I had a chance to get to know soon-to-beAssemblyman (and fellow FR blogger) Curt Hagmanthis past weekend and see him in action.

I’m impressed.

I’m not able to give you the when, where, what and why’s of our encounter – it would complicate the very significant issue we were trying to fix – what I can say is that Curt showed right away he is a driven problem solver and absolutely knows what he’s talking about. He has solutions that are common-sense and a plan of action to get it done.

Something happened that I’ve not seen before at the meeting that speaks volumes about the leadership of Curt. A very high ranking government official asked this not yet an Assemblyman to come to Sacramento to work with them to work on the issue.

I wish I could say who it was – because in the 14 years I’ve been in government, I’ve never seen this dynamic happen. To be honest, most "nominees" aren’t paid attention to much – because they don’t have a vote yet.. Curt transcended that easily.

I’m always glad when I run across people that have given themselves to… Read More

We are pleased to offer commentary this morning from longtime FR friend Lanci Izumi. Lance is Senior Director in Education Studies for the Pacific Research Institute. The piece was inspired by the recent headlines about the alarmingly high drop-out rates in California’s public schools…

THE DROPOUT DISASTER: WE TOLD YOU SO By Lance Izumi In 1997, the Pacific Research Institute released the first of its ongoing California Index of Leading Education Indicators, which included a chapter on… Read More

I have had the good pleasure of knowing both George and Sharon Runner going back to long before either was in the State Legislature. As a matter of fact, both were among my supporters back in the mid-90’s in my successful campaign for State President of the California Republican Assembly. At the time, George was President of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly.

Anyways, I make no bones about the fact that the purpose of the FlashReport is both to promote the conservative cause, and to help my friends.

So when I got a phone call from Senator Runner, asking if I would be interested in having him join the FR blog pen as a legislative correspondent — well, I said yes quicker than you could imagine.

George is a good conservative, and a smart guy. I guess now we will all be able to judge whether, with those qualities as ammunition, he will make a good blogger!

His first post (of many to come) will be on the blog soon. Please welcome to the FR blog Senate Republican Caucus… Read More

The Field Poll is at it again.

We have talked on this site before about how the way that the Field Poll determines the folks that they survey is skewed to produce a more left-of-center response than other surveys…

Today, Field released numbers showing that Proposition 8 – the initiative to protect marriage – is gaining among likely voters. The Poll also shows that advocates of same-sex marriage are losing ground, down from 54% according to the Field Poll on May 28.

But while the Field Poll shows gains for Proposition 8, it continues to understate the support to uphold the definition of marriage.

“The Field Poll is an outlier among all of the publicly published polling on this initiative,” said Frank Schubert, Campaign Manager for Proposition 8. “The figures appear to be understated by a minimum of 10 percent.”

This isn’t the first time the Field Poll has underestimated support for the issue.

During Proposition 22 in the year 2000, the Field Poll consistently reported support to uphold marriage at around 50%, when in fact the measure won with a substantial 61% of votes at the ballot box on Election Day.

FR… Read More

Oh boy. This the second time in just a couple of weeks that I have agreed with something said by lame-duck Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata. The first time we agreed was when he said that we need to resolve the state budget issue before we turn our sights to the water crisis and a massive bond measure proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein.

It’s being reported over on the SacBee’s Capitol Alert website (registration required) that Perata says the he is opposed to borrowing more money in order to deal with the budget crisis. I couldn’t agree more with that particular sentiment. Now we have a huge chasm of disagreement from there. Perata doesn’t want borrowing, he wants a massive increase in taxes on Californians to allow for a permanently bigger and fatter state government. I, on the other hand, want to see real and deep cuts to government agencies and programs, rolling back the unprecidented growth in California government over the past few years.

If I end up agreeing with Perata any more, we may have to invite him to blog for… Read More

We are pleased to offer commentary this morning from longtime FR friend Lanci Izumi. Lance is Senior Director in Education Studies for the Pacific Research Institute. The piece was inspired by the recent headlines about the alarmingly high drop-out rates in California’s public schools…

THE DROPOUT DISASTER: WE TOLD YOU SO By Lance Izumi

In 1997, the Pacific Research Institute released the first of its ongoing California Index of Leading Education Indicators, which included a chapter on California’s dropout rate. The Index warned that the state Department of Education missed legions of dropouts… Read More

The President Thursday visited the western Shasta County area to view the fire damage and ongoing threat to people and infrastructure that the fire poses. It started with a briefing with CalFire, US Forest Service, National Guard, Rural School officials, many local firefighters, as well as some of us local electeds. The Marine helicopters were posed waiting for the arrival of Air Force One, the sound of whichthe airport didn’t seem big enough to accomodate.

Soon, The President joined us in the hanger for the briefing, shaking hands with all of us gathered [yeah!]before viewing the maps of the fire and damaged areas with the fire personnel before the helicopter flight, which would include Shasta Dam, a federal Central Valley Project structure, whose electricity generation andtransmission infrastructure had been threatened from shutdown by fire. Accompanying the President on the flight out from D.C.and then the copter ride was our local Congressman Wally Herger, along with… Read More

We have spent a considerable amount of electronic ink on this page criticizing California Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis (pictured) for embracing the "culture of big spending" that we believe played a large role in the eventual collapse of Congressional Republicans into minority status. Lewis, who served as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and now serves as the top Republican, has a very unsavory attititude about even the most egregious pork earmarks dished up on Capitol Hill — I’ll vote for yours if you vote for mine. That, combined with a rather imperious attitude when in comes to the primacy of "Appropriators" as the dominant class in Congress, make him the kind of Republican that is indistinguishable, most of the time, from a Democrat. (Check out this startling CNN video on Lewis). … Read More