Yesterday’s announcement from the California Chamber of Commerce that their Board of Directors voted to place their organization in opposition to Proposition 93, the naked power grab being orchestrated by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to extend his own political career, is a major setback for the measure. But I can’t say that the Chamber’s position was unexpected — Nunez has to have been expecting it — because, frankly, he caused it.

You see, the leadership of the California Chamber was involved in an intense period of negotiations with legislative leaders to broker a compromise where some form of term-limits reform would be coupled with redistricting reform. Nunez abruptly ended these negotiations, turning his back not only on the Chamber, but also on the Governor and fellow legislative leaders, and filed his own ballot initiative. The Nunez measure, now Proposition 93, of course has no redistricting reform in it at all.… Read More

(If this post seems familiar, we’ve used the "Disneyland" analogy below before, as this isn’t the first time that the liberals in the media have "lept" onto a poorly worded survey to assert public opinion.) As FR contributor and public opinion pollster Adam Probolsky likes to say, a poll is only as good as what you ask, and to whom you ask it. So I was quite amused to see so much enthusiasm erupt from the liberal media and left-wing Democrats when the Field Poll released their latest survey response. The source of their glee?

Their question asks a sampling of random Californians if they support the current health care proposal before the legislature.

The response to this question: 38% Favor Strongly, 34% Favor Somewhat, 12% Oppose Somewhat, 11% Oppose Strongly and 13% No Opinion.

Here is the problem — the question is a "feel good" rosy one… Read More

Yesterday’s announcement from the California Chamber of Commerce that their Board of Directors voted to place their organization in opposition to Proposition 93, the naked power grab being orchestrated by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to extend his own political career, is a major setback for the measure. But I can’t say that the Chamber’s position was unexpected — Nunez has to have been expecting it — because, frankly, he caused it.

You see, the leadership of the California Chamber was involved in an intense period of negotiations with legislative leaders to broker a compromise where some form of term-limits reform would be coupled with redistricting reform. Nunez abruptly ended these negotiations, turning his back not only on the Chamber, but also on the Governor and fellow legislative leaders, and filed his own ballot initiative. The Nunez measure, now Proposition 93, of course has no redistricting reform in it at all.… Read More

After Friday, the FR main page will be on haitus until we return in full-force starting Wednesday, January 2nd (we’ll still have plenty of good reading on this blog page). On the 2nd, we’ll be announcing the FlashReport 2007 Legislators of the Year. We will be singling out for honors one member of the State Senate, one member of the State Assembly, and one member of the California Delegation to Congress.

The FlashReport team will be huddled over the holidays looking at everything from voting records, to effectiveness, to support of the conservative cause.

As an FR reader, we invite you to make your suggestions to us, along with your reasoning. If you send in an e-mail, your name will be held in confidence, but we’ll give you direct feedback. Or you can send in your suggestion anonymously.

Thanks for your input… Read More

Today it was announced that the California Chamber of Commerce has officially come out against what we call the “Fabian Nunez Career Politician Term Limits Loosening Initiative” aka “The Big Lie” measure.

The Chamber’s opposition is a clear sign that the business community has had its fill of the hubris of Fabian Nunez.

I’m sure we’ll have more on this later on…… Read More

In 1866, Mark Twain said that "no man’s life, liberty or property is safe when the legislature is in session." Congress is now out of session so your life, liberty and property are safe until mid-January.

We engage in some pretty hard discourse on very weighty topics in this regular missive. Now, as the holidays approach, it’s time to talk about something even more important than taxes, spending, war, and energy policy.

By that I mean, of course, college football.

Now I follow college football, along with NASCAR and Formula One racing. And, like politics, I am not without my opinions. In the interests of full disclosure, my two sons are both undergraduates at USC and the captivating Mrs. Campbell (my wife) did her undergraduate work there as I did my graduate work there. I’m also a USC football season ticket holder and will be going to the Rose Bowl.

OK, disclosures complete. Here are my predictions for the 5 BCS bowls ahead of us over the next few weeks:

Jan. 1, 2008 – Rose Bowl – USC vs. Illinois: USC is going to run over Illinois like Democrats over a proposal to cut a John Murtha… Read More

Perhaps one way that Arnold Schwarzenegger can untangle the Environmental Protection Agencies denial of a waver for California so it can set its own emissions standards would be to actual become the Director of the Federal EPA… There is one candidate for President who is talking about having Arnold his his cabinet, and he’s not eRepublican…

(h/t to TK)… Read More

From today’s WSJ Political Diary E-mail:

Subprime Workout

The retirement wave hasn’t been all bad news for House Republicans. More than a dozen Republicans will be leaving Congress after 2008, but several of them are handing over much of their campaign accounts to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has been struggling all year to get out of debt and catch up with its free-spending Democratic counterpart.

Departing Louisiana Rep. Jim McCrery gave $200,000 at a fundraising meeting held by the House Republican Conference two days ago to retire the NRCC’s debt. New Jersey’s Jim Saxton, sitting on a war chest larger than $1 million, is expected to… Read More