The Race to 270 by Daron R. Shaw was written several years ago but is perfectly relevant in the political discussions occurring today.

Shaw is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, he helped craft some of the techniques to be able to get then-Governor Bush to the magic number of 270 electoral college votes. He was also involved in the 2004 re-election campaign.

The subtitle of the book is "The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004." That is what this book is all about. The reading text is only 170 pages that are a quick read.

We all know that states like Texas, Utah, and Idaho were going to vote Republican. We also know that Massachusetts and New York were going Democrat. This book provides some good information on the way that the Bush, Gore, and Kerry campaigns determined the battleground states and what they did in them and why.

What Shaw does better than any other analysis I have read is to look at the… Read More

The race for San Diego City Attorney is shaping up to be one of the biggest donnybrooks in years, all due to the actions and self-absorption of incumbent Mike Aguirre himself, and the field is fleshing out.

The local GOP has endorsed former Assemblyman and on-leave Judge Jan Goldsmith. A couple of days ago, both Sheriff Bill Kolender and D.A. Bonnie Dumanis threw their significant support to Goldsmith (read the Red County SD post).

The "downtown establishment," including in this case both Democrats and a few business-oriented GOPers caring nada about the party’s preference, are scrambling to narrow their portion of the field. Wednesday’s Alex Roth/Jennifer Vigil U-T story on last Saturday’s by-invite-only meeting to decide between Councilman Scott Peters and former SD Unified Schools Supe Alan Bersin (both Democrats) as the "coalition candidate," referred to poll results that assisted in the reported jointly-agreed selection of… Read More

Next weekend the Republican faithful of California will descend upon San Francisco for our spring convention. In the last few weeks, delegates have been treated to a deluge of emails and letters encouraging us to vote on leadership positions and various issues coming before the convention. All the matters we will consider are very important not only to the future of our party, but our state. However, the most important matter we will debate is the content of our party platform.

A party’s platform is its heart and soul. It is what unites a diverse group with various interests towards a common goal. Based on a platform’s content, and the adherents’ fidelity to its content, voters are drawn to political parties. The ability to clearly and succinctly communicate our Republican platform is what made President Reagan our finest spokesperson.

When it comes to governance, debates over ideology and political philosophy will inevitably produce heated arguments. Consider the founding of our nation. While all of our Founding Fathers shared the common vision of free and united states, the debates over the document that would bind the nascent republic were incredibly… Read More

Next weekend the Republican faithful of California will descend upon San Francisco for our spring convention. In the last few weeks, delegates have been treated to a deluge of emails and letters encouraging us to vote on leadership positions and various issues coming before the convention. All the matters we will consider are very important not only to the future of our party, but our state. However, the most important matter we will debate is the content of our party platform.

A party’s platform is its heart and soul. It is what unites a diverse group with various interests towards a common goal. Based on a platform’s content, and the adherents’ fidelity to its content, voters are drawn to political parties. The ability to clearly and succinctly communicate our Republican platform is what made President Reagan our finest spokesperson.

When it comes to governance, debates over ideology and political philosophy will inevitably produce heated arguments. Consider the founding of our nation. While all of our Founding Fathers shared the common vision of free and united states, the debates over the document that would bind the nascent republic were incredibly… Read More

As the publisher of this website, on many a day, I am personally scouring over 80 websites to pull together our well-read main news summary page. But there are a number of days, like today, where the "elves" tirelessly put the site together and I get to enjoy the website as a "normal" reader, just like you.

One of the thinks I enjoy about the FR main page is that when there is a big news item, we will cluster together all of the stories written on the subject from the major California dailies. A great example would be today, where a host of stories appear under the banner of "State Fiscal Emergency."

I read through most of the stories (only the most obtuse political hacks care to see how different reporters from different papers cover the same story), and I actually ended up reading the Los Angeles Times story by Evan Halper not once, but twice. It struck me on reading it that a casual reader in L.A., perusing the paper over their Wheaties this morning, would have to… Read More

That was the theme of part of the debate between Larry Dick and Curt Hagman at the SGV Lincoln Club Friday.… Read More

This op-ed appears in today’s Press Enterprise who has been highly critical of the 215/60/91 interchange reconstruction progress.The projectrepresents one of the largest and most complex uses of design sequencing construction ever attempted. There have been problems and delays; however, I believe Mr. Kelley is right on in his following assessment that we throw out this innovation at our community’s peril. But, we must continue to improve upon the application of it.

Don’t drop faster road-work approach because it faltered in Riverside

By NORMAN KELLEY

The Press-Enterprise has been very harsh in its coverage of Caltrans experimenting with design sequencing at the 60/91/215 interchange project in Riverside.

It is undoubtedly correct that design sequencing has delayed this particular project.

On the other hand, we should understand that design sequencing is a successful technique for many products. This is not a new concept, but it is new with respect to Caltrans’ established practices.

There is… Read More

When asked why he robbed banks, the infamous “Slick Willie” Sutton replied, “"because that’s where the money is.” Here in California , the Republican National Committee has put Sutton’s law into full effect. It is clear, based on our analysis, that over the past decade the RNC has engaged in Highway Robbery of the Pacific Coast .

It’s no secret that political candidates and parties routinely rob the Golden State ’s vast resources for political contributions. California acts as an ATM machine where money is taken from here to use elsewhere — campaigns come to California to raise money, but then spend Golden State dollars in other states.

However, the FlashReport’s in-depth analysis of FEC campaign reports reveals a perpetual plundering of California Republicans’ resources for national causes. In 2006, California Republicans returned less than 2¢ for every dollar sent to the Republican National Committee – and that is very unfortunate, and over a period of time, has had a devistating effect here..

**There is more – click the… Read More