Joe Matthews reports today that the electronic petition signature of Mr. Michael Ni has been filed in San Mateo county, the first of its kind, (and on a marijuana initiative) setting up a legal battle on whether such a signature is a valid "affixation." If it is, Matthews says "efforts to reform California’s dysfunctional government could get an important boost."

Not too long ago our publisher asked if I’d consider writing something about the brewing issue of iPhone applications for California initiatives. I punted at the time. But Joe’s story today breathed some life into me. I disagree with the analysis that electronic signatures can help reform California in a positive way, and I want to spend a little effort here to parse this "iPhone" initiative distribution talk, because I think it is not legal, not a good idea, and will only create more dysfunction, because ultimately it will undermine and reduce the influence of initiative campaigns themselves. More on that near the end of this post.

First, I disagree with the underlying notion that the initiative system is the source of the… Read More

On March 24 there will be an informational hearing held by the Fair Political Practices Commission’s Subcommittee on the Political Reform Act & Internet Political Activity at the University of Southern California School of Law.

I have been asked to testify before this Subcommittee and have been asked to focus my remarks on, "On developments in the use of the internet in campaigns and what you expect will happen in the future. Your thoughts about what that means for the appropriate regulatory structure for such campaign activity would also be very helpful to us." IF AFTER READING THIS BLOG POST YOU HAVE INPUT FOR ME RELEVANT TO MY PENDING TESTIMONY, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

By way of background, here is an excerpt from the FPPC’s website where they talk about the… Read More

On March 24 there will be an informational hearing held by the Fair Political Practices Commission’s Subcommittee on the Political Reform Act & Internet Political Activity at the University of Southern California School of Law.

I have been asked to testify before this Subcommittee and have been asked to focus my remarks on, "On developments in the use of the internet in campaigns and what you expect will happen in the future. Your thoughts about what that means for the appropriate regulatory structure for such campaign activity would also be very helpful to us."

IF AFTER READING THIS BLOG POST YOU HAVE INPUT FOR ME RELEVANT TO MY PENDING TESTIMONY, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

On February 26, conservative Marco Rubio, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, will be in Southern California for a series of fundraisers in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles.

Speaker Rubio has become a national cause for conservatives, as well as Tea Party activists, in what has been characterized as a battle for the future of the GOP. His Republican primary opponent is Governor Charlie Crist, who after leading in polls by as much as 37% after his announcement, now trails Rubio by 14%.

Rubio was written off early and his fundraising, as a candidate opposing a popular sitting governor, was shaky. However, Marco remained focused and started winning county GOP straw polls by wide margins and the MSM took notice that all was not well with Gov. Crist’s standing with the base of the party. Fundraising started to… Read More

Saturday mid-day I sent an email out to fellow California Republican Party Central Committee Members, inquiring if they would like to see the GOP candidates for Governor, Attorney General, and U.S. Senate invited to debate at next month’s State GOP Convention in Santa Clara.

You can see the e-mail that I sent out here.

I have not sent out any follow up emails (not wanting to be a pest). Still, I’ve been impressed that over a holiday weekend I have heard back from around one out of every five Central Committee members.

In that e-mail, I said that I would keep folks up to speed on the results of my informal survey… Read More

Yesterday mid-day I sent an email out to fellow California Republican Party Central Committee Members, inquiring if they would like to see the GOP candidates for Governor, Attorney General, and U.S. Senate invited to debate at next month’s State GOP Convention in Santa Clara.

You can see the e-mail that I sent out here.

In that e-mail, I said that I would keep folks up to speed on the results of my informal survey periodically. So below is the first update. NUMBER OF CRP MEMBERS RESPONDING SO FAR: 211 (Roughly 15% Of All… Read More

This year the Republican Party is poised to make major gains in congress and those of us in California should be proud that one of our own, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, is right in the thick of it.

I had the great pleasure to work with Kevin when he served in the Assembly and I was in the Senate. I respect his skills and count him as afriend.

The Daily Beast blog just did a feature on Kevin and what he’s been doing on our behalf. You can read it here – or just below. The Right’s New Rock Star

With expectations through the roof, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the GOP’s top talent scout, is recruiting the candidates he hopes will win back the House.

Yesterday we carried a column on the FlashReport from longtime FR friend Villa Park Councilwoman Deb Pauly that was extremely critical of GOP Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman on the issue of paycheck protection.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of attention to detail on the part of the team here, that piece did not indicate that it was submitted to the FlashReport by the Poizner for Governor campaign, or that Deb was a backer of Poizner.

We here at the FlashReport take our business very seriously, and felt that this oversight needed to be corrected (the column if you go back to it is now correctly annotated) and a formal statement placed here on the blog.

Look for plenty of more pieces on this website that are hard hitting, that’s the nature of politics. But look for us to do a better job of letting you know from where the hit is coming.

Our apologies.

Jon Fleischman Publisher, The FlashReport… Read More