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

Today Meg Whitman’s campaign announced that their latest radio commercials feature a commentary from former California Governor Pete Wilson.

You can hear the ad by clicking on the YouTube spot below (conveniently provided by the Whitman campaign)…

The Whitman campaign says this is their eighth radio spot…

… Read More

I just got off of the phone listening in on a press conference called by gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner. I was going to try and write up the issues he raised in the event, when I got a press release from Poizner’s campaign. I don’t do this often, but for the sake of getting information out quickly, I will reprint the release below… Interestingly, Poizner files a complaint with, among others, Attorney General Jerry Brown, the likely Democrat nominee for Governor.

Whitman campaign’s threats and intimidation cross the line; FBI, U.S. Attorney, and AG Brown are notified of the Whitman campaign’s attempts to cancel the election. Republican candidate for governor Steve Poizner today revealed intimidation tactics from Meg Whitman in which her top political advisor threatened to spend… Read More

[As you read this, please note that the Hillary Clinton Campaign has acknowledged to Chief Justice George’s attorney that he appears on their campaign reports in error. So my story was based on inaccurate information on the FEC website, and my accusation was, as it turns out, unfounded. See more here – Flash] Back in 1977, when I was ten years old, you were "cool" if you were listening to an awesome new song by The Eagles — Hotel California. You were "un-cool" if you were "jive dancing" to Andy Gibb. Star Wars debuted that year, and Elvis Presley moved on to Graceland in the sky. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown was Governor of California, and that was the year that he… Read More

I just got off of the phone listening in on a press conference called by gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner. I was going to try and write up the issues he raised in the event, when I got a press release from Poizner’s campaign. I don’t do this often, but for the sake of getting information out quickly, I will reprint the release below… Interestingly, Poizner files a complaint with, among others, Attorney General Jerry Brown, the likely Democrat nominee for Governor.

Whitman campaign’s threats and intimidation cross the line; FBI, U.S. Attorney, and AG Brown are notified of the Whitman campaign’s attempts to cancel the election. Republican candidate for governor Steve Poizner today revealed intimidation tactics from Meg Whitman in which her top political advisor threatened to spend… Read More

Famed politico and senior level Whitman for Governor consultant Mike Murphy fired a shot across the bow of the S.S. Poizner, in response to the accusations leveled by Poizner this morning (see the blog post below this one). Murphy’s statement: "After reading the ridiculous charges made by Steve Poizner during today’s strange press conference, all I can say is that I’m starting to worry about Commissioner’s mental condition. It is true that I have been trying to find a way to avoid a costly and unnecessary Republican primary. I believe it is important that Republicans across California unite around Meg Whitman to defeat Jerry Brown in the fall. It is also true that I am not the only one with this view. Many Republican leaders are more and more concerned that the Poizner campaign, now 28+ points behind in the… Read More