Two weeks ago, I had a chance to sit down with Gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman for the better part of an hour. Our interview covered a number of policy areas, including global warming/AB32, eminent domain, gun control, abortion, and overall philosophy about government. Because I brought a digital recorder along, Flash Report readers can enjoy these direct excerpts from the interview. THIS IS THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF THIS INTERVIEW. YOU CAN READ PART ONE (ON THE ENVIRONMENT, GLOBAL WARMING, AND AB 32) CLICK HERE… Read More

I am not even going to waste a lot of time on this blog post. Lisa V. over at the Contra Costa Times Blog reports that earlier today it was announced that the Bay Area Council is going to dump $2 million into qualifying the measures to create a Constitutional Convention for California, if approved by the voters.

Let me make this crystal clear for the Bay Area Council and all others out there who think this might be a good idea.

Are you holding on to your chair? Here comes the truth…

California’s Public Employee Unions will try to coopt and control the convention process. If unsuccessful, they will use their vast resources to obliterate whatever that convention brings back to the voters for approval.

Instead of sinking millions into this fool’s errand, the Bay Area Council should join with those already looking at a paycheck protection measure. Until the pervasive financial influence of the public employee unions is terminated, the road to comprehensive reform of California government is impassable.… Read More

Much has been whispered about and written about in passing about the fact that Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby had a sexual harassment complaint filed against him by a county employee. The matter went to court where a lot of — explicit — testimony was made on the record. The very abbreviated version is that a trial court judge found that there was some merit to the allegations however an appellate court disagreed. Ultimately the matter was settled, and as Norby is quick to point out, with no payments of taxpayer funds being paid out.

That said, expect to see a lot about this matter given the circumstances that led to the vacancy in this Assembly seat.

In what is a harbinger of what will be one of the most negative and entertaining special elections in recent memory, Linda Ackerman has dropped a mail piece that hit today hitting Norby on this issue.

In an earlier post I indicated that it was likely that the negative attacks on Norby would come from independent expenditures (rumors abound that Sacramento third-house folks are working on one). But I was wrong. This is probably an indicator that if such an independent effort is… Read More

Today is the debut of the California Republican Party’s new weekly podcast program, which has the catchy title, "The Right News from the Left Coast."

This week’s episode is hosted by California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring with guests CRP Treasurer Keith Carlson and Assemblywoman Diane Harkey.

"Everyone who cares about politics and policy in their neighborhood, in Sacramento or in Washington, D.C. should be tuning into the CRP’s new weekly podcast," said Carlson when I caught up to him. "I was thrilled to be a part of the inaugural edition of the show, and I think you’ll enjoy listening to it." The Right News from the Left Coast is a 30 minute podcast available free on iTunes (here),… Read More

With a h/t to Joe Garofoli for the title of this post, guess who got caught AGAIN on her cell phone while driving? Check out this video from TMZ… Don’t miss Joe’s take on this. … Read More

There isn’t a normal Republican out there who wouldn’t be upset and concerned by many of the pieces of legislation that Governor Schwarzenegger signed on Sunday night. Just the number of bills that he signed that went to his desk without a single Republican vote in either the Senate or Assembly should be of grave concern.

Today we’re giving a FlashReport Patriot Award to Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee who, being a normal Republican, reacted pretty strongly and directly to the Governor’s bill signings in an e-mail that he, according to Capitol Weekly, sent to his 28 Assembly Republican Colleagues. I’ll reprint the first part of the e-mail below, and provide a link to the Capitol Weekly story where you can see the entire thing.

While I would imagine it was not Blakeslee’s intention for this email to be out in the public eye, I can assure that the Assemblyman has put into writing what a great many Republicans were and are thinking about Arnold… Read More

Don’t forget to follow our Twitter feed dedicated exclusively to the AD72 special election. Allan Bartlett tweeted CRA endorsing convention results last night, and I just tweeted the latest fundraising figures for the Norby for Assembly campaign — his biggest single-day money results yet, including a maximum contribution from a pernicious special interest!… Read More

Back in my college debate team days, Mother Jones was a reliable source of quasi-outlandish quotes to brandish against your opponents. In intellectual exchanges where sounding like Michael Moore sometimes carried the day, you had to have your nuclear options! Need a quote that says corporations are killing the innocent–turn to Mother Jones. Or a quote that says the war on poverty has failed–check.

Still, despite my political and professional inclinations I have regularly bought and read the mag over the years.

So it came as only mild surprise recently when the publication ran a relatively positive profile of San Diego County Republican Congressman Darrel Issa.

Here’s what they said:

"Today’s House Republicans are even more conservative than their predecessors; should the GOP ever get back control of the House, it’ll be Issa—not some pantywaist Republican-in-Name-Only from Connecticut—who will be in charge of the oversight committee, ready to rain subpoenas down on the Obama administration. And Issa has indicated that he doesn’t plan to wait until Republicans have the majority to start… Read More