On occasion I get press releases that are good enough to pass along, verbatim. I got one yesterday from the campaign of Mark Lunn who is running for Ventura County Clerk/Recorder. Lunn, a conservative, currently serves as Chief of Staff to Supervisor Peter Foy — a second career for him, after retiring from the California Highway Patrol.

Lunn’s opponent in this open-seat race (the incumbent is retiring) is none other than Peter Foy’s former opponent in his run for Supervisor four years ago, Jim Dantona. I could devote a whole blog post to Dantona, but that isn’t the purpose of this post. It’s to highlight how Lunn has brought to light, with thorough documentation, how Dantona wants to be elected to an office of public trust, can’t keep his personal finances in order. The example in this release has to do with property taxes. But having been at this for a while, trouble paying one’s property taxes is the big "red flag" for opening up the hood and seeing a lot more trouble.

The moral of this story… Pay your property taxes on time, especially if you want other people to trust you to be their… Read More

Prayer has always been a component of American history. You need not be a person of faith to know that prayer has influenced our history and that Presidents have honored and called for prayer during times of national crisis. It is ingrained into our national traditions. It is in that spirit that the National Day of Prayer was created by a joint resolution of Congress and signed by President Truman in 1952 to annually recognize prayer’s importance.

Since then, there have been 57 Presidential Proclamations for a Day of Prayer. Last year, all 50 state governors including Governor Schwarzenegger signed similar proclamations encouraging citizens to pray. The Day of Prayer serves to remind all Americans, of all backgrounds, to reflect on the blessings and challenges that have shaped our nation. It is a wholesome call to pray for the well-being of our communities, country, and those serving in our Armed Forces.

Unfortunately, for a small and vocal minority largely comprised of atheists and agnostics, the safe guards in the First Amendment are not enough. A group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation believes that the National Day of Prayer leaves… Read More

We are pleased to share with FlashReport readers in this "scoop" that Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth and Senate Republican Leader-Elect Bob Dutton have set out a specific transition date for the "passing of the baton" of leadership from the former to the latter — it will be September 1st. This date, in theory, will be after this year’s budget has been adopted, and puts Dutton in the saddle for bringing home political victories for Senate Republicans at the ballot box this November.

Here is the text of the memo that they will be releasing with the details — attached below is the spiffy .pdf version on letterhead with initials and such…

May 4, 2010 TO: Senate Republican Caucus… Read More

Welcome to "Whitman University" — this professionally created video highlighting a campaign appearance by GOP Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman yesterday in Diamond Bar is really an important reminder to everyone about the importance of protecting Proposition 13…

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Garrick Fights Against Raising Taxes on Working Californians* from CA Assembly GOP on Vimeo.… Read More

In case you hadn’t heard, we are getting closer to officially recognizing Ronald Reagan Day here in California. On April 8, by a vote of 34-0, the Senate approved SB 944, the Ronald Reagan Day bill proposed by Senator George Runner and me. SB 944 (Runner and Strickland) is the first – and so far only – Ronald Reagan Day bill in the nation to be passed by any legislative house. All other legislative efforts to recognize Ronald Reagan Day have been single-year resolutions or have not been approved by a legislative house. No one will get a day off under SB 944 (Runner and Strickland); instead, schools will be encouraged to teach about Ronald Reagan and his contributions. SB 944 (Runner and Strickland) was introduced in the Senate on February 3 and was approved by a 7-0 vote in the Senate Education Committee on March 24 before its unanimous passage in the Senate on April 8. We are expecting that SB 944 (Runner and Strickland) will be heard in the Assembly Education Committee in June. You can read the text of the bill at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_944&sess=CUR… Read More

This afternoon GOP legislators will have a start contrast available to them as they decide where to get their late afternoon munchies. You see, after his "inauguration" event this afternoon, Abel Maldonado is having a reception to celebrate his ascending to the state’s top most meaningless post. But at the very same time, the Lt. Governor campaign of conservative State Senator Sam Aanestad is having their own event.

FlashReport’s eyes and ears will be trolling about both events — and we’ll be interested to see who goes to which. Will legislators prioritize making an important statement about their primary choice? Or will they revert to what experts call "grazing" — where you go to all events, just to get as much food as possible.

Of course, if they attend the Maldonado inauguration, they may not have an appetite afterward so the "grazing" argument would be rendered moot.… Read More

Since we’re a website on California politics, I am not going to assume that all of our readers know that life-long Republican Charlie Crist, the Governor of Florida and a candidate for United States Senate, in recent days announced his departure from the GOP, choosing to re-register as an independent to guarantee his presence as a candidate for the Senate this November. Crist, you see, had been the prohibitive front-runner for the GOP nomination – but his strong embrace of President Obama and some of his most liberal policies (most famously the TARP plan) on top of years of embracing his own form of populism that demonstrated a severe lack of defining ideology – made him very unpopular with Florida’s Republican voters. His former primary opponent, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a strong conservative, had been an underdog against Crist, but then as Rubio’s message spread, and Crist’s embrace of Obama (literally) became well know, Rubio shot way ahead to the point where Crist was sure to lose the GOP nomination – hence his decision to bail on the Republican Party all… Read More