I would like to extend a very special FR “greetings” to the newest member of our blog team — Matt Rexroad! For those who do not know Matt, he is a seasoned veteran political consultant and activist. He is a Yolo County Supervisor (I know, most of you have never heard of Yolo County — it’s west of Sacramento County). He’s a husband and a father. And, of course, he’s a Republican. Matt has a keen sense of politics, is articulate, and occasionally funny. Please welcome Matt — his first post is below!… Read More

The situation regarding the appointment of Erwin Chemerinsky as the Dean of the law school at UC Irvine is another example of the one way street regarding political views in academia. When Chemerinsky and his liberal political views were not welcomed by conservative commentators the purists in academia went on a rampage. They claimed it was a violation of academic freedom.

The response to the outrage has been for UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake to do a complete u-turn (via a trip to Duke University) and welcome Chemerinsky to UC Irvine with a joint statement on "academic freedom".

At UC Irvine the faculty agrees with Chemerinsky so they demand that he be able to serve as Dean.

Meanwhile at UC Davis and with the UC Regents the view of academic freedom has a very different conclusion. This article in the Davis Enterprise explains how former Harvard President Larry Summers was "uninvited" to be a speaker at a meeting of UC Regents.

The UC Davis faculty does not agree with Summers so he is not allowed to speak to the… Read More

I am pleased to announce that this year the FlashReport will once-again be bringing you our Top 20 Bills To Veto list. Last year we garnered a lot of attention as we assembled our list, and then ranked Governor Schwarzenegger on his performance as we urged him to veto all 20 bills. How did he do? Click here to see last year’s scorecard. We are very pleased this year to announce that State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth will be joining with Assemblyman Chuck DeVore to co-author, along with FR Publisher Jon Fleischman, this years list. The goal of the list is to find the 20 most egregious bills that the Democrats have sent to the Governor’s desk, to write a little something about them, and to urge the Governor to veto them. In addition, as we did last year, we’ll be giving the Governor a running ‘batting average’ on how he does in terms of rejecting or signing these atrocious bills. There are only a couple of days for you to make suggestions on bills that should be included in our Top Twenty. Some of the bills we included last… Read More

Kevin Yamamura and all the other Sacramento based journalists have no understanding of the lack of relationship between the Governor and State GOP. We aren’t talking about Republicans being more moderate. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not governing from the center, and thus is nothing close to a "moderate". Profligate spending (worse than Davis), massive borrowing (into an uncertain economy), health care taxes (what a novel idea!), ridiculous "greenhouse gas" legislation (let’s run MORE business out of California), scores of judges appointed that don’t support the death penalty, and the like, are all leftist policies. It isn’t that the GOP isn’t moderate, we refuse to be dragged left of center.

Throw in a pinch of ignoring Bruce McPherson and Tom McClintock in the last election, "dissing" GOP legislators altogether in 2006, and leaving the State GOP in debt, and it is no surprise that the GOP and Governor are not on the same playing field.

The Governor gets high marks for Workers’ Comp reform, easily his most significant public policy… Read More

I am pleased to announce that this year the FlashReport will once-again be bringing you our Top 20 Bills To Veto list. Last year we garnered a lot of attention as we assembled our list, and then ranked Governor Schwarzenegger on his performance as we urged him to veto all 20 bills. How did he do? Click here to see last year’s scorecard. We are very pleased this year to announce that State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth will be joining with Assemblyman Chuck DeVore to co-author, along with FR Publisher Jon Fleischman, this years list. The goal of the list is to find the 20 most egregious bills that the Democrats have sent to the Governor’s desk, to write a little something about them, and to urge the Governor to veto them. In addition, as we did last year, we’ll be giving the Governor a running ‘batting average’ on how he does in terms of rejecting or signing these atrocious bills. There are only a couple of days for you to make suggestions on bills that should be included in our Top Twenty. Some of the bills we included last… Read More

Assemblywoman Shirley Horton is termed out next year, and the word on the street is that Dem leadership in Sacramento is worried about the candidacy of Republican-turned-Democrat Auday Arabo, nephew of former State Senator Wadie Deddeh.Democrats are still reeling over six GOP years in a seat they thought they designed for themselves in 2001.

Arabo has raised big early money, but he might be the first to admit a two-edged sword exists as a result. His ties to the California Independent Grocers & Convenience Store Owners (CAIGCS) provides loads of fundraising ability, but also puts many of the donors in the alcohol and tobacco categories, an inordinate number in fact. To be fair, he also has quite a few donors from the D.A.s office, given his past employ there. The irony is a significant mixture of donations from law enforcement and convenience store related interests.

There may be nothing wrong with that on the surface, but any decent consultant with a potential horse in this race has gone thru Arabo’s campaign disclosures while imagining mail pieces. Welcome to elective politics, Auday.

According to key players, there are a growing… Read More

If it seems like the answer from politicians is always to dig deeper into the pockets of taxpayers, that’s because it is. At a time when state general fund income is at an all-time high, we should be insisting that infrastructure investment, such as funding for above-ground waters storage (dams) be funded on a pay-as-you-go basis. A call for more borrowing should be rejected. Last weekend at the State GOP convention, Orange County Treasurer Chriss Street showed up for the Initiatives committee meeting, though he did not speak. Makes you wonder if he was concerned that the CRP might endorse a potential effort to recall him for allegations of wrongdoing. It was pretty bogus of the Governor to come to the State GOP convention and urge delegates to change the rules to allow DTS voters to participate in the Presidential primary when, by the time the Governor spoke, the deadline for submitting such a change had already passed. I keep hearing persistent rumors that Congressman George Radanovich (R-Central Valley) may be considering retirement at the end of this term. I couldn’t say if it’s true — but the short list of … Read More

I am so very, very disillusioned. I thought the Democrats were going to be different.

Some good investigative journalism by the Wall Street Journal has turned up an earmark by Senator Feinstein to tie up 200 acres of land in West LA, home of the Hollywood left, instead of allowing the VA to sell the property to benefit veterans health care.

The site in question is at the West Los Angeles Medical Center, a sprawling and significantly vacant complex on 387 acres surrounded by mansions owned by Democrat contributors.

We know this. Nothing has changed. Democrats still choose monied interests over veterans and minorities and always will. There is a reason why Congressional approval ratings are the lowest in recorded history. And they will go lower.… Read More