Did you miss the joint appearance of Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton on Saturday night live? LOL. … Read More

**Steve Poizner Files Papers – Launches Gubernatorial Exploratory Committee** **Announces Impressive Array of Early Endorsements; Taps Key Campaign Team Members**

Last evening my phone rang — it was State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner calling to let me know that he has formally decided to run for the Republican nomination for California Governor, and that tomorrow (now today) his campaign would be going down to the California Secretary of State’s Office to formally file papers for an Exploratory Committee for Governor. I just received a call confirming that this has taken place!

I told Commissioner Poizner that while this news was hardly unexpected, that it was certainly exciting, and of… Read More

As the General Election approaches, we here at the FlashReport are going to be paying more attention – a LOT more attention – to the race for Congress in California’s 11th District, most of which is located in the Tracy/Stockton area of the Central Valley, with a chunk of it going over the hills into the East Bay Area. The incumbent candidate is Democrat Jerry McNerney, who is a far left extremist, who is totally out of synch with a district that is moderate in some areas, and quite conservative in others. The challenger is GOP fiscal hawk Dean Andal, who served in the State Legislature and on the State Board of Equalization.

I took a few minutes to start “researching” McNerney and, well, let’s just say that there is a ton of stuff available that shows how extreme and out-of-touch McNerney is with his constituents.

Just to start the ball rolling, let’s start with a “Look… Read More

The Democrats came this close to sneaking in a measure (in one of the budget trailer bills) that would have given future prisoners one day credit for each day served behind bars — for doing nothing more than breathing. (Read an earlier post that explains this concept in better detail)

But luckily for California families and law-abiding citizens everywhere, the "prison-credit sneak" was caught before it became law.

Now other public safety measures contained within the trailer bills are in dispute — specifically the fixes Republicans requested for the bi-partisan 2007 prisonmeasure (Assembly Bill 900) that would build more prison beds and Prison Receiver J. Clark Kelso’s prison bond (Senate Bill 1665) that relates to prison health care.

Stay tuned …… Read More

Democrats don’t want to cut any more. Republicans don’t want to tax Californians any more. The great divide is measured in billions. So how do you arrive at a budget that closes this gap, without cuts, and without taxes? Enter the crazy left-wing bean counters who, for their Democrat bosses, can come up with every trick or gimmick.

Get this one — part of the "deal" allegedly is to basically force every California taxpayer to pay their taxes — earlier. How, you ask? Well if you are a salaried employee, while your total tax liability to the state doesn’t change (that would be a tax increase, right?), your employer will now take out the taxes you do owe earlier in the fiscal year. So you’ll pay more state taxes in August – December than you will from January – June. And if you are an individual or a business paying quarterly taxes? Gone will be your quarterly payments, each 25% of your… Read More

The State budget debate is supposed to be tonight, as floor sessions for both houses are scheduled for 4 PM. Our Assembly Republican caucus meets a little earlier as I expect the others from both house and parties will too. Floor session doesn’t usualy actuualy start on time so I expect the debate will be well into the night as the fine points are brought up, contemplated and hammered out. Importantly, much can go on with the budget trailer bills, of which there are several. They need close scrutiny. All in all, one way or the other, it appears we will have this done and on its way to the Governor within 24 hours. But anything can happen between houses or the respective parties to cause a hiccup in this time line.… Read More

OC/Riverside Congressman Ken Calvert lead the effort among the nineteen CA Republican Members of Congress last week to push Nancy Pelosi to allow a vote on an energy bill that includes domestic oil drilling off the Outer Continental Shelf as part of an all-of-the-above solution.

Seventeen of the nineteen CA GOP lawmakers joined Calvert and signed the letter (below).

Calvert who has shown leadership on the issue of energy independence also launched a web page www.alloftheaboveenergy.org that urges voters to sign a petition to Speaker Pelosi.

California State Legislators should pay attention to this too because the letter also highlights the prospects for the State of California to see a big windfall from the sale of this newly pumped oil off our coast. I bet there are a few Democrat legislators who would ‘sell out the environment’ for another couple billion in state revenues to play with.… Read More

A bit of buzz resulted last week from the news that Republican members of the Assembly wore name tags in a caucus budget discussion with the Governor. It may have been off-handedly amusing to those who devised the idea, knowing full well the Governor himself would find it as such, especially after his apparent recent admission that he has little contact with GOP legislators.

Yet, the name tag idea wouldn’t have been conceived at all, had the reality of the matter not existed. It’s likely the Governor doesn’t know all of the GOP legislators by name or by face. Or, at least, not their interests and concerns.

The episode is ironic, given this Governor’s start.

Hark back to mid-November 2003, a couple of days after Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th Governor of California. A Republican legislator stopped in with a request for the chief executive’s receptionist. The lawmaker explained that when some of his Sacramento guests… Read More