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

This morning the California Pro-Life Council has released this statement exclusively to the FlashReport (well, for a few hours anyways) — it is an announcement concerning the United States Senate race taking place this year in California…

You have seen discussion of the CA Governor’s race in other places on this web site. Today we want to discuss the candidates and campaign for the U.S. Senate nomination to replace Barbara Boxer.. Months ago we were in an enviable position, both candidates were pro-life. Pro-life assemblyman Chuck Devore was running and Carly Fiorina, who had made public statements of being pro-life. What remained was assertaining just how real those commitments were. … Read More

Dear Editors of California Newspapers:

Many local and regional newspapers will be endorsing in Republican primary elections in the coming days. This is just a little advice that you can clearly take or leave. In the end it’s your newspaper and you will print what you want.

Republican primaries are closed under current law. This means that conservatives often make up the majority of primary voters. Thus, when you decide to support someone in your editorial — trying to write something that actually works with the Republican primary voter would be helpful.

Take this editorial from the San Luis Obispo Tribune. They endorse this local County Supervisor and then go on to tell their readers the reason is that he is more moderate than his opponents and won’t sign the tax pledge. Way to help a brother out.

Come on. I think if i was a Republican candidate in the primary that had the "honor" of earning this endorsement I would have encouraged them to support someone… Read More

My new 60-second radio ad for Board of Equalization is running across BOE District 2 starting today.

In the ad, Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (and fellow Flash Report blogger) says, "Senator Runner is identified as a taxpayer advocate on the ballot because that’s exactly what he is."

"Runner believes that when people are taxed too much, liberty islost,"Jon also says.

"This isn’t someone that’s ‘going along just to get along’ in Sacramento, and that’s why the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers AssociationPolitical Action Committee proudly supportsTaxpayer Advocate George Runner for the Board of Equalization," Jon continues.

The ad for my BOE race runs from today through Election Day (June 8) on conservative radio stations in Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Redding, Chico, Marysville, Merced, Grass Valley and Sonora.

I am proud to be the only candidate endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assocation in the race for Board of Equalization, District 2. Thanks to HJTA for their support (and thank you, Jon, for your help with the… Read More

The Associated Press Economic Stress Index just released its Top 20 most and least economically stressed counties in the nation. Guess which state had 12 of the Top 20 most economically stressed? Yup, California.

Imperial and Merced counties top the list, with San Benito, Sutter, Yuba, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin all making the top 10.No California counties appeared on the least economically stressed counties list.

No wonder unemployment is climbing and Californians are leaving for other states. This list is just another shameful reminder of the dismal state of California’s once stellar economy.

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

In another year, Carly Fiorina vs. Barbara Boxer would be one of the premier races in the country. This year, it’s not even the most watched race in California, an accolade that belongs right now to the Meg Whitman-Steve Poizner gubernatorial primary.

Ms. Fiorina, who dropped by the Journal last week, has struggled with name recognition and getting her message out. She acknowledged the experimental nature of her greatest publicity hits — her "demon sheep" Internet video, which was aimed at GOP rival Tom Campbell, and the balloon video aimed at Ms. Boxer. Both "served their purpose," she says. One message came through clearly enough: Ms. Fiorina is no fan of big-spending, big-taxing government.

Ms. Fiorina’s first hurdle is the June 8 GOP primary. Polls have her… Read More

This just in from longtime FR friend and Assemblyman Joel Anderson…

Republicans Act to Increase Jobs – Will Democrats? By Assemblyman Joel Anderson This week, the California State Assembly will have a chance to keep more jobs in California. Will the Legislature stand with you and me, or on the side of Arizona, Nevada, and Texas who are luring our entrepreneurs and employees across state lines? I introduced Assembly Bill 2278 to keep high technology business in California. High-paying jobs benefit our state and the skilled workers who do them keep California on the forefront of… Read More

This is May Revise week. For those of you who don’t spend your time being a budget wonk, the May revise is the part of the budget process where the bureaucrats finally put together the numbers from the revenues from last year’s tax returns (remember when you filed those returns last month, and sent money to that major taxasaurus, yeah, that thing that devours your money and gives back what you would usually expect from an animal that eats constantly). This week is when the bureaucrats and budget staff have to face the realities of the budget, and then try to lie to the legislators to get them to pass a budget out of balance. Of course, when a budget is out of balance, it is never because the government is taking in more money than it is spending. It is always because the tax consumers consume more than than the taxpayers pay.

This is also an election year, and there are a lot of Republicans running for office all over this state that voted for budgets in the past, created this current budget mess, and are now trying to hide their responsibility for the current budget crisis. This crisis was not created in the 2010-11 budget (this year’s… Read More