This morning at 9am, Assembly Republicans will enter into a special caucus meeting. The purpose? Apparently Central Coast Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee has put together the votes to become elected Assembly Republican Leader. This morning the current occupant of the job will announce that he is stepping aside (which is the politically correct way of saying that he was "let go" from his duties as leader).

Having had some time to absorb this turn of events, I thought I would make the following observations…

As FR readers know, the current leader, Michael Villines of the Central Valley, was one of the key architects behind a budget deal in February that ultimately gave California’s the largest tax increase in the history of any state. In addition, he along with former State Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill (as well as Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrat leaders) concocted the Proposition 1A "toxic cocktail" — a measure that would apply "revenue smoothing" measures into state law, but also triggers, if it passes, an addition $16 billion in higher taxes for Californians. The campaign to pass 1A is… Read More

Third term Assemblyman Van Tran, a Republican from Orange County, yesterday announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to official look at running for Congress in California’s 47th District, currently represented by Democrat Loretta Sanchez. I had an opportunity to sit down with Tran, and ask him some questions about this major decision in his life. Here is that interview… FLASHREPORT PUBLISHER JON FLEISCHMAN INTERVIEWS ASSEMBLYMAN VAN TRAN

FlashReport (FR): Van, I’m glad that you could spend some time with the Flash Report… Read More

This just in from conservative Assemblyman Martin Garrick:

“I wanted to take a moment to relay some of my experiences with Sam Blakeslee and share why I am supporting him for Leader. Sam is someone that I have come to know to be a strong social conservative and fiscal hawk. I’ve pulled up Sam’s ratings and note that he enjoys perfect A ratings from Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, perfect A ratings from the National Rifle Association, he consistently scores among the highest with the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and the Chamber of Commerce, and received a 100 percent in the California ProLife Council’s most recent voter guide. I saw a report that Sam had voted for AB 32, and so I pulled up the vote tally on the bill. It confirmed that, in fact, Sam not only voted against AB 32, but I recall he gave quite an impassioned speech on the floor about why AB 32 was a bad bill. I know Mr. Blakeslee will be a … Read More

This morning the Senate Education Committee passed Mark Leno’s SB 572, legislation that will require the governor to declare every May 22 Harvey Milk Day. The bill specifies that school children should participate in activities commemorating the life of Harvey Milk during their school day. Those familiar with California politics will remember Harvey Milk as the San Francisco County Supervisor who was gunned down by a fellow supervisor following a political dispute. Earlier this year a biopic on Milk won several Academy Awards, thus bringing more attention to Leno’s controversial bill.

The fact that SB 572 is sailing through the legislature isn’t shocking. In fact, the bill passed the legislature last year and was justly vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger who explained that Milk should be honored in the community where he had the most impact: San Francisco. The problem is the behavior of Republican turncoat Abel Maldonado during the hearing this morning.

My boss, Karen England,was testifying against the bill when Maldonado decided to go after… Read More

Apparently, the Assembly Republican Caucus is on the verge of ousting leader Mike Villines — perhaps as soon as a few hours — a course of action I strongly support.

It is embarrassing for our Assembly Republican Caucus to be headed by an individual who is criss-crossing the state proudly championing the largest state tax increase in American, and eroding what’s left of Republican credibility. not the stuff of which the Republican Party will be re-built.

The bad news is Assembly Republicans are apparently poised to replace Villines with their most liberal member: SamBlakeslee.

Here’s a run-down of Blakeslee’s philosophical profile:

He is one of five Assembly GOPers who has refused to take a position on Prop. 1A — which has become the political demarcation between those favoring true government reform and those unwilling to do more than feed the beast until they are termed out. A real profile in courage. Blakeslee earned a 43% rating … Read More

As we often say here on the FR Blog, we really aren’t in the practice of writing about the internal politics of legislative caucuses. That having been said, it’s been reported by Capitol Weekly and the SacBee’s Capitol Alert that tomorrow Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines will step down. This, of course, follows a tremendous amount of internal and external pressure to see a change in this position after Villines negotiated and provided one of the key votes for the largest tax increase in California history.

Capitol Weekly is reporting that Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee of the Central Coast will be the next leader. Blakeslee is a close ally of Villines, and we can presume that his taking the helm would be as a result of a "friendly hand off" by Villines, who probably realized that his days as leader were numbered (especially if, as expected, the ballot measures… Read More

[Cross-posted from Red County.com]

I’d heard over the weekend that Assemblyman Van Tran would announce formation of a congressional exploratory committee later this month.

"Later" has come early, as Van announced today he’s formed his exploratory committee to take on Rep. Loretta Sanchez, according to Total Buzz.

Van will be the first real opponent Loretta has had since, arguably, her 1998 re-match with Bob Dornan (although few doubted the outcome of that race. In the meantime, she had benefited from a strong of underwhelming or downright weird GOPgeneral election nominees — much like Bob Dornan benefited from a string of underwhelming and downright weird Democratic opponents before newly-minted Democrat Loretta Brixey… Read More

When voters reject the ill-conceived ballot measures in a couple of weeks, there will be an immediate need to work through yet another massive overspending-created budget shortfall of close to $15 billion (give or take).

First and foremost, the rejection of the measures by the voters should be seen as a rejection of the idea that in a recession, taxpayers should be forced to pay more.

Beyond that, I believe it should be seen as a rejection of the “Big 5” system of budget negotiations that delegates to a small number of people all of the responsibility to come up with a budget solution. On top of it, Big 5 clearly ends up being focused on wheeling and dealing, and literal back-room politics.

I will let others give advice to Democrats, but I would strongly counsel Senate and Assembly Republicans to reject the “Big 5” budget process as a failure, and offer to facilitate public meetings with their selected budget team (note that I suggest that each Caucus be represented by a group of conferees).

Frankly, the budget committee process would be useful and helpful as a vehicle for ongoing dialogue and decision making… Read More