KTVU television reports that Democrat consultants Ace Smith and Chris Lehane will head up a new labor-funded $20 million independent expenditure campaign to start bloodying up GOP gubernatorial front-runner Meg Whitman. See the KTVU piece below, and read more about it from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Is that Steve Poizner smiling over there?

… Read More

Round trip from DC to SF at $120,000

It is really getting challenging to show patience given the tone-deaf nature of the Democrats who control the State Legislature. State Senate Democrats just unveiled their new "jobs package" (read it and weap here) that supposedly is going to create six-figures worth of new jobs here in the once-Golden state.

It is really not rocket science to figure out how the Governor and State Legislature can best act to foster an economic environment for job creation in California. I would like it if every Democrat legislator and staff reading this would put down their coffee, and stop multitasking with Tweetdeck, and pay attention to this SIMPLE TWO STEP plan that would be a huge boon to California’s economy… STEP ONE: UNDO DAMAGING TAXES AND OVER-REGULATION That’s right, we should operate under the theory that the state government should get out of the business of actually doing harm to the business climate, and restricting the growth of private sector jobs. Whether it is reducing taxation on income to stimulate spending,… Read More

Dave Gilliard, consultant for Congressional candidate State Senator Jeff Denham, fired off a note to an unknown number of recipients in which he lays out how particular "hits" on another candidate, former Congressman Richard Pombo, really drag him down in popularity. Gilliard attached to his note a memo from longtime FR friend Steve Kinney, with more summary details on a poll that Public Opinion Strategies conducted in CD 19. Below is the text of Gilliard’s note, and linked below is the Kinney memo… And who ever said politics wasn’t a contact sport?

2/10/2010 TO: Interested Parties FR: Dave Gilliard Public Opinion Strategies just completed a poll in CA 19. A memo from… Read More

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

I received the following statement from Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. FR readers will recall that is ATR’s No New Taxes pledge that Maldonado egregiously violated. No one forced him to sign the pledge, and no one forced Maldonado to vote to smack California taxpayers with the largest tax increase ever in the history of any state… “I urge California legislators to reject political payback for the guy that provided the deciding vote for the largest state level tax increase in the history of the United States.

First Abel Maldonado gets his ballot measure that would destroy the integrity of the primary election process in exchange for throwing already over-burdened California taxpayers under the bus, breaking his promise to not raise taxes in the process.

Now Abel Maldonado is on the cusp of rising to higher office.

This is not someone California taxpayers want sitting just one heart beat away from becoming governor.

The only job his recent behavior… Read More

The pervasive and corrupting influence of the state’s public employee unions is obvious. But we don’t need to tell Meg Whitman that, she’s talked about it on the campaign trail.

The Citizen Power Initiative, if passed, would curb the ability of unions to take money out of the paychecks of their members for for political purposes without their express permission.

There is no doubt that California will not get back on the right track until we can pass this important reform.

Tom Campbell has talked about this on the campaign trail — and has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

Steve Poizner has talked about this on the campaign trail — and has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

Chuck DeVore has talked about this on the campaign trail — and has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

Carly Fiorina has talked about this on the campaign trail — and today has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

That leaves only one candidate left on the campaign trail for Governor… 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