[Publisher’s Note: Last night, all of the GOP candidates for President participated in a debate in South Carolina. Today the FR has a column from California Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Del Becarro, who was in SC for the debate. We also have a column from former Secretary of State Bill Jones on behalf of the McCain candidacy, and one from Congresswoman Mary Bono on behalf of the Giuliani campaign. Below is Congressman John Campbell, FR’s Washington D.C. Correspondent, on behalf of his candidate, Mitt Romney – Flash]

At the debate in South Carolina last night, Governor Mitt Romney once again showed us all why he’s the candidate ready to lead our nation forward and meet the challenges ahead of us. Across the country there were over 900 debate watching parties held by Romney grassroots supporters in just about every state. They all saw… Read More

Former Assemblyman, BOE Member and current Lincoln Unified School Board Trustee Dean Andal has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission and will announce his campaign today to replace Jerry McNerney. Andal is a solid conservative who will run on "citizen Reagan principles" to return this seat to it’s rightful place.

Andal will have strong advantages in this race, particularly geography with what will more than likely be a strongly unified front out of San Joaquin County. Andal will no doubt have the strong local GOP big donors in Stockton behind him and is known for having been an instrumental player in pushing voter registration and expanding the Republican bench in winning local offices.

Meanwhile, McNerney is doing everything he can to promote himself around the district to save the only real job he’s had in a long time. Unfortunately for him, he must speak at these events and readers should stay tuned for some very interesting perspectives bandied about by him on the stump.… Read More

Last night, I took in the debate at the home of my friend John Clarey, here in Orange County. Over some pizza and really great Napa Valley wine, about ten of us watched the array of GOP Presidential hopefuls try to ‘stake their claim’ in a format where the sheer number of candidates really limits the amount of time that any one candidate has to communicate their message to an attentive national audience.

Today’s FlashReport is loaded with coverage of the debate. For our ‘exclusive’ coverage, we have four columns (in addition to this page). California Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Del Becarro was on hand in South Carolina and was up quite early to send in his extensive observations. In addition, we have columns from Congressman John Campbell, Congresswoman Mary Bono, and former Secretary of State Bill Jones — on behalf of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain respectively. You can see all of their submissions on our main page. In addition to our coverage, we also have links to a significant number of main stream media articles and columns on the debate. So here at the FR, we have you covered in terms of post-debate… Read More

In tonight’s Republican Presidential nomination debate Texas Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas)stated quite clearly that he believed 9-11and the murders of thousands of innocent Americanswere the fault of the United States of America’s foreign policy. Giuliani, clearly stunned by this opinion, gave Congressman Paul the opportunity to recant, which he refused to do.

Congressman Paul should apologize to the American people and drop out of the race. His opinions mirror those of the terrorists themselves, and justify their actions. He should face a primary from a Republicanwho does not believe we brought 9-11 on ourselves.… Read More

LA Observed has on it’s website a list of all the employees at the Los Angeles Times that may be taking severance packages to leave. This necessary because more and more people for good reasonaren’t reading the LA Times,. See list here. One that is listed as confirmedis the LA Times Sacramento reporter that writes the Political Muscle Blog for them, Robert Salladay. The Times has hard a hard time finding an online voice for their political coverage. Losing Salladay will add to their woes.

I do wonder if I could get a buyout from FlashReport. Maybe someone out there will pay me not to write? Anyone?… Read More

There is no doubt that members of the California State Legislature LOVE being in office. So much so that a great many of them would like to extend their time in office well beyond that which is allowable under the current voter-approved term limits (3 two-year terms in the Assembly, 2 four-year terms in the State Senate). As everyone knows, Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez are using a vast paid signature gathering effort to place on the February ’08 ballot a measure that would SIGNIFICANTLY WEAKEN term limits. Right now 30% of the elected members of the State Assembly would be forced out of office next year, and 45% of the elected State Senators would be sent packing. If the Perata/Nunez sham plan is passed by voters (they have the nerve to couch this as a measure that would ‘strengthen’ term limits), NO legislator in Sacramento will be forced out of office — everyone gets more time. As a matter of fact, President Pro-Tem Perata would be able to serve until 2012, and Speaker Nunez until 2014!

Why is it that legislators want to stay in office so bad? Why is it that they cannot pass the baton so that other… Read More

Chino Hills Councilman Curt Hagman has picked up the endorsement of businessman and former Chair of the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club Mike Radlovic. Radlovic was a possible candidate until a couple of weeks ago. See previous post here with link to the others on this race here. I spoke with Radlovic on the phone. He explained that while he like Larry Dick and thinks he is a good candidate he had to go with Hagman. To quote Radlovic directly, “I don’t make the rules, but cash is king. In the end Hagman will have the cash.”

We will see when the June 30 filings go public.… Read More

The Governor’s proposed budget spends too much. First and foremost is the ongoing deficit spending where expenditures under the proposal outpace projected income. But even if the budget where balanced, it is still bloated. Our "fitness Governor" needs to turn the flabby government into something more firm. In some respects I feel back for the Governor — as news headlines today show him taking flack from the left and the right on this budget. Of course, we’re all wishing Arnold 1.0 would return — because our state despirately needs structural reform, and significant downsizing in its size and scope. Need some talking points on what is going on with Congressman John Doolittle and the feds? His people are distributing some for you. There is an article by David Drucker in Roll Call today on Doolitte’s challenges (and potential challengers) — which we’ve posted on the blog page. We also attached your talking points! Speaking of downsizing… At the risk of inflating his ego, I actually thought that one of Assembly Speaker spokesman Steve Maviglio’s "come… Read More