Jeff Stone is a Riverside County Supervisor and Candidate for Senate in the 36th District, where Dennis Hollingsworth is termed out..

REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP NEEDED TO STOP ABEL MALDONADO Supervisor Jeff Stone Confirming Abel Maldonado, Governor Schwarzenegger’s unfortunate choice for Lieutenant Governor, would be a disaster for California taxpayers and an affront to the traditional conservative values that are the foundation of the Republican Party. Since… Read More

I am told that a vote is scheduled in the State Senate and Assembly this morning on whether to confirm Republican-In-Name-Only Abel Maldonado to be California’s next Lieutenant Governor. I’ve written so much about this issue on this blog that I am not going to go into all of it over again, I will just reemphasize the key points…

Maldonado doesn’t deserve the support of Republicans because…

he wants to destroy our party (Prop. 14). he broke his own voluntary pledge not to raise new taxes. his loyalty to the GOP Caucus is non-existent, never playing team ball but preferring to leverage himself as a "swing vote" on just about any issue. his votes will make it almost impossible for you to defend yours for him.

And, the most important reasons why Republicans should reject Maldonado…

a vote for Maldonado is an affirmation of the politics and policies of Arnold Schwarzenegger. a vote for Maldonado is indefensible to the very grassroots people, like in the Tea Party, that we are trying to unify behind Republicans. This vote will set back efforts to bring … Read More

After several attempts to get the votes to get the votes to confirm Maldonado, all of which failed — the first motion to confirm failed. Astonishingly EVERY Republican voted for him, except Chuck DeVore who laid off, and Danny Gilmore who is apparently home in his district, ill (but who is now driving up to the Capitol to vote FOR the confirmation).

Republicans made a request to reconsider (reserving the right to bring it up for another vote). Democrats counted with a motion, which passed, to bring up the reconsideration vote immediately. This caused the Republicans to call a Caucus to discuss the matter.

As far as I am concerned, Republicans should be saying, behind close doors, "This is perfect! We don’t like or want Maldonado, but we’ve shown our GOP solidarity — and we don’t have to have Maldonado as Lt. Governor. In fact, the Democrats now look like the partisans."

Republicans should just lay down at this point, let the Democrats defeat the motion for reconsideration, and everything can let Maldonado that this is his "thank you" for blackmailing the legislature last year to put his… 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

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

Republican State Senator Abel Maldonado’s appointment by the Governor to the position of Lt. Governor has now been approved by the Senate Rules committee and "forwarded without recommendation" by the appropriate Assembly committee. Votes on the Senate and Assembly floors could occur any time now up to about February 22. If the houses do not act, Maldo will be confirmed.

The press seems to think that Maldo will be approved by the Senate but will have a rougher time in the Assembly, which could reject the nomination. If Maldo is rejected, what will happen?

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier and Ross column today has an insight on what will happen: they say that the Governor may very well appoint former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg to the position, and the Legislature will need to go through the whole process again. Because the Maldo nomination will be at its end before filing for statewide office closes in early March, Hertzberg would be well-situated to open a political committee to run for the office as well.

Hertzberg was… Read More