There are only two types of candidates for legislative and local offices that print their names on things other than direct mail and donor envelopes. 1) losers who get some sense of satisfaction from handing out a campaign-logo imprinted key chain to a neighbor who isn’t even registered to vote and 2) candidates that are so far ahead in the race and have so much money to spend that their consultants are reaching for ways to spend it, even though the race is all but decided.

The later is the case with the "Note Pad Mailer of 2005", the brain child of Sacramento based and OC legislative/Congressional/supervisorial consultant of choice Dave Gilliard. The note pad was sent in a regular #10 envelope with a letter I didn’t read because I was so excited to see the note pad. It was only the third one I had gotten on Monday (the other two were from Realtors who had dropped them on my front porch).

The note pad expressly reminds Republicans to vote for John Campbell in the Dec. 6 Special Election to replace Rep. Cox. A generally good idea since it will be the THIRD Special Election in as many months. But the note pad… Read More

Tucked away at the very bottom of the latest FIELD POLL was a section testing the re-election numbers for Senator Dianne Feinstein. Needless to say, Feinstein is currently sitting on a commanding lead, bolstered by the fact that nearly one in four REPUBLICANS is inclined to support her re-election. Feinstein continues to enjoy a ‘perception’ out there that she is significantly more centrist than her colleague, Barbara Boxer. The reality is that their differences are must more stylistic than ideological. The two of them agree on just about everything. But I think it would be fair to characterize Boxer as being more ‘strident’ and ‘flambouyant’. Feinstein’s measured demeaner belays her extremely liberal positions on virtually all issues.

I would add that this perception of Feinstein was advanced in the last election cycle when GOP officials would go on the stump, attacking Boxer, and claiming that she is ‘far more liberal’ than Feinstein. Shame on them.… Read More

Steve Frank has the following report in his e-mail newsletter:

The U.C. Berkeley Californian newspaper today is carrying a story on the visit, yesterday, by State GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim to a Political Science class on campus:

In his remarks, Sundheim talked about the importance of passing Propostion 75, the Paycheck Protection measure. He compared the power of employee unions to the power of another interest back in the early 1900’s, "They have the same degree of power in Sacramento that the railroad’s had in 1911."

Duf gets props for going into the heart of liberalism. A glance at the front page of the very same Daily Californian shows what ELSE was going on the same day he was there:

This is a big FLASHREPORT THANK YOU to the California Club for Growth. The organization pumped out a half a million pieces of mail around California, which is hitting voters in the mail this week. This mail piece has four 8.5 x 11 panels, and one of those panels (inside, right page) is a column from yours truly, as Publisher of the FlashReport, on the importance of streamlining state government. There are several plugs for the FlashReport on the page!

The big reason for the THANK YOU is that the Club for Growth folks reached out to us, and made the offer. And while there were some trade-offs for being featured on the piece, they were totally reasonable. There is no doubt that the leadership of California Club for Growth, Tony Strickland and Shawn Steel, want to promote this website, and we appreciate it!

So, want to see this mail piece? It is at the bottom of my… Read More

CLUB FOR GROWTH SLATE The California Club for Growth is a non-partisan organization that is focused on educating the public about the importance of a limited role for government, and letting voters know which candidates will promote a liberty-based agenda in office, with a particular emphasis on free-market-oriented economic principles.

For the first time, the California Club for Growth has produced a statewide mailing to voters in advance of an election. There is a page of it that advocates for various positions on the election (these various measures undoubtedly financed the mail). But I am pleased that the vast majority of the piece is educational, talking about the very principles that the group espouses.

I was extremely pleased when I was approached by representatives of CCfG to ask if I would author an article in the piece talking about the need to streamline California government and ‘blow up the boxes’ (as Governor Schwarzenegger put it). They also let me put in some verbiage about the FlashReport.… Read More

The first time I voted in an Oakland election, I had to choose between two mayoral candidates who both loudly declared their vegetarianism as a way to attract voters (Jerry Brown and Wilson Riles, Jr). Next year, I get to choose between a socialist and the father of a rapist for the city’s new mayor.

Last month, the ultra-liberal Ron Dellums announced that he intends to run for mayor in Oakland. Dellums, readers will remember, was elected to Congress in 1970 on an anti-Vietnam War agenda. When he arrived in DC, the former Berkeley City Council member set up a Vietnam War crimes exhibit outside his office which featured large posters of atrocities allegedly committed by American soldiers. Later,… Read More

Since taking office as Mayor of Anaheim, former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle has ushered in what OC Register editorialist Steve Greenhut terms the "Velvet Revolution." Curt has led an unusual Republican-Democrat council coaliton in making the city freedom friendly: decriminalizing sign ordinances, insituting a months-long business tax and home improvement holidays, whereby fees and penalities associated with such transactions with the city are waived. When property owners appear before the city council, they can be confident the presumption is in their favor, not the regulators and NIMBYs.

[Full discolsure time: Curt Pringle is a long-time friend, for whom I worked during his tenure as Speaker. I also do some contract work with the City of Anaheim].

As a resident of Orange who lives a stone’s throw from the Anaheim city line, I have watched these developments with appreciation and envy. It is a gratifying to see, for once, a… Read More