Official Statement of California Republican Party Vice Chairman, South, Jon Fleischman in response to an announcement today (see here) that at the “recommendation” of Senator John McCain, the RNC has announced that they are definitely scrapping tomorrow night’s convention session and leaving the opening that they might just cancel the whole thing (except “technical requirements” to place McCain/Palin on the ballot): **See Disclaimer Below**

"I couldn’t disagree more with this response to the tragic pending landfall of Hurricane Gustav along the Gulf coast. Of course this is a horrible occurrence, and I am sure that everyone agrees that all efforts humanly possible to assist those in need to should be taken.

I totally understand and appreciate if Senator McCain, President… Read More

Well, my convention guest, Erik Brown, and I just landed in Minneapolis airport. While we were generally disappointed no passengers on our flight in were carryinh stuffed red, white and blue elephants, we had a great trip out.

While we are tired from all of the cross-country travel, we’re not the most tired. Staring at an empty baggage carousel near ours, waiting for baggage after an even longer flight was the GOP Governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle. Erik and I said hello with a tired enthusiasm that she managed to meet.

We’re currently off to the Bloomington Sheraton, which will now be the satellite HQ of the FlashReport for the next five days.

This week I encourage FR readers to keep an extra eye on the FlashReport and this blog for fun snippits out of the Republican National Convention. As my friend Anthony York of Capitol Weekly pointed out in his DNC Convention coverage — no real “news” comes out of these staged events. So we’ll be looking to bring you some up-close observations. For my part, I will attempt to be sarcastic and insightful in my observations, as you would hope and expect!… Read More

This afternoon, a Republican budget package was released at a press conference here at the Capitol. It has no tax increases in it and is a very responsible base to work from in the budget discussions that need to happen very soon. Speculation is there will be an actual vote on it in the Senate. Many details [and criticisms from the spending community] will come soon!… Read More

Imagine a family – we’ll call them the Smiths – who are financially successful beyond the dreams of most Americans.

They have all the trappings of wealth – a large custom home with a pool and a wine cellar; a ski chalet in the mountains and home at the beach; two expensive cars in the garage; membership at a private golf course; designer clothes; annual exotic vacations; all the latest toys and gadgets for their children – the list goes on.

Now imagine the Smiths have hit tough financial times – but not because of job losses or failing health; in fact both Smiths have received substantial pay raises and bonuses in the past five year.

No, their financial woes stem from overspending and poor planning. For every dollar they’ve earned, a $1.10 was spent.

The most likely means to eliminating their debt and building a savings is through selling off assets and cutting back on vacations, designer clothes and golf.

But the Smiths will have none of that. Instead they ask for their friends to bail them out. Of course, their friends are outraged. After all, the friends have acted responsibly by living within their means and putting… Read More

UPDATE 5:30PM — Senate Republicans released more details on their plan. I have replaced the attachments to this post with one new single attachment (in .pdf form) containing all of the details released on this no new taxes plan. California’s Republican legislators today unveiled a budget compromise that balances the state budget with no tax increases, and with no borrowing from local government or transportation funds. The proposal was unveiled earlier this afternoon by Senate Republicans, led by Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill who was joined by his colleagues. They were joined by Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines and also Roger Niello, the Vice-Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, in a strong statement of GOP bicameral support.

I have attached some documentation that was disseminated by Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill with some high-level detail on the plan. Gone is the Governor’s proposed increase in the… Read More

Even though I officially term out the end of November, today is really my last day as a voting member of the California Legislature. (except for that pesky budget – which I am going to ignore in this farewell post – we’ll get it done eventually).

I’ve had the great honor and privilege of serving my constituents for 14 years and I have to say — it was a great run.

My father’s career as a member of congress and later a federal judge is what got me interested in public service. He showed me if you stayed true to your beliefs and handled your responsibilities with integrity, then you could make a positive difference. I hope I lived up to his standard.

Fourteen years ago I thought I’d give it a shot and ran for the Assembly. I knew from the beginning I was going to win – it was only after I was elected did I learn that nobody else in Sacramento shared my optimism. You’re not supposed to be able to beat the Democrat Majority Leader and Willie Brown’s handpicked heir apparent as the next Speaker. Nobody told me that. Nobody told the voters that, and we won that year be 13… Read More

State Senator Lou Correa has to be wondering if Senate President Don Perata takes input from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. Today the State Senate voted on a budget plan that represents negotiations between Perata and Governor Schwarzenegger. Left out of the process in any meaningful way was Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Senate Republicans. You know what? You can tell. The so-called "compromise budget" is a bad budget, containing as its main eyesore a multi-billion dollar tax sales tax increase that will wallop California’s economy for years.

The plan put forth by the Governor deserves to be voted down outright — but the proposal on the Senate Floor is even worse than the Governor’s — the Governor calls for a three year increase in the sales taxes, followed by a decrease after that to permanently lower the state sales tax over the long haul. While we are dubious that this decrease would ever really occur, Senate Democrats want nothing of it. Their plan hikes the rate for three years, and then returns it back to existing levels.

The "roll" is still being held open in the Senate, where every… Read More

Reporting from the floor of the California State Senate…….

After over two months the Senate Democrats finally decided to put up the budget for a vote. FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.

Senator Perata just finished railing at the governor – then saying he was through with negotiating with us. The problem is – he never started negotiating with us in the first place.

Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill has asked time and time again to sit down and work out a budget deal. Perata just doesn’t respond.

The Senate Democrats have taken the tack of working out a "deal" with the governor – which includes a tax increase – then having the governor "pick off" the two weakest Republican Senators.

They’re doing this because its a tried and true tradition – it’s exactly what they did last year. And didn’t that work out well….. Remember last year? We were called "terrorists", "whackos" and "extremists" – then locked in the chambers overnight to try and force us into… Read More