Your trusty FlashReport Publisher has been to every State GOP Convention since 1988 and I can tell you that as far as these events go, this one is perhaps one of the most sparsely attended gatherings to which I have ever been. Why is the attendance so low? First and foremost, it is a weekend in August, which traditionally is vacation time for many people. That has been a factor with a number of people who told me ahead of time that they would not be here. But the "I’m on vacation" cases do feed into a bigger set of folks who are not here. Those people, and I have spoken to a lot of them, just did not feel like making participation in this convention a priority. This is not an indicator of support or lack of support for the Governor or the GOP ticket — but, it is an indicator of depth and intensity of support. Understand that the people to whom I am referring are not average Republican voters, but rather these are among the 1400 members of the Republican State Central Committee — leaders within the party. Our Party Chairman Duf Sundheim and other GOP big wheels such Californians for Schwarzenegger Campaign Manager Steve… Read More

Last night Mass Gov. Mitt Romney a likely WH contender wowed the crowd of 900 at the St. Regis resort in Dana Point.

The event included a vip reception, a free reception and an intimate dinner.

No other prez hopeful could replicate this, all the party factions were represented at the event.

I will have more on this soon but want to make sure the FlashReport readers got a different perspective from FR Managing Editor Nick Romero’s previous post. UPDATE: See Martin Wisckol’s post on OC Register’s Total Buzz blog here.… Read More

Last evening, I had the opportunity to attend a reception for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his Commonwealth PACat The St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point. It was an entertaining event with many in attendance. Governor Romney was, as I have always seen him, polished and clear.This is perhaps why I was unpleasantly alarmed by something he said.He elucidates his thoughts well, so I don’t believe I misheard or misunderstood him. (I have since been assured by friends and blogging colleagues that I hadn’t).

After Olympic anecdotes, Romney transitioned into public policy. While comparing the academic output of the United States, China and India of engineers, doctors and scientists in pure numbers as part of a greater point about our economic future, he said something like, ‘We should… Read More

From the Capitol Morning Report today (subscribe here): Jason Kinney of California Strategies reports plans to launch a political website and blog for Democrats called The California Majority Report. The tag line on Kinney’s announcement reads, "THE political website for California Democrats who don’t play politics – they live it." It’s being published by three insiders of the former Gov. Gray Davis… Read More

AN IMPORTANCE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Dear FR Reader,

This weekend many FlashReport readers will be attending the California Republican Party Convention in Los Angeles. It is an important convention for a lot of reasons, the most significant of which is that it is a great opportunity for grassroots GOP leaders from around the state to come together in support of our great Republican ticket as we are less than a hundred days from the general election. I know that I have already put in a lot of hours on behalf of GOP candidates for statewide and local office this year, and will invest a lot more between now and election day!

Of course Republican Party conventions are also a key opportunity to take some time to discuss the future of our party, where we are going over the coming weeks, months and years. This convention will be the last time that CRP delegates will come together until the… Read More

The last famous San Diegan to announce his retirement, andthen announce his un-retirement, ended up winning a mayoral re-election, only to subsequently have to resign from office in some semblance of disgrace.

Future NFL Hall-of-Famer Junior Seau, please take a lesson from Dick Murphy.

From SignOnSanDiego:

"Three days after announcing his retirement from the National Football League, former Chargers linebacker Junior Seau could be on the verge of returning."

Read the story here. As a tribute to Joe Justin, someone please provide me a song title that describes thispolitics-mirrors-sports scenario.… Read More

Looks like ‘for sure’ no redistricting measure for November’s ballot. The Assembly did not take up SCA 3 which was passed out of the Senate yesterday. However, a gut-and-amend measure was attempted during today’s session to cause theenabling language to be ready to place the still unfinished SCA 3 on the November 2006ballot. This, as most Republican members sawit, was putting the "caboose in front of the engine" in that SCA 3 hadn’t really beenexamined by our members, let alone voted out. How can you vote out the enabling language to place landmark constitutional change on the ballot when the ink isn’t even dry on the Amendment itself, let alone having not read it? Kinda reminds me of how the bonds were handled. [oops, did I say that?]

The net effect is it won’t be on November 2006, but we can still hear the bill during the last 2 weeks of this session and ready a measure that can be taken up on ’08’s ballot…still plenty of time before 2010 census. We could’ve been working on this allthis year to achieve reform, as promised by those that helped defeat Prop 77,… Read More

The latest from David Drucker over at Roll Call Newspaper…

As California officials on Wednesday moved one step closer to severing politicians’ ability to gerrymander themselves safe seats, a Democratic-affiliated 527 group is launching today with the intent of maximizing partisan gain in the 2012 redistricting process in states across the country. After it appeared the measure was dead, the California Senate Wednesday passed State Constitutional Amendment 3 with the requisite two-thirds majority. If approved in similar fashion by the state Assembly and ratified by voters, the amendment would remove from the Legislature the power to draw legislative and Congressional districts, granting that task instead to an 11-member independent commission. In a direct but unrelated counter-move, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal… Read More