Perhaps everyone should have been paying closer attention to the message being sent by Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and his caucus during the Summer’s budget stalemate — that California is heading for a fiscal crisis, and that we needed to cut state spending.

Apparently the budget that was approved was smoke-and-mirrors after all. I think that the credibility of the Governor’s Finance Office and Democrat Legislative Budget staffers are at an all time low, as the ability to have a real balanced budget requires, as an essential component, the ability to make realistic forecasts of projected revenues. It would appear that projections aren’t just off, but they were grossly underestimated. Since state spending was set with these projections in mind, every day, week and month that goes by without revising our spending just makes matters worse.

While notable, it is not enough to for the Governor to ask his bureaucratic chiefs to plan for a 10% cut in next year’s budget. We need to deal with this problem now. As State Senator Bob Dutton has pointed out, the Governor has the power to call a State of Fiscal Emergency to… Read More

To: FlashReport Readers From: Dave Gilliard, Manager, California Counts RE: Electoral College Reform Initiative – An Update for FlashReport Readers! Just two weeks ago, the Electoral College Reform Initiative was destined to join many other great ideas that never made the ballot due to lack of money, organization or time. Today, thanks to the generous support from donors and herculean efforts from everyone working on the measure, I am very happy to inform… Read More

You have wonder about "Light" Governor John Garamendi. Perhaps he just has too much time on his hands since, in the Golden State, his job is primarily to hang out and be available in case the Governor becomes incapacitated. We have a suggestion for Garamendi — perhaps he should spend some time in his posh office today, seeing if he is capable of patting the top of his head while he rubs his tummy at the same time. It would appear that Garamendi doesn’t believe that mature adults know how to multi-task. In an effort to win a "Hot Air" award from the FlashReport, Garamendi started flapping his jaws yesterday, complaining that State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner shouldn’t be spending any time opposing the Perata/Nunez Term-Limits End Run Initiative because all of Poizner’s time should be spent dealing with the aftermath of the wildfires. I know, Lt. Governor, that it might blow you away to hear this, since I guess it doesn’t work so… Read More

This last week, I filed a complaint against the Clinton campaign alleging that the campaign had co-ordinated with the opposition to the California Electoral College reform to defeat the initiative. Clintonistas and their operatives filed a complaint against the initiative claiming that it was a secret Giuliani operation, alleging on very flimsy evidence that the Giuliani campaign was really running the operation to benefit Giuliani.

Well, since I have been involved with this issue since 2001, working on the campaign from the day of filing, and an endorser of Mitt Romney, I knew this was false, but when the campaign sputtered in July, the Clintonistas were bragging to the newspapers and media everywhere, that their aggressive opposition to the initiative caused its death.

Well, news of the death of the initiative was clearly premature, and those who were fighting the initiative literallyadmitted to the press that they had committed the very sins that they had accused the Giuliani campaign of committing. Not very smart for these supposedly very smart campaign operatives, and, if the FEC wishes to maintain any semblance of impartiality, they will pursue the… Read More

In September, on our main daily news page, the FlashReport featured an LA Times article, “Cities, counties pay price for Capitol clout,” which reported that last year local government in California spent nearly $40 million on capitol lobbyists – more than labor, oil or business.

The League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties justified these enormous expenditures of tax dollars by claiming that unlike other private interests, they can’t make political contributions to legislators and causes.

Apparently that might not be the case… In recent weeks, the League of California Cities campaign finance reports and a leaked memo suggests otherwise. In fact, their reported lobbying expenses are just the tip of the iceberg of a large and powerful political machine financed by California taxpayers.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

In September, on our main daily news page, the FlashReport featured an LA Times article, “Cities, counties pay price for Capitol clout,” which reported that last year local government in California spent nearly $40 million on capitol lobbyists – more than labor, oil or business.

The League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties justified these enormous expenditures of tax dollars by claiming that unlike other private interests, they can’t make political contributions to legislators and causes.

Apparently that might not be the case… In recent weeks, the League of California Cities campaign finance reports and a leaked memo suggests otherwise. In fact, their reported lobbying expenses are just the tip of the iceberg of a large and powerful political machine financed by California taxpayers.

Recent campaign reports and an internal memo reveals that the League is well on their way to spending millions of dollars on an eminent domain ballot measure that the state’s independent Legislative… Read More

Senator Bob Dutton drafted this piece exclusively for FR readers, where he brings up a good point — the Governor has the power, and the responsibility to declare a state of fiscal emergency — now! Time is “NOW” for Governor and Legislature to Deal with Budget Crisis State Senator Bob Dutton I applaud Governor Schwarzenegger for his recognition that the State of California is in the midst of a financial crisis. According to the LA Times, Governor Schwarzenegger ordered all state departments to identify cuts of at least 10%. California’s… Read More

UPDATE: 12:24 A.M. — WITH ALL OF THE VOTES COUNTED, MIKE WAS THE TOP VOTE GETTER…

UPDATE: 10:00 P.M. – WE’RE CALLING THIS RACE FOR SPENCE, AS THE TOP VOTE GETTER. WITH 10 OF 16 PRINCINCTS REPORTING, IT IS VERY UNLIKELY THAT THIS OUTCOME WILL CHANGE. CONGRATULATIONS, MIKE! – FLASH

Fellow FR Correspondent Mike Spence, who perhaps received more statewide and national attention on conservative blogs than anyone running for re-election to a local school board in the history of mankind — no doubt because of his popularity on these pages and his status as CRA president — appears to easily be outdistancing the field in early West Covina Unified returns….

Vote for no more than three Candidate Votes Percent MIKE SPENCE 965 28.01… Read More