What do you do when you are running for the Republican nomination for Governor, and despite the fact that you have invested large amounts of your own personal fortune in the race, you are being run over by a candidate whose wallet is thicker, looks to be outspending you by as much as four-to-one, and started spending money very early — building up a huge lead going into the final stretch?

The answer is that you do everything, of course. Everything has included a campaign for Steve Poizner that has used differences between he and Meg Whitman on immigration to drive down her positive numbers with GOP primary voters, throwing out there Whitman’s connections with Wall Street financiers Goldman Sachs as well, as well as highlighting Whitman’s deplorable voting record. But despite all of these things being hurled into the public marketplace by Poizner’s campaign, little did we know that with all of these various hits on Whitman, Poizner still was holding back the proverbial "kitchen… Read More

In today’s column in the LA Times, George Skelton points to Governor Schwarzenegger’s decision to cut the car tax in his first day in office in 2003 "forced [Governor Schwarzenegger] into the budget box he found himself in Friday." Skelton also cited borrowing $15 billion to pay off the accumulated Gray Davis debt as another reason. He later cites other things, which I will address later, but I wanted to address these two first.

Let’s look at the numbers again, just to reiterate the impact of the car tax cut on state revenues. The day the car tax was first cut in 1998, total state revenues were $57 billion (Schwarzeneggger’s cut restored the rate to its 1998 level). Today, those revenues are $84 billion, a $27 billion increase in revenues. The total amount of the car tax cut, even assuming the cut had no positive impact on state revenues (by increasing private sector growth, and therefore increasing revenue) was $5 billion. It is simply illogical to conclude this $5 billion reduction in taxes, and not the huge increases in welfare, education, state government and government health care spending, from $57 billion to over $102… Read More

I am very pleased that once again the FlashReport has partnered up with our friends at Americans for Tax Reform to talk about the importance of the ATR Taxpayer Protection Pledge, and to unveil the list of those candidates who have signed the pledge (thus far) in the 2010 primaries here in California for statewide office, as well as candidates for the state legislature. ATR’s President, Grover Norquist, pens an exclusive column for us today talking about the Pledge and California, and below his column is the list of Pledge signers. You can check out his column here.

In talking about the importance of the pledge, I am actually going to enlist the aid of my good friend Assemblyman and U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, who takes about two minutes to talk about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and why it is important in this video…

… Read More

I am very pleased that once again the FlashReport has partnered up with our friends at Americans for Tax Reform to talk about the importance of the ATR Taxpayer Protection Pledge, and to unveil the list of those candidates who have signed the pledge (thus far) in the 2010 primaries here in California for statewide office, as well as candidates for the state legislature. ATR’s President, Grover Norquist, pens an exclusive column for us today talking about the Pledge and California, and below his column is the list of Pledge signers. You can check out his column here.

In talking about the importance of the pledge, I am actually going to enlist the aid of my good friend Assemblyman and U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, who takes about two minutes to talk about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and why it is important in this video…

… Read More

Former Vice President Dick Cheney today endorsed the candidacy of Meg Whitman for Governor. You can read his lengthy column in today’s Orange County Register which was as notable for his glowing praise of Whitman as its harsh words for Whitman’s primary opponent, Steve Poizner.

In conjunction with the announcement of Cheney’s support, the Whitman campaign has unleashed pre-recorded messages from Vice President Cheney to Republican primary voters. In the all-positive call, Cheney calls Whitman the "clear conservative choice…"

Cheney is a favorite of most conservatives, thus this a significant "third party endorsement" of Whitman.

You can listen to Cheney’s message below…… Read More

I think it’s close enough to Election Day to start posting what political mail I received. I’ll start with this weekend:

* Gubernatorial candidate Whitman “Tough as Nails” about illegal immigration (good piece, clear)

* Yes on Proposition 16 (good piece, clear)

* California Voter Guide “Leadership for California” (above US Senate candidate Fiorina it says ‘Sarah Palin says: vote for Carly”)… Read More

The Sunday roundup from around the region… Docs Weigh in for Wells in AD 77… In what has been a fairly quiet race to succeed Assemblyman Joel Anderson in the 77th District (at least compared to what I’m used to in prior Steve Baldwin, Jay La Suer and Anderson dust-ups), things may finally be getting interesting. The California Medical Association yesterday filed a late independent expenditure report to the tune of over $19,500 for a mailer in support of Bill Wells, as he vies against Brian Jones and Christine Rubin.

The amount may not jump out as that significant, but in a race where fundraising has been on the low side, it may be huge indeed(cash-on-hand for the three contenders was in the 25-30k range thru March 17).

Additionally, in the last couple of days, I’ve received two mailers from Jones and one from Wells. All positive…thus far.

Please toss me a note, if you see anything of interest in… Read More

We happily share conservative icon Tom McClintock’s recommendations each election. These are straight from his own blog… McClintock On the Propositions: Prop. 13. Seismic Retrofits. YES: Earthquake proofing your house shouldn’t trigger a tax increase until you’re ready to sell. Any questions? Prop. 14. Distorted Primary. NO: This was the result of the corrupt deal for the tax increase… Read More