Last week lame duck Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines appeared on the low-profile internet television program Central Valley Talk hosted by former GOP Assemblyman Mike Briggs.

There seems something poetic about this appearance. By way of a little history lesson for FlashReport leaders, in 2001, Briggs rather infamously broke ranks with Republican legislators to vote with Democrats for a Gray Davis penned budget that increased taxes on Californians, according to then-Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Briggs broke rank with his Republican colleagues after securing “millions in goodies” for his district.

Since articles about the departure of Villines as leader have hinted that the GOPer who orchestrated a terrible budget deal at the center of which were massive sales, income and car tax increases may look to running for public office again in the future. In fact, the… Read More

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

The Banana Republic of California

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While the Whitman for Governor campaign has brought a Florida politico out to California, former Florida Statehouse Speaker Marco Rubio has brought a California politico to Florida, snatched from the Poizner campaign. Former Poizner political director Brian Seitchik has left the Golden State for the Sunshine State. Rubio and his new hire, Seitchik, will have a big hurdle to clear the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Mel Martinez — this morning Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced that he is running for that seat as well. Rubio will be the conservative, and Crist the moderate, in that GOP match up.… Read More

Publisher’s Note: Both of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination for Governor next year are in the process of putting together their campaign structure to carry them through to the primary, and each campaign would tell you, through the general election. Today we are putting the spotlight on Jillian Hasner, who was recently hired as campaign operations manager by Meg Whitman’s campaign.

FR readers should understand that a campaign manager is typically not a campaign “strategist” or a consultant (which is not to say that a CM wouldn’t have a seat at the campaign strategy table). This position is usually the senior staff spot on a campaign, and typically it falls to this person to ensure that all of the aspects of a campaign are being executed upon and are moving forward. Needless to say, this role with a Gubernatorial level campaign is quite complex and time consuming, and requires a top notch operative… Flash

Publisher’s Note: Both of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination for Governor next year are in the process of putting together their campaign structure to carry them through to the primary, and each campaign would tell you, through the general election. Today we are putting the spotlight on Jillian Hasner, who was recently hired as campaign operations manager by Meg Whitman’s campaign. FR readers should understand that a campaign manager is typically not a campaign “strategist” or a consultant (which is not to say that a CM wouldn’t have a seat at the campaign strategy table). This position is usually the senior staff spot on a campaign, and typically it falls to this person to ensure that all of the aspects of a campaign are being executed upon and are moving forward. Needless to say, this role with a Gubernatorial level campaign is quite complex and time consuming, and requires a top notch operative… Flash… Read More

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

California’s Never-ending Crisis

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Governor Schwarzenegger this morning announced that instead of waiting until after the results of the May 19th Special Election to issue his required proposed May Revisions to the State Budget, that instead he will go ahead and issue his proposals later this week — in fact, he will offer two different proposals, one in the unlikely event that the May ballot propositions pass, and one for the more likely outcome that those ballot propositions will fail.

The Governor, never one to admit defeat until the body is cold, is apparently not done with the last minute efforts to try and bully the public into voting for his ballot propositions by painting for them some sort of draconian picture of where the state will be if they have to trim an additional $6 billion of costs because of the failures of 1C, 1D, and 1E.

Have you ever heard of the Washington Monument theory? As the story goes, every time someone says that the National… Read More

So when the Legislature decided to take more money out of your pocket to fix the state budget in February, they got out their calculators and plugged in higher tax rates. Their calculators told them they would get more money. Despite the fact that I, and others, were shouting from the rooftops that higher costs affect consumers’ behavior and they would not get the revenues they said they would, they went ahead and raised the Sales and Use Tax by 14 percent.

I just got the rough totals for April, the first month of the increase, and sales tax revenue is down 12% from last year. And even more dramatic, the revenues are 7% below the estimates made by the government less than two months ago when the big budget and tax increase deal was adopted. Tax increases again seem to exacerbate the effects of a declining economy. I will have much more on this next week, but I see no justification for extending this harmful tax increase by voting for Prop 1A.… Read More