FLASHREPORT

Politico.com picks up a story last week about an FEC complaint we are preparing against the Congressional Campaign of Jeff Denham.  Make no mistake, we've accepted the outcome of the race.  Make no mistake - the use of soft money funneled to a charity for the benefit of a federal candidate need to be investigated and ruled on by the FEC.  If they find the practice to be legal, the campaign finance system as we know it today will be turned on its ear.

Some members of the California delegation have been pressuring us to stand down.  Quit wasting your time.  We won't stand down until the matter is settled on way or another.  Too many Republicans never learned a lesson from getting their asses handed to them by Nancy Pelosi in 2006 - we cannot and will not be a Party that accepts any form of corrupt behavior - period.

I will write a more complete commentary about the reason we are pursuing this matter.  For now, if you're curious, you can read my blog posts here about the entire affair.

Influential blogger Erick Erickson at Redstate.com has endorsed Jim Patterson in Congressional District 19.  You can read his post by clicking here.

Okay.  You're a State Senator that voted for two horrific budgets in a row, raising the spending baselines to unsustainable levels, in effect creating the fiscal crisis we have in California today.  On top of that, you cast the deciding vote to put Proposition 14 on the ballot when you thought you were running Statewide, enabling one of the biggest RINOS in the history of California, Abel Maldenado, to cut HIS budget deal to raise our taxes and further bankrupt California. 

Your reward?

An endorsement in one of the most hotly contested Congressional primaries in California, from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.  Yep, you read it.  State Senator Jeff Denham is the endorsed candidate of HJTA in the 19th Congressional District primary.

To be sure, taxpayer advocates and Lincoln Club members fell out of their chairs today all over Central California.  Nobody on the HJTA board bothered to check with any of us, I guess.  We actually vetted all the candidates, did the research, and came up with a dual endorsement of Pombo and Patterson.  There were NO, and I mean NO, votes for Jeff Denham for an endorsement.  I guess we just pay too much attention to the record and not the rhetoric.

I've personally endorsed former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson for the job, so of course Ive got the added burden of having a horse in this race.  I would have never dreamed that the HJTA endorsement would go to anyone with a hand in creating the mess we have in our State today.

Unfortunately, this organization took a step way down with me today.  I don't care about legislative scorecards or all the other BS, okay?  We're teetering on the brink in this State, and one of the dudes that caused all this is running for Congress, and he gets the HJTA endorsement?

I think the brand is watered down quite a bit by this lack of research.  2010 is not a year to be reckless and flippant.  The stakes are way, way to high now.  I an many, many other conservative leaders in the Central Valley are very, very disappointed.  We think we are owed a thoughtful explanation - not some "voting scorecard argument" that ignores the mess we are in today.

You may recall that Alan Autry was the Mayor of Fresno for two terms, succeeding Jim Patterson, a current candidate for the 19th Congressional District.  Autry is supporting State Senator Jeff Denham, and has been taking major shots at Patterson while hosting a radio program on KYNO 940 am.  Now, this station has less than a 1% share, so there aren't many listeners, but I am really, really saddened by Autry's attacks.  He's been my friend for many years, but as a Patterson supporter, I feel compelled to respond.

The latest Denham attack showed up in my mail today, with Autry claiming that Patterson left him in a fiscal mess when he took over for Patterson in 2001. 

If this claim weren't so ridiculous, it would be laughable, and it makes fair game the Autry record while in Fresno City Hall.

Let's set the record straight:  Jim Patterson was elected Mayor of Fresno in 1993.  The city was gang infested and had the worst auto theft rates in the nation.  Over the next eight years, with some federal help, Fresno hired 384 police officers, cut the crime rate 75%, and balanced eight straight budgets.  Pension obligations were refinanced.  Fresno was named an All American City in 2000.  This is the city that Patterson left Autry.

Now, Patterson had his share of enemies, mostly for being a strong conservative.  He opposed the downtown baseball stadium for fiscal reasons, and has since been vindicated on that position.  But at the time, Patterson's opposition rankled local business leaders.  He stood for private property rights and opposed redevelopment projects that involved eminent domain - which led to a failed recall attempt led by some local developers.  Again, his conservatism was what made his opponents the angriest.

Now Autry says that Patterson left him a mess.  Well, let's look at that for a minute.  Autry championed the downtown baseball stadium - a noose around Fresno's general fund.  He supported City loan guarantees for a failed project called Granite Park - costing the city millions.  And he supported the city loan guarantees for the Fresno Metropolitan Museum - a project that cost the city close to $20 million.  Now, Fresno is having to leverage almost all of its unencumbered assets to pay for those mistakes.

Yet, I don't hear the current Mayor, Ashley Swearingen, saying a negative word about Autry and the mess he left her.  She has a far stronger case against him than he ever had against Patterson.  

It's sad to see Alan so bitter about things, especially since he's not ever said a bad public word about Patterson until now - over 10 years after the fact.  I have come to question his judgement - after all, he is one of Arnold Schwarzeneggers biggest supporters - even though Arnold is the worst Governor in Caliifornia history.

This item just posted on the Fresno Bee political notebook blog page - apparently Republican Congressional candidate and former House Member got a mention in Karl Rove's new book, Courage and Consequence.  Rove was in Fresno on Tuesday morning at a breakfast for Supervisor Debbie Poochigian.  Richard Pombo was also at the breakfast, where copies of Rove's book were handed out to the attendees.  

Unknown to most, if not all of the breakfast attendees, at the time, was the mention of Pombo on page 463 of Rove's book.  Click here ot read the Fresno Bee post.

The race to succeed George Radanovich in CD 19 is a wide open affair, with Pombo, State Senator Jeff Denham, and former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson competing for the nomination.  Fresno Council member Larry Westerlund is also running in the contest.  Too close to call as of this date.

Yesterday, I posted my very strongly held belief that to get anything done in California, a political candidate must be willing to be hated.  Meg Whitman refusing to support pension reform and flat out running away from the unions does not qualify.

I wasn't the only one who noticed - last night on KFI AM 640, John and Ken took Whitman to task for buckling under union pressure the very first time she had the opportunity to take them on. In fact, organizer Marcia Fritz flat out states that Whitman, "...just didnt want it on the ballot, I was told that from a lot of her supporters.."

Unfortunately, John and Ken didn't mention that this is actually the second time that Whitman has run from the unions. As we learned recently, Meg Whitman is also actively working against conservatives and the Citizen Power Campaign in addition to refusing to support pension reform.

In case you didn't know, the Citizen Power Campaign is another important initiative supported by grassroots conservatives; and yet another instance where Meg Whitman is working against conservative efforts to fight the unions.

Whitman talks a big game about how she has a "spine of steel" but the facts clearly speak louder than her eBay ads. Listen to John and Ken discuss with Marcia Fritz how Whitman is buckling under union pressure below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtEaPvLXETY

I'll have to admit, I'm pretty ticked of that we haven't heard much from Poizner on this - its pretty tough for his team to be critical unless they are willing to get in the game in a big way.  Right now Whitman is pretty much running unopposed on TV, and I don't think this is preparing California citizens very well for the kind of Governor's race they deserve:  Mr. Poizner, are you going to start a media campaign here pretty quick or not?