Over at the SFChron Political Blog, writer Greg Lucas pens a short piece today on Gubernatorial Spokesperson Julie Soderland being named as Press Secretary for the Governor’s re-election campaign.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s press secretary for his re-elect campaign will be Julie Soderlund, a focused and driven mainstay in his gubernatorial press office.

You can read the rest, including why Julie’s nickname is "thumbs" here.

Since Julie used to… Read More

So I’m up early as usual (ugh…I’ve become my father)…and going through my archives of stupid ideas to post on Flashreport…and I ran across an editorial that has a personal interest to me…..it waswas a Sacramento Bee editorial on some fairly decent news about what the Sacramento City Unified School District Board acted on recently.

Although my kids currently go to the elementary school across the… Read More

The speech that I want to hear from Governor Schwarzenegger tonight at the GOP convention would have as its central theme a return to fiscal conservatism. It would include an emphasis on infrastructure, with a public adoption of the proposal introduced by EVERY Assembly Republican to finance infrastructure by paying-as-we-go instead of through massive borrowing. The speech would go on to talk about the need to have pension reform, and the importance of finishing what the Governor started, by putting and end to deficit spending in Sacramento. Other highlights of the speech would include his decision to replace Rob Reiner as Chairman of California’s ‘Tobacco Tax Spending Committee’ with attorney Hugh Hewitt, the unveiling of a new Republican Chief of Staff (I’m okay with anyone at this point who is registered as a Republican), a commitment to find and appoint qualified Republican judges to the bench, and an embrace of a statewide measure to fight eminent domain… Read More

The speech that I want to hear from Governor Schwarzenegger tonight at the GOP convention would have as its central theme a return to fiscal conservatism. It would include an emphasis on infrastructure, with a public adoption of the proposal introduced by EVERY Assembly Republican to finance infrastructure by paying-as-we-go instead of through massive borrowing. The speech would go on to talk about the need to have pension reform, and the importance of finishing what the Governor started, by putting and end to deficit spending in Sacramento. Other highlights of the speech would include his decision to replace Rob Reiner as Chairman of California’s ‘Tobacco Tax Spending Committee’ with attorney Hugh Hewitt, the unveiling of a new Republican Chief of Staff (I’m okay with anyone at this point who is registered as a Republican), a commitment to find and appoint qualified Republican judges to the bench, and an embrace of a statewide measure to fight eminent domain… Read More

Since Rep. Bob Dornan lost to Loretta Sanchez in 1996, Orange County Republicans have searched for a credible candidate to beat Sanchez.

Local Republicans have over the years fronted a list of misfits, retreads and drop-outs who have amounted to nothing. But under the leadership of Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh, the 47th Congressional District which includs Santa Ana has become competative again fot the GOP (Democrats now outnumber GOP voters by only about 3%).

So 2006 could be a year where the GOP wins or at least make a credible showing. That is if they find a candidate. Enter Rosie Availa, Santa Ana School Board Member. Rosie is a nice lady and principled conservative. But she has little ability to raise money. Tan Nguyen is the other guy in the race. He is best known for running as a DEMOCRAT against Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in 2004. He lost in the Democrat Primary.

Nguyen has all the right answers now. He says the… Read More

Okay, for the 4,000 th time……. I don’t care what speech the Governor gives, what comes out of Rules, Resolutions or Initiatives or what kind of grassroots training is on the agenda this weekend in San Jose. No amount of discussion on Republican judges, general obligation bonds, budget deficits or Rob Reiner matters anything in November. The Governor is well aware of how we feel on these issues.

Until a plan is put in place to political DEFEAT Nurses, Cops, Firefighters, Prison Guards and Teachers we are not going to win any Statewide Office in November. Do I have to type in ALL CAPS for everyone to understand this?

Voters WILL NOT BE CHOOSING between Arnold and a Democrat alternative this November. They will be choosing between Arnold and a candidate backed by the well regarded and trusted groups I have listed above. End of story. Highly paid consultants, are you listening? You want to energize the GOP base? Get a strategy in place to get this done.… Read More

I’d like to share some thoughts on today’s approval of the 241 Tollway by the F/ETCA Board of Directors.

Schizophrenia In the Schwarzenegger Administration The Schwarzenegger Administration has been torn internally over the 241 tollway, and it shows in its inability to formulate a coherent stance.

For example, there’s this paragraph from today’s administration statement on the 241 alignment (sent out under the rubrics of Sunne McPeak and Mike Chrisman):

Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Project Attorney James Birkelund was informing the press that the F/ETCA’s approval of the 241 completion will be challenged in court within 30 days.

Gee, that’s a surprise.

The suit will be filed by the usual suspects: the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, California State Parks Foundation, Endangered Habitats League, Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club.

I overheard Birkelund stating that NRDC continues to "stand behind" the flimsy KCA report that purports to prove that widening the I-5 in San Clemente by a single lane in each direction will solve congestion problems there and obviate the need for completing the 241. This report was written based on two days of an engineer driving this stretch of the I-5 and eyeballing the area to see how many properties would be taken. The KCA report also contends only a couple of dozens properties would need to be seized in order to do this — instead of the several hundred as stated in the Final EIR.

It’s worth noting that KCA didn’t use Orange County Assesor… Read More