About a hundred dyed-in-the-wool Republicans are gathered here at the picturesque and historic Mission Inn in downtown Riverside. The meeting room is quite impressive, and intimidating – with statues of Angels, prophets and more. The ceilings are quite impressive – solid dark wood with arches and intricate carvings. Anyways, I digress.

The Chairman of the committee, Kevin Jeffries, is resigning as he is seeking the Assembly seat of termed-out conservative Ray Haynes. This has set the stage for political drama, with a contested race to succeed him. The two candidates — long time GOP activist from the Coachella Valley (read: greater Palm Springs) Bette Myers, and Jeff Miller, a member of the Corona City Council. In this short, wide county, it is West versus East.

(Let me add that I’ve managed to sit next to the lively Don Genhart, from the desert, who is a great guy – blessed with a strong work ethic AND a good sense of humor!)

We heard a lot of great reports from over a dozen different GOP groups – lots of stuff going on. Also talks from legislative representatives. This latter group of speaker pretty much all… Read More

Fontana City Councilwoman Acquanetta Warren is the new Inland Regional Vice-Chair of the California Republican party. Warren was tapped by CRP Chairman Duf Sundheim to fill the vacancy created by the recent resignation of Ed Laning. The appointment was ratified unanimously by the full Board of Directors, which met Mondayin San Diego.

Warren, who is also 2nd Vice Chair of the San Bernardino County GOP, received key support from County Chairman Bill Postmus, Senator Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga, former Sen.Jim Brulte, Assemblyman Bill Emmersonof Redlands, and past CRP Chair Shawn Steel. Also seeking the appointment was Thaddeus Taylor of Bishop,past chairman of the Inyo County Republican Party.

Keeping a representative of the state’s largest and fourth most populous county in the Inland seat was important to the leadership team of Postmus and his 1st Vice Chair, Paul Biane. The pair also serves as Chairman and Vice-Chairman, respectively, of… Read More

Today there is a lot of action going on in "The OC" — as I write this post, Assemblyman Van Tran is getting ready to announce his candidacy for the 34th State Senate District, setting the stage for quite a donnybrook between Tran and Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher – Tran being the more conservative of the two. I’m sure we’ll be writing plenty about this race as it shapes up. But Tran’s candidacy isn’t ‘news’ at this point as he has been running an ‘exploratory effort’ for weeks — but here is something new, to satiate the appetites of those who "need to know" on a minute-by-minute basis what is happening. Tran’s decision to run for the State Senate instead of for re-election leaves the 68th Assembly District up for grabs. Yesterday, fellow FR contributor Adam Probolsky talked about how Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen was actively courting support for the seat, and how perhaps Garden Grove… Read More

Okay, this has nothing to do with California other than the fact that it is one of Rep. Darrell Issa’s opponents for Policy Chairman. But this letter to the GOP Conference from Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan is too entertaining not to share.

In the wee hours of Tuesday the 10th there were still some 1,600 ballots to count in the hotly contested +/- $2 million fight for control of San Diego’s 2nd City Council District. The spread was 500 some odd votes, with Republican Kevin Faulconer in the lead, but with no concession from Bustamonte aide-de-camp Lorena Gonzalez. The last votes have now been counted and the tally is 15,038 Faulconer v. 14,316 Gonzalez, a 722 vote victory for the reformers. Gonzalez has conceded. So I guessits officially the first GOP victory of2006 here in California.

However, because the 2nd council district was a special to fill the seat vacated by the ongoing city corruption scandals (more indictments last week), the seat will be open for election again in June. During the primary, Gonzalez indicated in writing that she would not run against whoever won the special, but her comments thereafter leave some doubt. However, Gonzalez does own a $1.2 million house in San Diego’s 7th council district, which is opening in 2008. She had just purchased the home when the 2nd district, where she rents, came open. Reliable rumors from deep in labor have it she had… Read More

We continue to follow, with interest, the race in Congress to replace Tom DeLay. Two days ago, one of the two candidates, Roy Blunt (R-Mo) announced he had the votes to take the prize. But as this entry in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary tells, Blunt only has only about 85 "public" supporters… So let’s all root on John Shadegg, the conservative candidate out of the Republican Study Committee. Why is this important? Click here if you haven’t read FR’s endorsement of Shadegg: FROM WSJ’s POLITICAL DIARY:

Condi bows out (again) The contributors to the FlashReport can breath a sigh of relief. As you know, our primary focus on this sight is California politics. Well, a Californian running for President would pretty much make us a national website! That said, the only Californian who has seriously been discussed as a candidate for the Presidency is Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice. (As a matter of fact, Dick Morris has written an entire book on her candidacy – oops.) Dr. Rice, in a speech yesterday, made it very clear that she does NOT want to seek the Presidency, or Vice Presidency for that matter. Rice was on the faculty and in the administration at Stanford University for years before being tapped first as W’s National Security Advisor, and then as SoS. BIG BOND Cattle Call … Read More

Condi bows out (again) The contributors to the FlashReport can breath a sigh of relief. As you know, our primary focus on this sight is California politics. Well, a Californian running for President would pretty much make us a national website! That said, the only Californian who has seriously been discussed as a candidate for the Presidency is Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice. (As a matter of fact, Dick Morris has written an entire book on her candidacy – oops.) Dr. Rice, in a speech yesterday, made it very clear that she does NOT want to seek the Presidency, or Vice Presidency for that matter. Rice was on the faculty and in the administration at Stanford University for years before being tapped first as W’s National Security Advisor, and then as SoS. BIG BOND Cattle Call … Read More