According to latest returns for the election held yesterday, Mission Viejo councilman and the currently appointed Mayor, Lance MacLean has been recalled by 6,858 to 6,740, a total of 118 votes. A total of 1,140 votes remain to be counted, and knowledgeable observers state the margin of recall will narrow a little, but that the recall should stand, and MacLean will be forced out of office when the election is formally certified.

Successful recalls don’t happen that often – just ask Assemblyman Anthony Adams that question. The success of the Mission Viejo recall is something significant. It is also significant in who the biggest loser was as a result, which was not MacLean, the target of the recall, or Dale Tyler, a replacement candidate that lost. More on that later….

The "Notice of Recall" Mission Viejo citizens voted on that gave the reasons to recall MacLean, included a charge that he had voted for "lifetime medical benefits" at taxpayer expense for himself and other councilmembers, had voted for a tax increase, and that MacLean had been detained on a charge of assault and battery on a… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…… Read More

Hey, someone has to little out for the little guy. In this instance, I would be the "someone" — and the "little guy" is my friend Bill Whalen. Bill as many of you may know with Hoover over in Palo Alto, and has been a frequent commenter on things political. Bill is a former speechwriter for Governor Pete Wilson, and one of the more insightful people I know in politics.

When the FlashReport launched, Bill lent his talent and credibility to our site as a blogger, and he still contributes occasionally. Last December, Bill launched his own online blog, Poli-Cal, which you can find (and should bookmark) here. We do link his pieces on our main page — two of them are there today.

The reason I bring all of this up is that this morning I hopped over to the great new blog on California politics that is a joint venture of the Los Angeles Times and Capitol Weekly. Up until now it ran under an online masthead that simply read, "California Politics" — but today it has a new name – PolitCal."

I… Read More

Earlier this week, I penned a commentary where I pretty well laid out California Supreme Court Justice Ron George for making a number of contributions to the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign in 2008, aggregating to $2300. I drew the conclusion that George had made these contributions based solely on information taken off of the Federal Election Commission website, where a search of Ron George produced a listing of these donations to Clinton, identifying the giver as Ronald George, with an employer and occupation of State of California/Chief Justice (the graphic is a clip straight from the FEC website).

As it turns out, Chief Justice George did not make any contributions to the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and that the information that is presented on the Federal Elections Commission website is not accurate. To be more specific, the FEC relies on campaigns to file specific donor information, which they then upload to their site,… Read More

OK, tales of the bizarre. So I linked to a website of conservative activist Aaron Park who had posted up documents about a 1990 case where Abel Maldonado had a judgment against him in the Santa Barbara County Superior Court over not making child support payments. But then 30 minutes later Park pulled down his post (pressure from..???). So I have pulled my blog post on it, as I am not comfortable leaving a dead link active on my site. Had to delete a tweet as well. Sigh.… Read More

Some years ago I wrote a post on the death of my dog, Felony the Dog, that came to mind today when I learned that Kingpin, the dog of my friends, Jason and Patty Roe, was on his last legs. As a person who spent many years in the company of Kingpin I thought I’d republish. After all, if the people in politics were more like dogs, we’d have to watch our backs a bit less and our shoes a bit more. To me that would be a fair trade.

Eat many burgers in your last days Kingpin, and take many walks.

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FELONY THE DOG

For some thirteen years I’ve had a British Staffordshire Terrier named Felony the Dog, or Felony for short. One of my peers in my first year of law school had purchased a puppy, but his apartment manager had very particular and definite views about the acceptability of pets that required either Donald and Felony, or just Felony, to move. Donald chose to stay, and I, who had just moved into an ancient Victorian downtown that happened to have a yard, became Felony’s new owner. Felony proved to be an intelligent dog who picked her friends and her enemies at first site and generally stuck with the… Read More

Brett Henry leaving the race opened up the San Bernardino area of the seat for another candidate. Ken Hunter is already running from that side of the district. Hesperia Unified School Board Member Anthony Riley is getting in the race. Anthony worked for Supervisor Gary Ovitt until recently and hung out a shingle for a PR firm.

Riley has had an interesting journey. While part of his resume is staffer, he was also principal of the now defunct charter school.

But even more importantly Anthony Riley was on Melrose Place. Yes in a small role he was back when Heather Locklear, no relation to the State Treasurer, was hot. Okay she is still hot.

A couple of issues may be in a GOP primary are the fact the local teachers union supported his election and the charter school officials up above him are in criminal trials (not him, but mail pieces may say it.).

More importantly can he raise the money? The machine in San Bernardino County that was there when Adams was elected is not there. Although, Riley has shown he can compete in many difficult environments.

This race will be a barnburner.… Read More

***Apparently as quick as it was up, the post is now down that is references below. I have an email into Aaron Park to figure out what the deal is — since I linked to his post after he notified me of it. I did not download the docs separately. I will let you know what happens…***

Longtime NorCal conservative activist Aaron Klein just hit me with an email to check out the latest story he has filed on his RightOnDaily.com website. So clicked to check it out and when I ready his post, Abel Maldonado Got His Wages Garnished For Back Child Support, I admit that I was a bit skeptical. After all, Maldonado went through a bruising primary in his first run for the Assembly, and I don’t remember him having any "Deadbeat Dad" allegations.

I am sure that the Governor’s office goes through a thorough vetting process for all potential appointees, let alone to be nominated to fill a vacancy in such a significant Constitutional Office. If you had a short list… Read More