FR readers benefit from my borderline-obsessive need to know what is going on in California politics (okay, not so borderline). But only my closest friends know that I keep almost as much of an eye on politics in Florida as I do ours here in the Golden State. Actually, the developers who created the FlashReport website are in Florida, and this site is a spin off of programming they did for the Florida news-portal site of my friend, Justin Sayfie.

As you may know, Florida is also looking seriously at moving up their Presidential primary. There were several articles yesterday about how their move might cause Florida Republicans to lose as many as half of their delegates to the Republican National Convention next summer. I was curious if we are in a similar state of risk, given our plans here to move up the primary. Fortunately the Treasurer of the Republican National Committee, Tim Morgan, is a Californian. So I spoke with him, and he provided the following insight, to reassure us all:… Read More

Apparently it is hard to fathom for many politicians in Sacramento that when a majority of Californians voted for Proposition 140 back in 1990, they actually liked the idea that there would be turn-over in legislative seats fairly frequently. Survey after survey have revealed that voters in the Golden State do not want to repeal term-limits, nor do they want to weaken them. They want a legislature where their representatives leave from the private sector for a time, and then return back to a regular job. One of the major reasons that people I know voted for Proposition 140 was to end the era of the ‘career politician’ who would serve decades in office. It is somewhere between laughable and tragic that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (who faces an end to his legislature tenure next year after serving three two-year terms in the state house) actually has the nerve to say that the measure that he has submitted for approval to pursue signature gathering somehow ‘strengthens’ term limits. The current law on term limits says that you can only serve in the Senate for eight years, and the Assembly for six. One of the major ideas… Read More

Apparently it is hard to fathom for many politicians in Sacramento that when a majority of Californians voted for Proposition 140 back in 1990, they actually liked the idea that there would be turn-over in legislative seats fairly frequently. Survey after survey have revealed that voters in the Golden State do not want to repeal term-limits, nor do they want to weaken them. They want a legislature where their representatives leave from the private sector for a time, and then return back to a regular job. One of the major reasons that people I know voted for Proposition 140 was to end the era of the ‘career politician’ who would serve decades in office. It is somewhere between laughable and tragic that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (who faces an end to his legislature tenure next year after serving three two-year terms in the state house) actually has the nerve to say that the measure that he has submitted for approval to pursue signature gathering somehow ‘strengthens’ term limits. The current law on term limits says that you can only serve in the Senate for eight years, and the Assembly for six. One of the major ideas… Read More

"The only poll that counts is the one taken on election day." Not quite, there’s the pole day atDaytona. It’s racing season, yessssss!

Amidst all the talk of legislators getting others to do their term limit extension dirty work for them, while they allow Federal courts to do their dirty work of shortening terms for imprisoned criminals, and proposals for new Kevorkian Jr’s are being spawned to end terms of the living, let’s talk about something fun.

At the risk of incurring an ‘electronic towel snap’ from our FR chief, for talking about non-political stuff, I’ll mention what’s up this weekend in Florida. [I think Jon is out of town anyway, maybe he won’t notice]

Speedweeks at Daytona culminates with the running ofNASCAR’s Daytona 500 tomorrow… Read More

The big news in the Sacramento area in John Garamendi. Not the Lt. Governor..but his son. John Garamendi, Jr.

He has just recently closed escrow on a home in the 5th Senate District. This means he will likely challenge Assemblywoman Lois Wolk for the Democratic party nomination in June 2008.

Here are the facts–

Garamendi has a ton of name ID without spending a cent. That is a given.

He has been a great fundraiser for the UC Merced. He came to UC Merced after being the director of corporate giving at UC Berkeley.

When it comes to fundraising, this is a guy that can close the deal.

He and his wife served in the Peace Corps. That is a pretty good story for a Democratic primary.

Garamendi, Jr. helped build the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. That is a pretty good story for the people in Wolk’s base city of Davis.

While Wolk was thinking of what Republican she would face with Assemblymen Nakanishi and Aghazarian as possibilities, the real battle… Read More

The fallout from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s affair with a married staff member continues as the SF Chronicle reports today that Ruby Rippey-Tourk received $10,000 in retroactive pay which city officials are having a hard time explaining. While all of this is occurring in the background, Newsom is trying to conduct his business as usual. Yesterday, he gave a speech in which he admitted to failing the city in terms of public safety and infrastructure maintenance. Earlier this week, he celebrated the third anniversary of his attempt to legalize gay marriage in the city (apparently, Newsom respects the solemnity of gay marriage, but not solemnity of the marriage of his… Read More

During today’s debate on a non-binding resolution pertaining to the Iraq War, Representative Sam Johnson (R-Texas) gave a speech which moved many of my colleagues and me. The resolution, which opposes troop reinforcements in Iraq, passed by a vote of 246-182. Rep. Johnson and I were among the 182 members who opposed the resolution. When it comes to talking about the War in Iraq, Rep. Johnson, who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and spent eight years a prisoner or war, has a higher standing than most if not all of my colleagues in Congress. A link to the speech is below.

A friend sent this to me, and I wanted to share it with FR readers…

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and was very much in favor of the redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed.

Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition tohigher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which… Read More