As the California Republican Party begins its three-day spring 2008 statewide convention in San Francisco, there is a surprisingly high level of energy evident among those in attendance. Hosted at the beautiful Hyatt Hotel in the City By The Bay’s Downtown district, GOP activists are flocking to the nation’s most left-wing city eager to affect the course of the state’s Republican Party. Candidates – and their supporters – standing for various offices throughout California are present in hopes of broadening their support. A large contingent of enthusiastic young supporters from Harry Sidhu’s State Senate campaign is here, Assemblymembers Sam Blakeslee, Alan Nakanishi and Anthony Adams are also here among the crowd. Among the intra-party offices most fiercely contested is the campaign for California’s committeeman representative to the RNC (each of the 50 states elect a committeeman and a committeewoman). Longtime incumbent Tim Morgan is facing popular former CRP Chair … Read More

Well I did it again. I’ve taken another step in making the world safer from global warming.

We proudly present SB 1374………..

… Read More

Businessman Ken King, owner of San Diego Pools, has decided against running in the open 52nd congressional race (Hunter seat). Although the rumor has floated for several days, there has been no confirming statement from the campaign. Today, however, two independent sources acknowledged King’s decision. I have a call into King for a possible statement.

The current remaining GOP field includes Marine Captain Duncan D. Hunter, Santee Councilman Brian Jones and County Board of Ed President Bob Watkins. The Democrats include former El Cajon Planning Commissioner Vickie Butcher and retired Navy Commander Mike Lumpkin.… Read More

This weekend the California Republican Party is holding its biannual convention in San Francisco!

As such, I’m at the convention (actually sitting in a Board of Directors Meeting) so blogging (from me) will be light…… Read More

I received quite a few emails about who controls the California Republican party. Many have mistaken uprisings and demonstrations with control. The main question people ask is how do can Conservatives get more control of the Party?

The short answer is run for office.

The next two weeks Republicans will be running for various Assembly, State Senate and Congressional races. Obviously in seats that are Republican there is little trouble filling those seats. However, those with heavy Democratic registrations face a different story. So why run in these long shot or impossible seats. There are several reasons.

Of course, you get free publicity. Newspapers do interviews with all the candidates. Any money that is raised goes to mail and sign raising your name identification. You can use this in local races.

You get to talk about issues you care about. In some district you can get Democrats to spend money against you. Campaigning helps GOP turnout.

And very importantly, if you are the nominee you get a seat on the local AND… Read More

I had a chance to meet Elizabeth Hill, the Legislative Analyst, last December at the joint legislative retreat of Senate and Assembly Republicans. She is a remarkably pleasant person, and clearly someone who has a grasp of state fiscal issues. That said, I have to say that I was extremely disappointed at the "Alternative Budget" that her office released yesterday, that is the source of so many MSM news stories today. Why the disappointment? Because Hill in a very antiseptic way is looking at the gap between projected state incoming and projected state spending, and is making proposals to "fill the gap" with a combination of spending cuts and de facto tax increase (by slashing existing tax credits) and proposing more fee increases. In other words, Hill is siding solidly on the side of "growing" state government to deal with what we have said all along is an over-spending problem. If you go back over the last few budgets, you will see that there has been a *massive* increase in state spending, that is the root of the problem. It is completely unfair to… Read More

According to the LAO, the only way out of our budget mess is raising taxes. And here’s another shocker—the Democrats think her recommendations are BRILLANT! Oh, and so does George Skelton.

None of this is a surprise. Nor is the fact that the budget gap continues to grow. It all comes down to Gov. Schwarzenegger.

Many of us here on the pages of the Flashreport have been disappointed with many decisions that have come out of the Governor’s Office in the past couple of years. We’re not happy with the people—effectively Gov. Gray Davis’ top staffers—with whom the governor has filled his office (at the same time, there some good people continue to work on the governor’s behalf, both in and out of the horseshoe). But the real test of the governor’s leadership—and his ability to stand by his word to the people of… Read More

I had a chance to meet Elizabeth Hill, the Legislative Analyst, last December at the joint legislative retreat of Senate and Assembly Republicans. She is a remarkably pleasant person, and clearly someone who has a grasp of state fiscal issues. That said, I have to say that I was extremely disappointed at the "Alternative Budget" that her office released yesterday, that is the source of so many MSM news stories today. Why the disappointment? Because Hill in a very antiseptic way is looking at the gap between projected state incoming and projected state spending, and is making proposals to "fill the gap" with a combination of spending cuts and de facto tax increase (by slashing existing tax credits) and proposing more fee increases. In other words, Hill is siding solidly on the side of "growing" state government to deal with what we have said all along is an over-spending problem. If you go back over the last few budgets, you will see that there has been a *massive* increase in state spending, that is the root of the problem. It is completely unfair to… Read More