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There is a lot of interesting reading linked to the main page of the FlashReport this morning. A quick summary of the highlights:

The LA Times has Republican Congressman Gary Miller in their crosshairs. In addition to being a Member of Congress, Miller is a very successful businessman, apparently owning a lot of property. At issue in the LAT piece today are a serious of land transactions where Miller made millions of dollars in profits, but did not pay capitol gains taxes because he claimed that these property sales were forced due to eminent domain decisions by local governments. The Times says that, upon closer investigation, these sales were not compelled by local governments. I will ask you this question: If the government condemns your land, or just says, "if you don’t sell it to us, we will condemn it" — isn’t that the same thing? Carla Marinucci is a veteran political reporter and analyst at the San Francisco Chronicle. Today she pens an interesting piece on the turnabout in political fortunes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, focusing on a four-person team of … Read More

There is a lot of interesting reading linked to the main page of the FlashReport this morning. A quick summary of the highlights:

The LA Times has Republican Congressman Gary Miller in their crosshairs. In addition to being a Member of Congress, Miller is a very successful businessman, apparently owning a lot of property. At issue in the LAT piece today are a serious of land transactions where Miller made millions of dollars in profits, but did not pay capitol gains taxes because he claimed that these property sales were forced due to eminent domain decisions by local governments. The Times says that, upon closer investigation, these sales were not compelled by local governments. I will ask you this question: If the government condemns your land, or just says, "if you don’t sell it to us, we will condemn it" — isn’t that the same thing? Carla Marinucci is a veteran political reporter and analyst at the San Francisco Chronicle. Today she pens an interesting piece on the turnabout in political fortunes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, focusing on a four-person team of … Read More

LiMandri, Thalheimer, Kellogg Invited to Soledad Signing… Cheers to Duncan Hunter for his obvious involvement in arranging invites for Chuck LiMandri and Phil Thalheimer to tomorrow’s Presidential bill signing of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Protection Act. Several pleas, including my blog poston Chuck,were made to include one or both of these champions on the issue…and Duncan clearly knew they were deserving. Rick Terrazas, Hunter’s district chief, called me a couple of days after my post to let me know that the invites had been extended.

On a side note, the word is that William Kellogg of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association has also been invited. Interesting in that the MSMA a couple of years back agreed to a settlement that called for removal of the cross in exchange for the Association gaining clear ownership of the property, which… Read More

A political gadfly in Arizona collected 186,000 signatures to qualify a measure for this November’s that would give 1 lucky voter $1 million just for voting. Lots of obvious pros and cons to this measure, but could you imagine the voters that would participate, knowing very little about the candidates and measures.… Read More

On this quiet Saturday morning in the middle of the summer, one is left to try and contemplate the general election strategy of Phil Angelides as the weeks go by, and the general election comes closer. Right now, Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly the front-runner in this race. Over the past few months (coincidentally right around the time that Team Schmidt came onboard) the Schwarzenegger campaign has been able to successfully define Angelides weak campaign for him — Angelides is the guy who wants to raise every form of taxes known to mankind. Of course, while this is true, Angelides has been unable to shift the debate to another subject. He keeps trying, but every time he does, the attempt lasts about a week, then peters out. Then Phil seems to get with his gurus and with the new week comes a new theme. One thing is certain, though, from readily available polling data… And that is that the most liberal voters are the only ones that Angelides has solidly in his corner, while Schwarzenegger has the right (bolstered by his no new taxes or fees pledge – as well as fear of Angelides) but also Arnold, right now, is the King of the middle… Read More

On this quiet Saturday morning in the middle of the summer, one is left to try and contemplate the general election strategy of Phil Angelides as the weeks go by, and the general election comes closer. Right now, Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly the front-runner in this race. Over the past few months (coincidentally right around the time that Team Schmidt came onboard) the Schwarzenegger campaign has been able to successfully define Angelides weak campaign for him — Angelides is the guy who wants to raise every form of taxes known to mankind. Of course, while this is true, Angelides has been unable to shift the debate to another subject. He keeps trying, but every time he does, the attempt lasts about a week, then peters out. Then Phil seems to get with his gurus and with the new week comes a new theme. One thing is certain, though, from readily available polling data… And that is that the most liberal voters are the only ones that Angelides has solidly in his corner, while Schwarzenegger has the right (bolstered by his no new taxes or fees pledge – as well as fear of Angelides) but also Arnold, right now, is the King of the middle… Read More

The Governor of California has a lot of awesome powers — directing vast agencies, holding sway over important (and no so important) pieces of legislation, and even, at times, literally holding power over life and death when death-row inmates approach their execution date. Still, with all of these important powers and responsibilities, it is sometimes the less influential appointments of a Governor that can create the most intrigue and drama. Yeah, I guess these days you could assume I am talking about the appointment of Judges — but I am actually talking about appointees to County Fair Boards (or in state-government-speak, "Agricultural Associations"). I don’t know how it is in other counties, but in Orange County where I live, an appointment to the Fair Board is something to be coveted and is a prized political possession. The OC Fair is a big event — this year’s event which just finished up brought in nearly a million visitors! The entertainment is first-notch, with many big name artists coming through, incentivized with big bucks that the Fair Board can shell out from selling all of those admission tickets!… Read More