In a partial rebuke to the City of San Diego that will likely have broader implications, a federal court today declared unconstitutional a city-hoped for $1,000 limit on the amount political parties can donate to local candidates, while further striking down the existing prohibition on candidates spending personal money 12 months in advance of an election.

In a summary judgement on nine separate cross-motions in the case of Thalheimer vs. City of San Diego, Chief Judge Irma Gonzalez of the U.S. District Court’s Southern California division ruled in favor of some of the plaintiff’s motions, while denying others, as follows:

City prohibition on candidates spending their own money prior to the twelve-month period — GRANTED for Plaintiffs. City barring the making and accepting contributions prior to the twelve-month period — GRANTED for the City. City imposing a $500 limit on individual contributions to candidates — GRANTED for the City. City ban on contributions to candidates by political parties — GRANTED for … Read More

I am very pleased to announce that we have a new addition to the FlashReport Blog Roll — our good friend Mark Standriff. Most FR readers will know Mark for his most recent professional sojourn as Communications Director for the California Republican Party — a position from which he is departing this week. With the election year upon us, Mark is engaging in a lot of fun new activities, which I am sure we will hear about as Mark is none too subtle about his actions and projects. Actually, one of the reasons I invited Mark to write for us is because, like me, he believes that politics is a contact sport!

Hailing from Toledo, Ohio, and being blessed with a face for radio (but fortunately a voice for radio as well), Mark has been a successful on-air radio personality. He is a talented media relations pro, and coach on public speaking. He’ll be a fine addition to this page.

Because we are trying to butter up the new guy, we’ve inserted a great photo of him (circa 2007). As things go, if it gets rocky, we’ll pull out some of our more recent photos that may not be as flattering…… Read More

I have joked that Jerry Brown is That 70’s Governor, but I was wrong. We have put a medieval doctor in charge of our sick economy.

What do I mean? Simple. Prior to the advent of modern medicine, doctors believed that the way to cure a disease, any disease, was to bleed the patient. Stick some blood sucking reptile on the patient, slit their wrists, or use some other rather gruesome blood sucking device on the patient and bleed them until they were cured. More likely than not, the patient was so sapped of nutrients and strength, that the blood sucking killed the patient, and not the disease.

California’s economy is seriously ill. As one who moved from the blood sucking side of the economy to the nutrient side, trust me, our economy is dying.

And what is our Governor/doctor’s solution? Slit our wrists, and bleed the disease out of us.

Except it is the blood suckers that are killing us. Whether it is the government unions, or the ecoterrorists, or the massive bureaucracies, or any number of other people who make money off of the government, these blood sucking ticks (as the old joke says about the meaning of the word… Read More

– On Tuesday, Republican State Senator Tony Strickland formally announced his candidacy for the newly minted, very competitive 26th Congressional District. Yesterday Strickland announced that he has already raised $317,915 (with none of that being transfers of any funds from his existing State Senate campaign committee). Strickland’s strong showing reinforces what I said when Congressman Elton Gallegly announced his retirement — Strickland is a stronger candidate for the GOP to win that seat than Gallegly would have been.

– No doubt the winner of the “most enjoyable response to the Governor’s State of the State Address award” goes to longtime FR friend State Senator Joel Anderson, with his press release entitled, “I want to work with the Governor but sometimes it’s hard to take him seriously.”

– Vice President Biden came into San Francisco to perform a series of “cashectomies” on the liberal donor class in the area. Apparently he… Read More

Here is the response to the Governor’s State of the State Address from Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff and Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway:

Republican Response to Gov. Brown’s State of the State from CA Assembly GOP on Vimeo.

Here is the response to the State of the State Address from California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro:

… Read More

Here’s my response to Governor Jerry Brown’s State of the State address:

“I agree with the Governor that we must do more to spur job creation and investment in our state. Unfortunately, by pushing higher taxes, the Governor sends the entirely wrong message. We don’t need higher taxes, we need more private sector jobs.

“Despite some modest job growth, more than two million Californians remain unemployed. Rather than drive more job creators and wage earners away from our state, we should be doing everything in our power to help them stay here and succeed.

“When Californians have jobs, the state always has plenty of revenue. The Governor should be campaigning for jobs, not higher taxes.”… Read More

I just got a press release from the “Think Long Committee” announcing that they are putting off until 2012 plans to place a measure on the statewide ballot to “broaden” the tax base in California to include taxes on services.

While I think that there is actually some opportunity to bring people together behind the idea of broadening the tax base so that such a big chunk of the state’s tax income doesn’t come from a pretty darned small group of the most wealthy Californians (thus substituting predictability for volatility in the state’s budgeting process) — this committee’s contribution to the process was a proposed ballot measure that purported to be about tax “reform” — but was in a large measure about tax increases. Their draft proposal was not “revenue neutral” — a key component to bring any right-thinkers to the discussion about broadening the tax base — instead the Think Long Committee went with a rather-short sighted proposal to play a shell game that, when over, would have meant a $10 BILLION tax increase. Good Lord.

The think long committee is made up of… Read More

I have known Ed Royce going back to the late-80’s. Back then, he was a California State Senator and I was a brand-new activist with Young Americans for Freedom, a great conservative youth organization of which Royce himself if an alumnus. Of course now Royce is a long-serving Member of Congress (he was first elected in 1992) and is really doing a great job. Despite having served in the House of Representatives for nearly two decades, Royce continues to possess the enthusiasm, energy and passion that he had the day he first walked under the Capitol Dome. So many Members of Congress become “institutionalized” and become distant from the cause — but not Royce. Royce combines his unflagging energy with fierce determination to make a difference. Not only is he well regarded as a legislator, especially noted for his expertise in the areas of finance and foreign policy, but equally importantly is that he is totally engaged on the political side. For years Royce has been a leader within the National Republican Congressional Committee, and continues to be a key leader on party issues at the state and county levels. To be honest, I couldn’t be… Read More