We just received this piece from BOE Member Michelle Steel…

Willie Horton, Maurice Clemmons and Now… By Michelle Park Steel, BOE Member

Kevin Peterson was arrested – for attempted rape, sexual assault, false imprisonment, and violating the terms of his parole – early Tuesday morning, 12 hours after his early release; part of the Governor’s effort to reduce the state’s prison population. He was one of the many released under the Governor’s new release plan. Of course, this plan was to involve only the release of prisoners who were jailed for non-violent offenses. His chosen victim? A female counselor at the Catholic charity, Loaves and Fishes, helping the poor and destitute in our state’s Capital, on a route frequently taken by the very legislators who passed the bill, and the… Read More

The most effective way to communicate with voters in a state as large as California is through television and cable advertising. It also happens to be the most expensive. That said, we can certainly be sure we will get to see a LOT of it coming from the two candidates who want to be the Republican nominee for Governor. Thus far, the campaign of Steve Poizner has not been doing any direct voter contact (obviously choosing to wait until close to the election which is still four months out), and the Whitman campaign has been running a series of statewide radio spots.

As of today, the television "phase" officially begins in this primary — with the announcement today that Meg Whitman’s campaign is launching their first statewide television and cable ad. The ad, which is below, will be running in all of California’s media markets. And our FR sources have verified that it is a substantial seven-figure buy (not one of those minimal buys geared more towards earned media coverage of it).

Clearly this throws the gauntlet down to Whitman’s opponent, Steve Poizner. He’s need to get up his own advertising campaign yesterday if… Read More

I have many fond memories associated with South Lake Tahoe – renting a cabin with friends, a couple of weddings, a couple of rowdy New Years Eves… I’m sure I’m not alone in having a lot of great times at this great postcard perfect vacation spot. But while many of us visit South Lake Tahoe, believe it or not there are nearly 35,000 people who call that city their home.

Whether a visitor or a year round resident of South Lake Tahoe, everyone sees the signature “Go Blue” public buses that zip all around town. For someone like me who doesn’t like to drive in the snow, I’ve hopped on them a time or two.

The reason why I bring this up is because today I am going to devote my column to exposing the bizarre story of John Andoh. John Andoh is the Big Kahuna of the Go Blue public bus transit system – in… Read More

I consider myself a ballot designation junkie. My firm has polled extensively on which ballotdesignations work best for which types of office andin which parts of the state. I enjoy the creativeprocess of coming up with the best three words. Note: Most other states we don’t have ballot designations.

It is usually the third question I ask a candidate after, "Can you really raise money?" and "Whowas your favorite player on the1986 World Series Championship Mets?"

"Whatwill you use for a ballot title?"Actually, the questionsjust got a little more complicated.

Thankthe good folks at Reed & Davidson, some of the top political attorney’s in the state for their quick analysis of the recent changes to the regulations that govern ballot designations. According to an email they sent out today there are several things to watch out for:

-The ambiguity surrounding the use of appointed titles such as mayor and mayor pro tem in cities where those positions rotate among the city council, no longer exists. You can use thedesignationIF they do not… Read More

News reports today informed us that Mission Viejo City Councilman Lance MacLean, the current appointed Mayor, was recalled by the very narrow margin of just 19 votes in the city recall election held last Tuesday. After spending the extraordinary amount of $105,000 to oppose the recall (or about $15 a vote) (one wonders who did the union’s polling!) and lose by just 19 votes, the Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s union might want to demand a "recount" just to satisfy any doubts individual union members might have about the results, or the wisdom, of dumping such a large amount of precious PAC funds down the drain on just this small part of the County.

If union members want a recount, however, they will have to pay for it, adding insult to injury. Under the law, a County Registrar may initiate a recount where he/she believes there has been a miscount of the vote. However, today’s news reports make it clear that the County Registrar’s office, through their spokesperson, has full confidence in their election count. Where the government does not initiate a recount, the law allows any "voter" in the district to request… Read More

I was kind of surprised by the number released in the 36th Senate District GOP Primary to succeed Dennis Hollingsworth.

I know this will be another shocker. I am biased towards the three candidates.

Assemblyman Joel Anderson is sure to be in the race. From October 2007 to December 2008 I was his Chief of Staff and I’ve known him for almost 20 years. I also know school board member Ken Dickson. Good man and a conservative. I have meet Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone and his sister once at the most recent CRP Convention.

But what stunned me was the Cash on Hand numbers for a primary just a few short months away. Anderson had $242,687.60, while Stone had only $84,944.13 and Ken Dickson was only 900 dollars behind that at $84,013.15.

This is significant because of geography in this race. In the 2002 GOP primary about 17% of voters were from the Riverside part of the district. The rest of the district is in Eastern San Diego County. In 2006 the Riverside portion climbed to a little over 19%.

Hollingsworth overcame the geography deficit by being the conservative candidate and he was only candidate from the Riverside portion of the… Read More

This morning columnist Tim Rutten has an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times entitled, "GOP Hard-liners take aim at Cooley" — the substance of the piece being that Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who has announced a bid for the GOP nomination for Attorney General, is not a fan of California’s 3-Strikes-Law and has raised the ire of one of its authors, Mike Reynolds. Rutten quotes from Reynolds’ piece that ran here on the FlashReport (Rutten, of course, doesn’t reference this site as the source of the piece).

Former California Republican Party Chairman read the piece, and was motivated to e-mail over his own response to Rutten’s piece, for your reading pleasure…

I should probably add quickly that I have been in dialogue with Cooley’s campaign about having him pen a column for FR readers about his candidacy, but have had no luck in getting them to agree to do so.… Read More

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