When we broke the news on FlashReport last July that Steve Danon was in the race for San Diego County Supervisor in 2012 — whether or not incumbent Pam Slater-Price would seek her own sixth term in the Third District — some political watchers raised eyebrows about the timing. After all, the election was still three years away.

However, Danon’s apparent "early foray" has done nothing to hurt him, it seems. His campaign is attracting support from a mix of influentials that haven’t shown a willingness to oppose a sitting supervisor since perhaps the mid-1980s. In fact, Danon could be demonstrating more progress in a 2012 effort than some of the current challengers are displaying in this year’s races.

No surprise that Danon has the support of his boss, Congressman Brian Bilbray. It was also announced several weeks ago that the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association was backing him (early even for them).

As the press release below notes, Danon is garnering some additional support. Campaign statements will show the chairs of both the… Read More

When a seat in Congress comes open people start to scramble. People get so excited they can barely control themselves.

When Congressman Radanovich announced his retirement last week State Senator Jeff Denham announced right away. Former Congressman Richard Pombo has now said he is interested in trying to make a comeback. Now the Fresno Bee is reporting that former Secretary of State Bill Jones is considering the race.

Candidates are pounding their chests and observers are analyzing endorsements, fund raising ability, and conservative credentials.

When I looked at this district I didn’t really think about any of the three candidates above. My first thought was that former Senator Rico Oller was a likely candidate for this seat. He grew up there, he represented part of this district, and he certainly has conservative credentials and funding ability.

So how come no one is talking about an Oller candidacy? Someone tell me what I am missing.… Read More

Today former Congressman Richard Pombo confirmed to the Fresno Bee that he will be running for Congress in the 19th District seat that will be open next year due to the announcement by Rep. George Radanovich. The Bee is also reporting that former California Secretary of State Bill Jones is making calls to supporters and weighing a potential run.

I have known Richard Pombo for over two decades, and he’s a rock-solid conservative and a good man. He joins a field of candidates that already includes State Senator Jeff Denham and former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson (so I am told).

Look for Pombo to try and leverage Denham’s and Jones’ pre-primary support for the Presidential campaign of John McCain last year against them with grassroots types. McCain is one of the least popular politicians (save perhaps for the man that bested him for President) with conservatives.

It will be interesting to see how Pombo’s entrance into the race impacts endorsements from the state’s Republican Congressional delegation. Then again, there is so much anger towards Congress these… Read More

I looked over the state Legislative Analyst’s recent report about the fiscal outlook for next year. I certainly was not expecting any good news, but I at least expected a realistic view of the dire situation the state is in. I was stunned by what I saw. The LAO is projecting a 14.5% increase in expenditures next year over this year. Go ahead, read that sentence again: he is saying the state will spend 14.5% MORE money next year than this year.

In part that is because many of the sneaky "savings" games the Governor and Legislature have played will expire. No more borrowing from cities, stealing from redevelopment agencies, or shifting state employees’ December payday into the next calendar year. At the same time, federal stimulus money will expire and our state’s debt service will soar.

http://www.lao.ca.gov/2009/bud/fiscal_outlook/fiscal_outlook_111809.aspx

To put this into perspective, consider these figures distilled in a recent issue of Political Pulse: In 1990-91 the state spent $1,350 per person. By the current fiscal… Read More

The Center for Investigative Reporting has been around for a long time — but their new endeavor, California Watch, is new the California political scene. At a time when we see MSM newspapers devoting fewer and fewer resources to investigative journalism — especially in politics — California Watch represents an effort at serious watchdog journalism not by the media, but by a non-profit foundation. A longtime friend of this website publisher is the Editorial Director of California Watch — Mark Katches. I met Mark when he used to work at the Orange County Register. It is also noteworthy that another longtime FR friend, Bob Salladay (formerly an ace reporter and blogger with the Los Angeles Times) is onboard advising this endeavor.

I’m quite certain that everyone at California Watch would agree with my observation that this is no right-of-center endeavor. Hardly. That said, shining the light into the farthest, darkest corners of state government is an endeavor that should be applauded, even if many of those shining the flashlights voted for President Obama. I reached out to Mark and asked… Read More

Since our last day of officially publishing the links to top stories in California politics was Friday, December 19 — I thought I would provide FR readers with a quick summary of some of what took place while our FR elves were taking some much needed R&R.

Click through on any links to read the full stories!

As the New Year begins, I have been reflecting on politics, my role in it, and the direction of the state. About a year ago, right after the election of Obama, I was approached by a fellow who said he could make me President, and he asked for me to give me a plan to accomplish that. I showed him the plan, and although he failed to meet the benchmarks I set for setting up a run (there goes my Presidential ambitions), a lot of the presumptions I made for such a run to work have been coming true.

First, I am convinced 2010 will be a Republican year IF (and I mean a really big IF) Republicans don’t screw things up. It will have nothing to do with the ascendancy of those principles that many Republicans espouse in office in American society (because sometimes it appears that Republican officeholders don’t believe in those principles), it will be because Democrats overrreached. I have a number of "truths of American politics" (which I should write down sometime), but one of them is this–Democrats really believe in the principles they espouse, and they… Read More

Thirty years ago, when the words “mainstream” and “media” were still largely redundant, a conventional political wisdom developed that the presidency was too large a responsibility for one man. Regardless of whether you happened to be a supporter or an opponent of Ronald Reagan’s campaign for president in 1980, it’s safe to say that by the time Reagan left the White House eight years later, that school of thought had largely evaporated.

The echoes of that same question are now being heard in California, as the next generation of political observers has now settled in agreement that our state’s problems have grown to such a degree that we can no longer be effectively governed. As the candidates for governor prepare for what promises to be a fairly desultory election season, this thesis of ungovernability rings of the same sort of defeatism that later became known as “malaise” in Washington in the late 1970’s. While it has become fairly predictable for Republican politicians to wrap themselves in the flag of Reagan, the pessimism that currently infects our body politic does present the same type of psychological challenge that the Gipper… Read More