FEBRUARY WATER BOND EVAPORATING… I spoke with Senate Repubican Leader subsequent to yesterday’s "Big 5" meeting — and he reported that there was no resolution on moving forward with a water bond package for the February ballot. Of course we are right on the timing cusp where soon there would be no ability to place something on the February ballot at all…

FABIAN NUNEZ – MR. CONGENIALITY – NOT! When Fabian "Louis Vuitton" Nunez pushed back this week’s planned Assembly Floor Session (to presumably put up Democrat votes for a terrible government-health care plan) — he moved it to next week. Apparently session is now scheduled to overlap with the joint Senate/Assembly GOP Retreat in San Diego. According to Shane Goldmacher at the Sacramento Bee, Nunez isn’t planning to move the session. Then again,… Read More

I got a call this morning from a radio reporter asking me what I thought about the UCLA study saying illegals don’t use the emergency room that much, because they are afraid of identifying themselves. I read the story.

The last part was interesting. They used a randomized phone survey to get this info. There you have it. Illegals won’t get medical care because they are afraid of identifying themselves, but to strangers calling to ask questions over the phone they always, I mean always tell them they are here illegally breaking the law. That seems like USC thinking to me.… Read More

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is already trying to use the massive financial shortfall of revenues against budgeted expenditures to make the case for why we have to look at tax increases. His Deputy Chief of Staff, Steve Maviglio, reposted on his blog an article that talks about how taxes need to be increased, and targets the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, lamenting the protection it afforded to homeowners.

One of the more credible voices in Sacramento on state finance is Assemblyman Roger Niello. As the lead Republican on budget issues, he lays out the case for why we do, indeed, have an over-spending problem in California State Government…

Revenues Are Not The Problem… Read More

We here at the FlashReport would like to extend our sincere congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Jim Brulte! Last Saturday, in a small private ceremony in Hawaii, Jim and his bride declared their vows for one another, and became husband and wife. As most FR readers know, Jim Brulte is a former State Senate and State Assembly Republican Leader. If you’d care to drop a congratulatory note to the newlyweds, you can do so here. Of course, if Mrs. Brulte becomes a handful for the Senator, there is someone he can consult for relationship advice. Oh yes, if you are a little curious about who it is that captured Jim’s heart… You’ll have to find out elsewhere – although if you have $99 bucks to spare, you can buy her what she has always wanted mounted on the wall of her home. :-) … Read More

Want a little post-Thanksgiving stomach ache? Visit EdVoice’s ‘Carbon Free Voting’ website at www.carbonfreevoting.com. In short, Carbon Free Voting is a campaign absentee voter program disguised as a ‘green’ activity you and yours can do to help save the environment. What is the pitch? Signup through carbon free voting for an absentee ballot, which allows “voters to vote by mail, rather than by car, reducing emissions that contribute to global warming.” Doesn’t that warm the heart?

But it gets better: it’s actually also an advocacy and GOTV effort:… Read More

Back at the end of June, the Giuliani released its first list of California "Mayors for Rudy" — well today they have augmented that list with more Mayors…

Last Wednesday, Governor Schwarzenegger called for a meeting of the "Big 5" (Perata/Ackerman/Nunez/Villines/himself) to take place this afternoon… The topic — water bonds. Specifically, the Governor wants to see if he can work out differences between Democrats and Republicans that have thus-far kept an agreement from being reached.

The dynamics to put together a water deal are interesting. On the Republican side, to get a deal, you have to be able to get enough votes in an environment where the state’s fiscal crisis makes a vote to place another big bond deal on the ballot a tough vote (it’s hard enough to get GOP votes for bonds when the fiscal situation is rosy). That said, everyone acknowledges we have a water storage problem that needs attention. On the Democrat side, where normally everyone lines up (like a cattle call) whenever there are bonds discussed (Democrats are genetically wired to embrace spending increases), there is significant push-back from the eco-nuts who… Read More

In some of the more – uh – interesting political analysis seen in a long time, Fabian Nunez’s communications guru Steve Maviglio is promoting the embattled Assembly Speaker for Governor of California. In a blog post that Steve wrote for the The California Majority Report, he lists Nunez, his boss, as #8 on the list of Top Ten Democratic potential candidates for Governor in 2010. Incredibly, Nunez’s gubernatorial prospects have improved since the blog’s previous assessment of would-be Governors when the Speaker was ranked Number 10. Now that’s what we call spin. Talk about failing upward.

Since Maviglio’s last handicapping of Nunez’ odds at being the next Governor of California, a few things have taken place…