A few noted items from the past week…

Bejarano Drops Bid for SD County Sheriff… If you missed it, we called the news first, then confirmed it right here at the FlashReport on Tuesday.

With the leading fundraiser now out of the 2010 race, the remaining candidates are former Sheriff Lt. Jim Duffy, appointed Sheriff Bill Gore, former Assemblyman Jay La Suer, and former Sheriff Sgt. Bruce Ruff. On Thursday, Duffy scored the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association endorsement. The next several months will be fun to watch.

Here’s theFR post from Tuesday.

The Money Story in the Hollingsworth Senate Seat… Also from yesterday, I say here’s the bucks in the bank "if" Joel Anderson runs; Jon Fleischman says "How quaint, he IS in." Either way, here is… Read More

A few Republicans may be lining up to run in the 77th Assembly District next year, all anticipating the spot may be open, yet incumbent Joel Anderson is still mum on his plans to run for senate instead of re-election.

Whatis known is that the 36th Senate seat is indeed open, as Dennis Hollingsworth is term-limited out.

Speaking of anticipation, then, much of it centers on a potential match-up between Anderson and Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone in a senate seat roughly 2/3 San Diego and 1/3 Riverside counties.

Stone is already in, no question. Okay then, if Anderson does run, what does the current money situation look like, comparing their respective state committees?…

Total Funds Raised (Jan-June 2009)Anderson – $355,767 Stone – $242,077

Total Cash on Hand (June 30) Anderson – $443,501 Stone – $209,026

If Anderson enters the senate race, FR readers will be among the first to know.

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www.twitter.com/barryjantz… Read More

I got a heads up that the campaign to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams has launched a 2.0 version of their website, which you can check out here. By far, the most powerful part of the redesigned website is the Adams Tax Hike Calculator. I went onto it and filled in the various blanks and was able to see exactly how much more in taxes I am paying because of the vote of Adams and the five other Republicans who joined with all of the Democrats in the legislature to pass that massive tax increase last February (you remember, the tax increase that hit us all hard in the pocket, yet did absolutely nothing to solve our budget woes).

Anyways, how much did that tax increase cost YOUR FAMILY? Check it out.

The tragedy of that budget "deal" still makes me ill. When GOP resolve fails, taxpayers pay the price.… Read More

The folks over at Washington Watch have created a searchable federal earmarks database for each state, detailing the earmarks of each state’s congressional delegation. California alone has 2,400 earmarks from our delegation. Although their requests don’t seem quite as numerous as the Democrats’, Republicans are unfortunately feeding at the trough too.

h/t Capitol Morning Report… Read More

This just off the transom..

HJTA’S JON COUPAL HITS THE AIRWAVES TODAY AT NOON

Enjoy an hour of news/talk with California’s foremost taxpayer advocate from noon to 1 p.m. this afternoon. Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association president Jon Coupal will guest host the "The Capitol Hour with Eric Hogue" today, Friday, on KTKZ Radio (1380 AM), out of Sacramento. Jon’s guest in the first half hour segment will be Marcia Fritz of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility who will discuss the out-of-control pension benefits given to public employees in California. In the second half-hour segment, Jon’s guest will be Gabriella Holt, President and CEO of Citizens for California Reform, who is leading the effort to return California to a part-time Legislature. Not in the Sacramento area? To hear the broadcast live, click here.… Read More

You have to scratch your at the appointment by Speaker Karen Bass of ultra-left win San Francisco Democrat Tom Ammiano (pictured left) to serve as Chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. While it is not that surprising that Bass made a change in the leadership of this key committee, given that the now-former Chairman was Juan Arambula, a Central Valley Democrat who quit the party of Obama and is now registered DTS, it is eyebrow raising that the Speaker tapped someone so clearly to the far left of public sentiment on law and order issues to replace him.

But wait, there’s more. Believe it or not we have a downtown San Francisco "dream team" of criminal… Read More

You have to scratch your at the appointment by Speaker Karen Bass of ultra-left win San Francisco Democrat Tom Ammiano (pictured left) to serve as Chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. While it is not that surprising that Bass made a change in the leadership of this key committee, given that the now-former Chairman was Juan Arambula, a Central Valley Democrat who quit the party of Obama and is now registered DTS, it is eyebrow raising that the Speaker tapped someone so clearly to the far left of public sentiment on law and order issues to replace him.

But wait, there’s more. Believe it or not we have a downtown San Francisco "dream team" of criminal… Read More

During these long days of economic hardship, somewhere along the way the "green jobs" industrywas anointed the Holy Grail of job growth; the savior of economic revitalization.

But really, green jobs have not served in much more than a feel-good, buzz-word capacity, according to many experts, including Joel Kotkin, presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University who said in a recently published op-ed in Forbes that "All told, green jobs constitute barely 700,000 positions across the country – less than 0.5% of total employment.

He goes on to say: "Indeed a recent study by Sam Sherraden at the center-left New America Foundation finds that, for the most part, green jobs constitute a negligible factor in employment – and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future."

Don’t get me wrong; I do not oppose solutions that improve our environment – but I believe we must allow the free market to prevail in creating a truly robust green industry and we should oppose government intervention vis-à-vis… Read More