A federal court today significantly weakened the so-called "soft money" rules of the McCain-Feingold bill by declaring that the late campaign restriction against mentioning Federal candidates names in issue-oriented mass media advertising of so-callled "527 committees" is unconstitutional. ("527" refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Code that provide these entities tax exemption). The effect of the ruling will be to allow unlimited corporate, union, and special interest funding of issue ads supporting or attacking Federal candidates by name, but which do not specifically urge their election or defeat, during an election campaign.

The 2-1 decisionby a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Courtfor the District of Columbia will now likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Your author’s opinion is that the ruling is a victory for the First Amendment. But who knows how the Supreme Court will respond?!

In a second significant ruling in California, the Supreme Court here in a split decision ruled today that Indian tribes are bound by FPPC disclosure rules. More than 100 tribes are major donors in… Read More

California’s Republican National Committeeman is Tim Morgan of Santa Cruz. Tim was elected to this post by the California Republican Party Membership back in 1996, and re-elected subsequently in both 2000 and 2004. Tim has penned a column, which is below, in which he calls for the upcoming races for California Republican Party office to be "spirited, vision packed and respectful" – I present his views for your reading pleasure. I suppose this also a good time to express my appreciation to Tim, as when I announced my candidacy for Vice-Chairman, South of the CRP, Tim was one of the very first to endorse me. Thanks, Tim!

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California’s Republican National Committeeman is Tim Morgan of Santa Cruz. Tim was elected to this post by the California Republican Party Membership back in 1996, and re-elected subsequently in both 2000 and 2004. Tim has penned a column, which is below, in which he calls for the upcoming races for California Republican Party office to be "spirited, vision packed and respectful" – I present his views for your reading pleasure. I suppose this also a good time to express my appreciation to Tim, as when I announced my candidacy for Vice-Chairman, South of the CRP, Tim was one of the very first to endorse me. Thanks, Tim!

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The inaugural issue of Red County magazine features this article by writer John Scott Lewinski on the rise of the Orange County blogosphere. Lewinski interviews FlashReport publisher Jon Fleischman, OC Register political writer Martin Wisckol and yours truly.

(Please -e-mail your name, address and phone number to editor@redcounty.com if you’d like to receive the next issue, due out in February)

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A couple of years ago when my youngest child was about two years old, my husband bought one of those giant inflatable snowman and snow child and put it up in our front yard about two days before Christmas. My son was delighted to have his very own snowman and periodically had to go outside and check on his new friend. Early the day after Christmas, my son wanted to go check on his snowman and, since his dad was sleeping in, I took him outside…only to find the snowman was gone. When I woke my husband to find out why he had taken the display down so early, he had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently, the snowman was stolen on Christmas night, which left both of us asking, “What kind of person steals a Christmas decoration??”

The people of West Portal Lutheran… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger conducted a healthcare ’round table’ discussion with an assortment of various people who would have different perspectives on the healhcare issue. In connection with that, the Governor had a press availability. You can see the streaming video of his chat with the media on the issue of healthcare, and Q&A on the Governor’s website here.

Here is an excerpt of the Governor’s remarks relative to increasing taxes as a potential means towards dealing with the ‘broken healthcare system’: I think it is very important that as you go and put the final touches on, and introduce our proposals, that everyone understands that taxes is not on the table, because there is no reason to increase taxes, because that would mean that I want to punish the people twice. They are already punished. The people are already punished with the hidden tax. You see, that is the thing that we don’t want to do. Everyone here that has healthcare is… Read More

Steve Schmidt, Campaign Manager to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his re-election campaign, has taken on a consulting role with the candidacy of John McCain for President of the United States.

H/T to Chris Cillizza over at the Washington Post for the scoop on this news.

FR caught up with Schmidt, who told us: "I am very excited to part a part of Senator McCain’s team."

Now – as to whether this gives McCain a leg up on a coveted endorsement in the primary from Governor Schwarzegger — that is unclear. But you can be sure that Schmidt will be sure to keep his former boss very close to the goings-on in the McCain operations.

This news doesn’t really come as a surprise to most political insiders. I had heard it a while back. But it is, perhaps, a testament to Schmidt’s relationships with those of us who report on such things. Out of deference to him, I didn’t report on it first.… Read More

Recently I posted the news of Brad Mitzelfelt’s bid for departing Supervisor Bill Postmus’ seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Brad, Postmus’ longtime Chief of Staff and former FlashReport correspondent, is seeking an appointment to replace Postmus, who will soon leave San Bernardino County’s First Supervisorial District seat to take office as the new County Assessor. The County’s Charter dictates that the replacement for Postmus (my boss) be selected by the remaining members of the Board of Supervisors. Mitzelfelt was the first candidate to file for appointment to the vacancy, which will be decided by the Board on January 8. As many expected, Mitzelfelt has built huge momentum for the appointment from public officials, organizations and community leaders. He has unanimous support from two of the district’s seven city councils, and majorities or near majorities from three others. Mitzelfelt, 39, is a Marine Corps veteran… Read More