The Governor has promised to work to remove health care mandates as a means of reducing health care costs to consumers. A good idea–can he really accomplish it?

The Dems are committed to those mandates, passing them while Gray Davis was governor. During the early part of his time, Gray Davis signed approximately 20 of those mandates, including a mandate that allmental health services be covered and a mandate that insurance companies pay for a two day stay for a mother after the birth of a child (even if the stay was not necessary). These mandates increased the cost of health insurance by around forty percent between 1998 and 2002. At least one study has said that, for each one percent increase in premiums, 400,000 people nationally lose their health insurance. Since California has ten percent of the national employment, that number is approximately 40,000, that is, an estimated 1.6 million people lost their health insurance since 1998 as a result of insurance mandates imposed by the legislature. Since we know that the number of uninsured Californians has increased by about 2 millionsince 1998, we can safely say that the legislature has had more to… Read More

As slow a political news week as it may be, a few things are happening. Thanks to John Dadian for sending along some tidbits….

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters has filed papers to succeed Senator Dick Ackerman in SD 33 in ’08. This may be common knowledge with the OC bloggers…I’ll let them pontificate on the ramifications. In the meantime, I have a call into Mimi and her folks for a quote.

Also, Senator-Elect Mark Wyland, succeeding Senator Bill Morrow, has tapped Senator Dave Cox’s communications director as his chief of staff. Peter DeMarco, longtime aide to Cox, will start with Wyland November 30. Great pick, Mark! Cox is searching for a replacement.

Peter just sent me a "real time" comment, as he’s literally as-I-writewaiting for his bag at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field (sounds like he’s already started). Peter also mentions a ‘btw" need to update the airport…I’ll pass that along to the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority for him.

From Peter:

"I’m looking forward to… Read More

I am very pleased to introduce FlashReport readers to our new Political Law Correspondent James Lacy. For many of you, Jim may not need any introduction, as he has been engaged in the ‘contact sport’ of politics for quite a long time now.

If I had to make a list of the top ten political law experts that I know, Jim Lacy would definately be on that list. So I am very excited that he has accepted our invitation to write for our website. Jim will be able to offer all of us some great insight and perspective on legal issues facing California elections (and all of our various political subdivisions). This will include legal issues on a national level that will have a significant impact on us here in the Golden State.

Jim’s experience is extensive, and you can read more about his background right here.

Of course, Jim’s political insights and expertise will allow him to provide insights on many aspects of… Read More

In the final weeks of the election when Lynn Daucher and family should have been focusing singularly on their own election, they were distracted.

An old grudge with a council candidate in Daucher’s home base of Brea took valuable time, money and energy away from here all-important state senate bid.

I’ve attached a flier that was produced and distributed by the Daucher clan attacking former Council Member Steve Vargas who was running again for his old seat after sitting out a few years tending to his wife who recently made a full recovery from breast cancer. It has yet to be determined whether the flier was illegally distributed by Daucher since there is no disclaimer on the piece and there are reports that paid walkers blanketed the city delivering them.

A couple months ago there was another instance of Daucher’s being distracted from the prize. At the OC GOP Central Committee she had her alternate stand up against Vargas’ endorsement (he was the lone no vote)–an embarrassing blow.

Its too bad we didn’t add another Republican State Senator to our ranks this election cycle. But its not like Lynn Daucher… Read More

In a decision that has dark implications for all advocacy groups that distribute information about Congressional votes to the public, last week the Federal Election Commission voted in favor of an enforcement action resulting in a $28,000 fine to the Sierra Club, to settle charges regarding a voter guide distributed in Florida in 2004 by the Club. The voter guide purported to inform the public of the comparative environmental records of President Bushand Senator John Kerry in the Presidential race, and also the candidates for U.S. Senate in Florida.

The voter guide predictablywas slantedin favor of Kerry, but it stuck to specific Congressional legislation and the actual position of the candidates on such legislation. It did not contain the traditional words of "express advocacy" as defined by the historic Buckley v. Valeo case, such as "vote for," "vote against," or "support," which generally mark the difference between acceptable "issue advocacy," and regulated "express advocacy" during a campaign. Instead, the voter guides reported on the issues, depicted natural scenes, and then… Read More

There is virtually no quieter week in political news coverage, barring a major incident, than the week of Thanksgiving right after a general election. While some political reporters take some deserved time off right after the election, virtually every one of them takes this week completely off. There are some exceptions, and there will be some special interest stories that show up that were penned last week — but expect to see a lot of very short news summaries from us this week. Of course, the FlashReport will be published throughout the holiday week, including Thanksgiving Day. One advantage to slow news days is that it takes less time to pull together them main page. Actually, we are using this quiet holiday week to work with a group of new contributors who will be joining our FR Blog — spicing up things for the upcoming year! This is a great opportunity for us to ask for FR reader feedback. It was a great election season for the website — our first election year as a website. By all accounts, we seemed to have a notable impact on California politics. Is there anything that you would see changed on the… Read More

Some of you will probably recall that I entertained a hypothetical notion weeks before Election Day. I asked, ‘What Happens in The 19th District When McClintock Wins?‘ At the time, it looked as if the highly-respected conservative Senator from the Central Coast would be our next Lieutenant Governor and vacate his State Senate seat prompting an open primary election in the early months of 2007. I also presumed my friend and former Assemblyman Tony Stickland would be our next Controller, as he was outpacing Democrat BOE member John Chiang both in fundraising and the polls. Those predictions proved faulty after the unions noticed Angelides was a lost cause and began reinvesting massive amounts of money in IEs for the down ticket Democrats. However, the Republicans’ demise on Election Day only slightly augments and temporarily postpones the question I asked back on October 14th.

What happens in the 19th and 24th Districts When McClintock and Gallegly retire?

Yes, rumors out of the Central Coast are that State… Read More

Some of you will probably recall that I entertained a hypothetical notion weeks before Election Day. I asked, ‘What Happens in The 19th District When McClintock Wins?‘ At the time, it looked as if the highly-respected conservative Senator from the Central Coast would be our next Lieutenant Governor and vacate his State Senate seat prompting an open primary election in the early months of 2007. I also presumed my friend and former Assemblyman Tony Stickland would be our next Controller, as he was outpacing Democrat BOE member John Chiang both in fundraising and the polls. Those predictions proved faulty after the unions noticed Angelides was a lost cause and began reinvesting massive amounts of money in IEs for the down ticket Democrats. However, the Republicans’ demise on Election Day only slightly augments and temporarily postpones the question I asked back on October 14th.

What happens in the 19th and 24th Districts When McClintock and Gallegly retire?

Yes, rumors out of the Central Coast are that State… Read More