These days, central Orange County is a hotbed of political activity. The nucleus of the craziness is the bigger-than-life double-contested-primary race to see who will succeed State Senator Joe Dunn (D-Lives out of the district) in the 34th State Senate District. One of the candidates in the contested GOP primary for that seat is Assemblyman Van Tran. Tran’s Senate candidacy sets the stage for a GOP primary in his 68th Assembly District seat, which he has represented for only one term.

As has been mentioned on the FR before, there are two candidates running in this Republican primary (in the 68th, Democrats need not apply). One is long-time GOP activist and donor Jim Righeimer. The other is Janet Nguyen, who is a member of the Garden Grove City Council, and works as an executive with the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.… Read More

I’m not a spokesman for Jim Silva, nor am I a consultant to or otherwise compensated by his campaign.

But I am a friend of Jim’s. I worked hard for his re-election to the OC Board of Supervisors in 1998, when he came under a determined assault by South County anti-airport forces who were using Huntington Beach Councilman Dave Sullivan as their vessel.

But the reason for this post is to offer a response to the irrepressible OC YAFers and the Real Silver Bullet they sent out last week. [I must also confess to being somewhat irked at the YAFers ripping-off my original creation!]

To put it in context, the purpose of the OC-YAF effort is to aid the Mike McGill for Assembly campaign’s effort to flank Silva on the right. That means combing through… Read More

The 35th SD special election is only six weeks away (April 11). Dana Point Councilwoman Diane Harkey has been campaigning hard — at least eight campaign mailers to date, including an absentee ballot program. Two of the mailers hit Assemblyman Tom Harman hard on his votes for tuition for illegal immigrants and sponsorship of the diaper tax [by the way, OC Blog has been posting the mail as it goes out — click here for an overview]. Harkey has the endorsements of just about every major OC GOP political leader, as well as Lincoln Club and the HJTA. The New Majority will likely make a decision in the near future.

Today, this simple, hard-hitting Harkey ad (see link at end of post) began airing on local cable channels, contrasting the two candidates on illegal immigration.

I’m not sure what to make of the Harman campaign. Other than… Read More

The most outrageous thing I saw at the Republican State Convention this past weekend was the ego of Pierre Richard Prosper, candidate for State Attorney General. Now everyone in politics has a little bigger ego then the average Joe, including myself. If you don’t have a healthy ego, you should not be in the arena. With that said and adding to on to the account of my fellow Flash BLOGer Jennifer Nelson; Mr. Pierre Richard Prosper set a new low for pointless self promotion this weekend. His huge 4X8 posters of him walking off a US Government jet with a security guy standing at the doorway was one of the most obnoxious, pompous and stupid things I have seen at a GOP convention in a very long time.

Again, echoing everything Jennifer Nelson said, I will add this- Who the Hell do you think you are Mr. Pierre Richard Prosper? Thanks for showing all of us little peons at the convention that you are so dame important that you get to fly on government aircraft and have security. George W. Bush does the same thing, but you don’t see him or any other President or Governor highlighting the fact in campaign materials.

I am glad you choose to show us… Read More

I’m posting this from my Blackberry, so pardon any formatting issues. But I have had a few people today tell me that a good friend of the FlashReport, Bill Christiansen, is coming onboard in the coming days at the Director of the coordinated State GOP Victory ’06 program. This is an important position as Bill will have the primary responsibility of working with all of the players involved in this cycle’s elections — The Governor’s campaign, the downticket candidate campaigns, any party-endorsed ballot measure campaigns, Senate and Assembly GOP campaigns, the RNC, NRSC, NRCC and all of the GOP infrastructure (State Party, County Committees, Vol Orgs,etc) – and getting everyone marching in the same direction. A Herculean task to be sure, but Bill will have a lot of help.

Bill brings to the table a lot of relevant experience to help him — most notably his two most recent political jobs — he is fresh off of a multi-year stint as Executive Director of the Arizona State Republican Party, and before that he was Executive Director of the Orange County GOP for the better part of a decade.

Bill brings… Read More

This morning’s headlines carry the news of the sixth CHP officer to be killed in the line of duty in the past months.

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of a blocked execution, California faces a question over the future of the death penalty. And voters will soon face a choice over whether to bring Jessica’s Law to California.

All of which begs the question: why isn’t Governor Schwarzenegger taking a higher profile and talking more about crime — especially when he’s trying to make nice-nice with conservative activists?

Schwarzenegger did not attend last Thursay’s funeral in Modesto for slain CHP officer Earl Scott — a service that attracted about 4,000 police officers, fire fighters and paramedics. Not surprisingly, law enforcement unions attacked him the next day for being a no-show. At the time of the funeral, Arnold was in San Diego, promoting infrastructure and community college funding. His press office says he did talk to the fallen officer’s father the night before the funeral.

Schwarzenegger did give passing mention to Jessica’s Law during his Friday night speech in… Read More

The convention this weekend continued the ongoing GOP dialogue about our governor and our party. Going into the convention, Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign announced that Mindy Fletcher Tucker, the governor’s deputy chief of staff for external affairs, was joining the organization as deputy campaign manager. The campaign is shaping up to be a great GOP organization.

But, in truth, I’d be happier with a boatload of Democrat staffers running the campaign, getting him re-elected, and then have our folks in the governor’s office, shaping policy, keeping the civil servants in line and negotiating with the legislature, instead of the other way around.

With the ongoing exodus of Republicans from the Horseshoe, my issue with Schwarzenegger is not what the campaign will do to keep my vote (all… Read More

I may be biased on that question, but a poll from American Viewpoint (hardly a right-wing polling company) shows that I’m in the majority of Californian Republicans that criticism of the Governor is valid.

In a poll conducted last week showed that a total of 65% of likely GOP primary voters feel the Governor should be criticized strongly when he strays from principle. See more here.… Read More