Two things in Phil Angelides’s uninspiring resume jump out at me as he appears at hisgazillionth "Democrat Unity" event today with screaming presidential wannabe Howard Dean. One isthat Angelides just loves to hang out deep down with the labor unions’ pocket lint. And two, he has been repeatedly and inaccurately attacking Governor Schwarzenegger over public employees’ pensions. The latter is where Howard Dean comes in.

As governor of Vermont in 1995, Howard Dean pilferedseven million dollars from state pension funds –five million dollars from a teachers’ pension fund andtwo million dollars from a state employees’ fund. (Those are big numbers in a small northeastern state like Vermont.) Dean skirted having to pay for pensions and health benefits for state employees by capping thenumber of state employees and instead hiring contractors.And he used the money garnered by these maneuvers to help close the state’s budget deficit.

Phil Angelides holds Howard Dean up as an example of the kind of Governor he’d like to be. By… Read More

Over the next couple of weeks, the FlashReport will be profiling a few campaign MVP’s for our readers… When looking at all of the campaign operatives on the GOP side of the isle this cycle, a small group of notables rose to the surface, the first of which we are happy to recognize as our pick for Team Arnold MVP — and the winner is… Katie Levinson, the Communications Director for Californians for Schwarzenegger! Congratulations, Katie!

You can actually probably tell the day that Katie Levinson started with her important and central position with the Governor’s re-election campaign — that would be the day that someone turned "on" the power switch, and the Schwarzenegger Public Relations Machine has been operating at full speed ever since. Levinson is rather famously an import into the California political scene as a part of "Team Schmidt" — the young and energetic group of folks that worked with Schwarzenegger Campaign Manager Steve Schmidt… Read More

SURVEY ON CALIFORNIANS AND THE FUTURE

WHAT ELECTION? CANDIDATES SKIRT THE ISSUES, VOTERS TUNE OUT Voters remain skeptical about cost of bond measures; Majority want Democrats to control Congress, but also want third party

Over the next couple of weeks, the FlashReport will be profiling a few campaign MVP’s for our readers…

When looking at all of the campaign operatives on the GOP side of the isle this cycle, a small group of notables rose to the surface, the first of which we are happy to recognize as our pick for Team Arnold MVP — and the winner is… Katie Levinson, the Communications Director for Californians for Schwarzenegger! Congratulations, Katie!

You can actually probably tell the day that Katie Levinson started with her important and central position with the Governor’s re-election campaign — that would be the day that someone turned "on" the power switch, and the Schwarzenegger Public Relations Machine has been operating at full speed ever since. Levinson is rather famously an import into the California political scene as a part of "Team Schmidt" — the young and energetic group of folks that worked with Schwarzenegger Campaign Manager Steve Schmidt on President Bush’s 2004 re-election efforts, whom… Read More

What could be more fun than watching "progressive" candidates in Berkeley duke it out over how to improve the city’s business climate?

One city council candidate, George Beier, has an 11 point plan, including ideas such as such as building a "People’s Café" in Berkeley’s (in)famous People’s Park and creating a "Free Speech Trail" to point out historic free speech places on Telegraph Avenue. Now, that’ll really draw new companies and jobs to their wacky city!

Berkeley residents are still reeling from the closure of their beloved Cody’s flagship bookstore on Telegraph Avenue. While they would love to point the finger at the big retailers, they have only themselves to blame for the loss of this independent bookstore. Telegraph can be a nasty… Read More

Bob Salladay, the LA Times reporter behind the newspaper’s new Political Muscle blog, has a great post up today about Democrat lieutenant governor candidate John Garamendi holding a campaign event to speak on "vital concerns impacted by your vote on November 7, 2006" in a taxpayer-owned Sacramento Legislative Office Building. A quick-thinking and resourceful Republican staffer caught some photos and recorded audio of Garamendi committing an act that surely wouldn’t pass the legislative Rules Committees’ smell test if it were any other person or hosted by any other non-union group. Salladay includes a flier used to promote the event that I’ve chosen to attach below.

Garamendi’s action is disgusting to me because legislative staffers receive literally hours of indoctrination on office etiquette and ethics. They are… Read More

The California Voter Foundation has been around since 1994 and is most well known for its online voter guide. It’s founder, Kim Alexander, and I go way back — to before we were both bit by the political bug.

Anyways, Kim and several of her friends can be seen singing the "The Proposition Song" – a musical tribute to the wacky 13-issue long ballot. Hear the song and see it being sung by going here.

I was trying to figure out how to hijack the You Tube video so that I could have the song display the FR’s recommended ballot picks as each was referenced during the song. No such luck.

Besides, I am fairly certain the the Jon Fleischman ballot and the Kim Alexander ballot are NOT the same… OK, very sure. Check out the song – it’s great!… Read More

The wave of taxpayer groups and fiscally conservative leaders urging a sweeping NO on all five bond measures continues to grow. Lew Uhler’s influential National Tax Limitation Committee PAC has posted its ballot recommendations, and they oppose all nine spending measures, including recommending a NO on 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 84 — the five big bad bonds packages.… Read More