Back in June, the Democrats had a pretty heated race in the 34th Senate Primary. Assemblyman Tom Umberg, backed heavily by the unions lost to Supervisor Lou Correa, who had Senate President Don Perata on his side. Despite the General Election match-up with Assemblywoman Lyn Daucher beingthe hottest legislative race in the state, and the Republicans’ best chance at picking up a seat in either house, rumors persisted that Labor was going to sit this race out.

It would certainly appear that those were more than just rumors.

As is the case every year, the unions have sent out their Voter Guide, pitting the “little guy” against “the man,” and urging votes for a predictable lot of liberal politicians.

This version of the Union slate comes from Central Orange County. In addition to the pre-printed section which advocates for Angelides, Garamendi, Bowen, etc down the line, they also have a laser section which goes on to pushing for the guy who’s going to lose to Dana Rohrabacher, Measure M, and Assemblyman-to-be Jose Solario. They… Read More

The Lincoln Club of Fresno County’s radio buy on Fresno’s KMJ 580 has had the desired effect – 25,000 downloads of our voter guide in just six days. New memberships, and better yet, lot’s of recognition in the area. Our objectives are simple: drive turnout for the downticket candidates, our local endorsed candidates and the defeat of all of the bonds and tax increases.

We also know that many of these downloaded voter guides will wind up emailed all over the State.

Assemblyman Mike Villines reads our next ad, starting Thursday. Check out our voter guide at www.fresnolincolnclub.org.

By the way, I am in Ohio this week. You want to see negative ads, come out here. It’s a bloodbath.… Read More

Congresswoman Mary Bono’s Congressional Campaign is thundering towards November 7th. Recent reports indicate the Bono re-election campaign has received more than $1.2 million in contributions to support her re-election effort. During the most recent reporting period (July 1-September 30), Bono raised nearly $350,000. A deeper look inside the numbers indicates the Bono Camp has raised more than $100,000 during the last 17 days.Over 2,600 individuals have contributed to her re-election.

Mary is up on the air and in the mail. Her opponent, David Roth is not. (No he’s not THE David Lee Roth, sorry rockers.)

Every two years an opponent comes out of nowhere, rattles sabres, and drifts away. This year’s candidate even came with Howard Dean’s campaign staff. Maybe after the paychecks were written there wasn’t enough left for voter contact.… Read More

Nothing is more frustrating than the lack of information available about judges. I’ve already given the LA County Lincoln Club picks for LA Superior Court and told everyone to vote No on Supreme Court Justice Joyce Kennard. The same provision that allows us to vote on State Supreme Court Justices allows us to vote up or down Court of Appeals Justices. There is hardly any information.

Outside of LA, CRA has recommended a NO vote on Kathleen O’Leary- an extreme Davis appointee in the Orange, San Diego and Inland Empire area. As for LA I (not CRA) make the following recommendations.

But, First the method to my madness. I looked at their bios. If you were a Brown and Davis appointee–easy no. Deukmejian, Wilson served in ReaganAdministartion, — yes. The current Governor of course is wobbler on these things. So if you were a Democrat, Brown appointee and then elevated by Arnold- More Likely No. I… Read More

On a recent trip a friend of mine suggested that, "Affordable housing is whatever I am willing to pay for it."

I have to admit I laughed when he said it. Call me cold. But the idea that government can or should successfully dictate housing costs in any particular market goes against my ideology. However, as a planning commissioner I am in the middle of the affordable housing debate all the time. And since the other leaders in my city don’t hold my philosophy, I am usually trying to improve the plans and programs rather than block them.

So whenever someone who I respect comes up with a cogent commentary on affordable housing I read it with interest. Diane Harkey is a Dana Point city councilwoman and financial whiz and one of the few elected officials I know that has a command of how our economy really works. Here are her thoughts on the subject: The Affordable Housing Dilemma…or the problem with living in paradise…

We love to read about how… Read More

What blogs do you visit to keep up on political issues in California politics? Obviously there is the FlashReport blog. But there are many others out there, and we want to make sure that we have them all. We’re getting ready to revamp the way that this website keeps track of the other blogs that cover California politics, to make it easier for our readers to monitor the ‘blogosphere’ for what else is going on, with the idea that the main page of the site right now keeps a pretty good eye on the main-stream-media, but not on political blogging. So please drop the FR a note, or post up a comment sharing any and all political blogs you visit that write on California politics. Thanks! We are pleased to let you know that while we are still working out a few bugs, the FlashReport development team has largely finished retooling the site to make it much easier to visit using a PDA. So whether you are on a Treo or a Blackberry, please surf the site and give us your feedback. We limited the fixes to the main page, the blog page, and the commentary page. But it should be much, much easier to navigate than it was before! Are you signed… Read More

What blogs do you visit to keep up on political issues in California politics? Obviously there is the FlashReport blog. But there are many others out there, and we want to make sure that we have them all. We’re getting ready to revamp the way that this website keeps track of the other blogs that cover California politics, to make it easier for our readers to monitor the ‘blogosphere’ for what else is going on, with the idea that the main page of the site right now keeps a pretty good eye on the main-stream-media, but not on political blogging. So please drop the FR a note, or post up a comment sharing any and all political blogs you visit that write on California politics. Thanks! We are pleased to let you know that while we are still working out a few bugs, the FlashReport development team has largely finished retooling the site to make it much easier to visit using a PDA. So whether you are on a Treo or a Blackberry, please surf the site and give us your feedback. We limited the fixes to the main page, the blog page, and the commentary page. But it should be much, much easier to navigate than it was before! Are you signed… Read More

One of the reasons why I think that everyone reading the FR should help Tom McClintock in his campaign for Liuetenant Governor of California is McClintock’s strong, decisive leadership on policy issues both in the legislature, and before Californians on the ballot.

Back in early August, Senator McClintock took positions on every matter on the November election and listed all of his positions (along with explanations for them) on his campaign website.

I took the opportunity to take a look at the website of Tom McClintock’s opponent, John Garamendi, to see where he stands on the statewide ballot measures — and there was nothing there. You can’t even tell from his site if he has a position on Proposition 83, the Jessica’s Law measure!

But Garamendi is in good company as I meandered through the websites of… Read More