The Director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, George Valverde, was dispatched to Washington, D.C., last week – presumably at the direction of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – to express grave concerns that the State of California Government (read: the Governor) has with the implementation of the REAL ID Act passed by Congress and signed by the President back in 2005. This law established federal standards for drivers’ licenses. If you want a license, you have to show demonstrate something that should be pretty simple: proof of legal residency (SS# or birth certificate). It would appear that the main objections that states all around America have is the tremendous costs associated with implementing the ACT (the National Governors Assocation pegs it upwards of $11 billion collectively for the 50 states to come up to snuff). The law gives states from 2008 – 2013 to check out drivers for their proper documents and re-issue new licences for the roughly 250 million currently licenced drivers nationwide. The penalty to states if they do not comply? Licenses in a non-compliant state cannot be used as… Read More

The Assembly Desk closed bill introduction today at the 5 PM deadline. Yesterday at the end of floor session, the bill intro’s were up to about AB 720 or so. Todaythe Desk was carpet bombed with another 1000 bills, ending at AB 1705 last we checked…plus probably another 100 "committee bills" floating around.

As a buddy of mine says at the end of the bill ‘spring planting season’,I didn’t know there was that much wrong with California.… Read More

Online media is quickly outpacing the "real" media thanks to e-pioneers like Jon Fleischman (yes, a gratuitous compliment – he is the boss). E-media and blogs are nimble, aggressive and timely — and it’s hard for the traditional media to keep pace.

(If you don’t believe it, note the resources papers like the Sacramento Bee are shifting to online reporting…)

So when rumors fly across the blogosphere that Governor Schwarzenegger was checking out of the Presidential race, I had to take notice.

But talking with sources "in the know", it’s possible these reports are just wrong. In fact, Schwarzenegger may be planning an endorsement for the upcoming Presidential race — despite the reports on Politico.com.

If I’m wrong, I’ll post a mea culpa, but it makes more sense for him to endorse than not, so I’m betting one of the Presidential candidates will get a much anticipated phone call from the Terminator.

Here’s my thoughts:

The Governor is a media-genic star who loves the spotlight — sitting out the biggest political show on the biggest state just… Read More

There is a ‘must read’ story in the new Beltway Uber-Online Newspaper, The Politico, where reporter Roger Simon publishes a story after conducting a 45 minute private interview with Governor Schwarzenegger. In the story, apparently the Governor told Simon that he would not endorse a Republican in the Presidential primary, though he had praise for McCain and Giuliani for being "centrist" and the kind of Republicans that can win California. The way that Simon worded his story, there is no commitment that the Governor will limit his endorsement options to only the GOP nominee… The Governor quelched any rumors that his wife, Maria Schriver, might run for public office herself, talks about how Democrats are being unfair to Hillary, and expresses his support for a date-specific withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. You can see the story here. … Read More

The FlashReport would like to congratulate the three members of California’s Congressional delegation who have been tapped with ‘high honors’ from the National Taxpayers Union — receiving their coveted "Taxpayer Friends" rating… And the winners are… Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce and our own FR Beltway Correspondent John Campbell!! It should come as no surprise to FR readers that among the many "F" recipients (all Democrats) from the NTU for 2006 were our two United States Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and of course our new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Here is how each of the Republicans from California scored, since we follow GOPers most closely here at the FR…

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

The FlashReport would like to congratulate the three members of California’s Congressional delegation who have been tapped with ‘high honors’ from the National Taxpayers Union — receiving their coveted "Taxpayer Friends" rating… And the winners are… Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce and our own FR Beltway Correspondent John Campbell!! It should come as no surprise to FR readers that among the many "F" recipients (all Democrats) from the NTU for 2006 were our two United States Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and of course our new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Here is how each of the Republicans from California scored, since we follow GOPers most closely here at the FR: Brian Bilbray: *n/a – Bilbray was elected in a special election in 2006 and so was not rated. Mary Bono: C-… Read More

As they say in politics, it is the goal of every erstwhile officeholder to run for that office without an opponent. While some folks get away with that — like when then-State Senator Ed Royce cleared the primary in his race for Congress back in 1992, or when, years later, John Campbell had an unopposed run for the State Assembly — it isn’t usually the case.

It looks like popular conservative Assemblywoman Mimi Walters will not be "walking" into the 33rd State Senate District as she had hoped, though I would certainly catagorize her as a very strong front-runner. Today, Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu threw his hat into the ring for the GOP primary for this "safe" Republican district currently occupied by the term-limited Senator Dick Ackerman. Above to the right is a photo from Sidhu’s website with Senator and Mrs. Tom Harman. I don’t know that the Senator has… Read More

As my good friend and fellow blogger Doug LaMalfa posted earlier, the Elections and Redistricting Committee (of which I have the honor of Vice-Chairing) met today for the purpose of voting on the Presidential Primary bill, SB 113 – Calderon.

The bill sought to move the Presidential primary to February of 2008, instead of our traditional June date. Without delving too far into the debate concerning whether there is merit in a February primary, let me just say that the idea has positive and negative implications. For me, the more important thing that came out of the Committee was the resounding and uniform statements by the Dems that, despite the fact that the bill contains no mandate that the State reimburse counties for the estimated $60-90 million it will cost to conduct the election, we should just “trust them” that they will pay the money back.

Let’s just stop there for a moment and let the laughter die down.

For my part, I don’t think the other side has banked enough trust to give our counties and cities a sound night’s sleep.… Read More