Today, longtime generally center-left columnist George Skelton at the Los Angeles Times penned a lengthy missive that was no less than a full-fletched smack-down of GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. Skelton’s major assault on Whitman comes from his belief that she is out of line in how she characterizes the massive size of state government and an ever-growing unsustainable state workforce. You can hear Skelton fuming as he types, “Whitman didn’t call them civil servants, of course. She used the time-tested conservative, red meat pejoratives ‘bureaucrats’ and bureaucracy.’”

Skelton assaults Whitman as if she is literally attacking every single state government employee as terrible and evil. The reality is that it is pretty clear, from reading Whitman’s remarks (the whole speech to which Skelton refers can be read here), that she is making a generalization about the vast size of the state’s work force, and when Whitman says, “…And a… Read More

Are you signed up yet for the upcoming Western Conservative Political Action Conference? Let me tell you that this is one event you will not want to miss. It will be held in Orange County on Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17. Rather than me trying to lobby you, as a Co-Chairman of the event, to attend — let me just direct you to the Western CPAC website where you can check out the fantastic agenda and pre-register for this must-attend conference.

For those following the GOP primary for Governor, it is of note that both Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman will be appearing at this event (while I know Western CPAC Chairman Jim Lacy will have tried to get them both into a mud pit, I think they are both scheduled to speak at a reception).… Read More

According to Capitol Weekly, Governor Schwarzenegger has all but said that without a comprehensive water deal coming together, he is prepared to nuke all of the hundreds of bills sitting on his desk.

We here at the FlashReport have said solving the state’s water problems in a fiscally responsible way should be a top priority of the legislature and Governor.

That said, I think that it would be tremendous bonus, at this point, if the process of reaching an accord on a solution to the water problems could take just long enough to allow the Governor to veto every bill on his desk.

This would save the taxpayers vast amounts of money, and kill tons of new fees and regulations that Capitol Democrats sent to his desk despite the sour state of the economy.

As former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown basically says in… Read More

Our California political system makes party nominees and the party the focus of the November general election. However, for the June primary election the candidates are on their own. Although the state and local parties have the legal power they rarely intervene in a primary fight and should never do so without some overriding reason where the endorsement helps the party.

Never until a week ago when the Ventura County Republican Central Committee endorsed a candidate for my job, and I am told they did so with no candidate debate, and in fact only one candidate invited. I am termed-out of my position on the Board of Equalization and there are 4 candidates pursuing the campaign. There is no reason in the world that the Republican Party voters in the 2nd District should not be allowed to choose their own nominee without party interference. This is an insult to the Republican voters in the 2nd District.

Now Barbara Alby (whom I have endorsed), Alan Nakanishi, and Roy Ashburn will have no political choice but to go after county central committee endorsements. I… Read More

Testimony of then 14-year-old female victim against alleged 49-year-old perpetrator:

– She said he plied her with alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance.

– "After that, he proceeded to rape me.”

– “Anything I showed resistance or hesitation to, he would say, ‘…you have to experience the lowest form of humanity…’”

– She said he was motivated by sex and used his supposed position to get what he wanted.

Testimony of then 13-year-old female victim against admitted 43-year-old perpetrator:

– She said he plied her with alcohol and drugs.

– She said he then performed oral, vaginal and anal rape on her.

– She told him she wanted to go home. "I was ready to cry. I was going, ‘No. Come on. Stop it.’” – She said that after he found out she was not using birth control, he anally raped her.

It doesn’t really matter which of the two testimonies is from the… Read More

Today, the Wall Street did a story on recent all night sessions of the legislature. While not a new occurrence, there has been an increased frequency of sleep deprived legislators being asked to vote on legislation that few have had a chance to review. It isn’t a good trend. Legislators, their staff, the public, and the press have a right to be involved in the legislative process. Next year, I’ll be introducing legislation to require all bills to be in print and online for 72 hours before they can be voted on. It will include a prevision for a natural disaster or unforeseeable situation that would require quicker action. But in my 11 months in the legislature, I can’t remember a single vote that could not have waited a few hours for the proper sunshine.

Check out this link to read the entire… Read More

In the continuing saga of what some might describe as "Which Republican candidate’s history can top the others in the surprising category," Carla Marinucci at the SF Chronicle has the news that Meg Whitman both endorsed and contributed big bucks to Senator Barbara Boxer in 2003.

Absent from the Whitman spokesperson response in the article is any acknowledgement from the candidate she now considers the Boxer support a mistake. So, does she stand by it?

I wonder what Bill Jones must think?… Read More

California’s 10th Congressional District is "Ground Zero" right now — with voters in that East Bay District preparing to choose between either Democrat John Garamendi or Republican David Harmer to replace Rep. Ellen Tauscher who vacated the seat to take a position in the Obama Administration.

The question is whether this seat, carved out to be held by a Democrat, is vulnerable to a GOP pickup or not. The Harmer for Congress campaign has just released some new polling data that suggests that this race is going to be a lot more competitive than Lt. Governor Garamendi or the DCCC want it to be.

Let’s preface the new polling data with a look at the generic Republican vs. Democrat numbers from a survey taken August 2/3 (350 person sample). When voters were asked would they vote for a Republican or a Democrat, 29% said Republican, and 52% said Democrat.

Fast forward now to just a few days ago, and a survey conducted by the… Read More