to misinterpret a critique of an individual policy proposal of the Commissioner as some sort of rebuke of the man, which it certainly is not. Nevertheless I have been troubled by a proposal he has generated from the Department of Insurance, which I wanted to address. I have brought this up directly with Poizner, so he won’t be surprised to read it here.

Last year Insurance Commissioner Poizner rolled out what I thought was a creative and useful plan to review the substantial financial… Read More

I admire the passion of Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Having gotten to spend a lot of time with him over the last five years or so, I know him as someone who really pours his heart and soul into just about everything he does. I figure it takes that kind of drive to have his level of epic success in business, and it certainly takes an Energizer-Bunny type level of activity to get elected to statewide office as a Republican in California, let alone to now be running for the Republican nomination for Governor. I know Steve to be a good man, who is passionate about making a difference.

I preface this column with these comments because I don’t want FR readers to misinterpret a critique of an individual policy proposal of the Commissioner as some sort of rebuke of the man, which it certainly is not. Nevertheless I have been troubled by a proposal he has generated from the Department of Insurance, which I wanted to address. I have brought this up directly with Poizner, so he won’t be surprised to read it here.

Last year Insurance Commissioner Poizner rolled out what I thought was a creative and useful plan to review the substantial financial… Read More