Mayor Ashley Swearingen today announced the first round of major budget cuts for the City of Fresno as part of a predicted restructuring due to plummeting tax revenues.

I have a lot of confidence in Ashley. She”s a tough, smart pragmatic leader who listens well and does her homework. While we might not agree on some issues, she’ll never be accused of being unprepared, and she doesn’t back down from her positions with nuanced explanations.

For these economic times, the City of Fresno, along with City Council Members Lee Brand, Andreas Borgeas and Larry Westerlund (all Fresno County Lincoln Club Members) is in good hands. Stay tuned.… Read More

Well respected political analyst Charlie Cook has issued his latest assessment of which U.S. Senate and House races are in play.

In the Senate he places Boxer in the "Leans Democrat" column.

For California House races, most of the seats are either "Safe Democrat" or "Safe Republican."

Here is a breakdown of those in-between (seven seats "in play" – 4D, 3R):

Likely Democrat Cardoza (CA-18) Costa (CA-20) Sanchez (CA-47)

Lean Democrat McNerney (CA-11)

Lean Republican Lungren (CA-3) Calvert (CA-44)

Likely Republican Mary Bono Mack (CA-45)… Read More

[Cross-posted from RedCounty.com]

Former Anaheim Councilman Tom Tait’s campaign for Mayor is metastasizing into a freight train of momentum.

Current Mayor Curt Pringle, who is close friends with Tom (whose last two years on the council overlapped with Curt’s first two as mayor) organized a kick-off Tait fundraiser at The White House in Anaheim that was monstrously successfully, raising $190,000 for Tom’s campaign.

You heard that right:$190,000.

There are candidates who have been running for legislative offices for more than a year who haven’t raised that much money. For a city council candidate to raise that much is practically unheard of. Curt Pringle raised more than $300,000 at a single event for his 2006 re-election drive.

In this case, the candidate has ben out of elected office for almost six years. The massive haul is testament not only to Curt Pringle fundraising prowess, but to Tom Tait’s popularity, which cuts across… Read More

November 19, 2009

It’s a Tax, stupid.

by Acquanetta Warren

Halloween is over, but the fright is just beginning. At a time when taxpayers are struggling with a faltering economy, plummeting home values, declining retirement investments and education savings, salary cuts or job losses, and reduced public safety services, the state is there to help by adding to the burden. Talk about dumb.

It shouldn’t be allowed to happen, but it is – and at the worst possible time.

I’m talking… Read More

This video of Stephen Colbert interviewing California Congresswoman Jackie Speier is awesome. It is totally a must-watch video. Thank to Torey over at the SacBee for hipping me to it.

The exchanges on gay marriage are… priceless. And Colbert’s razzing of Speier’s proposal to allow 14 year olds to vote… A must watch…

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c … Read More

Today the Governor announced that he is promoting Fred Aguiar to be Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor. At the same time, he has tapped Aguiar’s long-time protege and trusted right-hand Scott Reid to be Cabinet Secretary (the primary liaison between the Governor’s Executive Office and the various Agency heads).

Aguiar has served in the Schwarzenegger Administration in a variety of capacities from Agency Secretary to Cabinet Secretary, to Commission appointee. Aguiar has served on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors (during what now seems like the good old days) and served in the State Assembly.

I have known Aguiar for many years and know him to be a calm, collected and pretty conservative guy. We applaud Governor Schwarzenegger for elevating Aguiar’s role in his administration.

That said, Fred, your job will certainly be a tough one. The seeming inability of the Governor to apply any consistency in his governing philosophy (except his now record-long… Read More

I guess it’s almost time for us to just establish the "web ad of the day" feature here on the FlashReport. Today’s featured piece has been produced by the Poizner for Governor campaign, and it seeks to highlight the fact that while Meg Whitman has taken a pro "turn on the water" position in terms of the federal orders to keep water from being pumped from the delta in order to preserve the Delta Smelt, Whitman’s family foundation has apparently donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Environmental Defense Fund, which has as one of its priorities the preservation of said Delta Smelt.

Here is is the background data for the ad.

Jarrod Agen, of the Poizner campaign, also adds (this is lifted from his e-mail):

In 2007 and 2008, Meg Whitman gave $300,000 to EDF’s Center for Rivers and Deltas. But in 2009, she’s pretending to support the Central Valley farmers. Earlier this year, Meg Whitman was a “huge fan” of Van Jones. But then a few months later she claims that she … Read More

Earth to Governor Schwarzenegger: We Are In A RECESSION. Times are TOUGH. People are OUT OF WORK. Those who are working (and certainly those who aren’t) have LESS MONEY TO SPEND.

So it is certinly not appreciated when you sign legislation that sounds nifty but has the practical effect of making this state a more expensive place to live, work or run a business.

I think that it is remarkably tone-deaf of you to praise the California Energy Commission for passing new expensive and onerous regulations while you proudly boast that you veto "job killer" legislation.

Guess what, in your press release today, you are praising job killer regulation.

At some point, you need to come to terms with the fact that your aggressive agenda to cause people to consume less energy and emit less carbon comes at a significant economic cost.

If you want to "feel good" — donate your own carbon credits and go buy your own more expensive energy-efficient big screen television. But it is wrong to force everyone else to jump through your hoops so that can hang with Al Gore… Read More