On Friday, the Governor appointed three new Judges in Los Angeles County. As part of our effort to look a the Governor’s appointments with an eye on the partisan registration, here they are (the original release is here):

Thomas T. Lewis, 56, of Thousand Oaks, has practiced family law as a partner with the law firm of Rehwald, Rameson, Lewis & Glasner since 1984. He was previously an attorney with the law firms of Rehwald, Rameson & Smith from 1980 to 1984 and Freeman & Freeman from 1978 to 1980. Lewis has also served as a judge pro tem for the Los… Read More

On the San Bernardino County side of the 65th Assembly District, the candidate who seems to be drawing the most local support is Banning Councilwoman Brenda Salas. Although she’s from Riverside County, she’s secured the support of three members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors: Paul Biane (R), Josie Gonzales (D), and Gary Ovitt (R); aswell as San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos (R), and a host of business, developer, and local-types.

Salas’ consultant, Joe Giardiello, has worked San Bernardino County for a number of years, and has already proven he can listen to advice, in this case that given by fellow FlashReport contributor Phil Paule. The Salas campaign’s walk piece focuses a great deal of attention on her opposition toillegal immigration, which Phil was concerned about, in addition to her work as a regional chair of Jessica’s Law, HJTA membership, and why she joined the Party of Reagan after starting life in the Party of Jefferson — William Jefferson Clinton that is. Salas has a good team and enough money to get her message out.

The presumed frontrunner, San Jacinto Councilman… Read More

Speaking of shooting, not that anyone was, veteran North County consultant Jack Orr fired off this interesting missive to media outlets, entitled "Oceanside: The gang that can’t seem to shoot straight"…

Just when you thought Oceanside politics couldn’t get any goofier, the Mayor and two members of the Oceanside City Council (Wood, Sanchez and Mackin) are proposing a Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Ordinance.

That’s O.K., in principle, but unfortunately the ordinance is inspired by Mayor Jim Wood’s irrational and intense dislike and/or distrust of lobbyists in general, and of me especially. I might add that the Mayor seems to hold the news media in low regard as well. Consider the section of the ordinance which seems to exclude members of the news media:

In addition to excluding public employee labor union lobbyists from registration and reporting requirements, Sec. 16C.6 (b) provides the following so called exclusion for the news media:

"Any newspaper or other periodical of general circulation, book publisher, radio or television station (including… Read More

The Fresno Bee has started a new blog here which I encourage those reading this column to look at. In its post yesterday, the blog referred to a potential challenge to local Congressman George Radanovich from a presumably wealthy challenger on the Democrat side. I have long opined that Radanovich as well as other California incumbents are safe from Democrat challengers but that taken as a whole, the House may be up for grabs due to inaction on illegal immigration, and profligate spending that would make Democrats blush. But I have never opined that GOP incumbents are safe from strong primary challengers, because many of them are not safe. If a wealthy Republican threw $2 million into a race against any GOP incumbent it would be far more interesting than a race against a Democrat… Read More

There appears to be a new candidate exploring a run for the 59th Assembly District currently held by Dennis Mountjoy. Previously, the two main candidates running in this desperate district are Anthony Adams from the Hesperia part of the District and Chris Lancaster from the San Gabriel Valley part of the district. There is a candidate called by me as the “wild card” Barry Hartz and another by the name of Susan Slater. You can read my latest post on this race here and that of FR contributor Brad Mitzelfelt here. The candidates that has been making some calls in ….. Kevan Otto. Who is Kevan Otto? Well, I haven’t met him yet, but this is what I know. Otto hails from the San Gabriel Valley portion of the district and … Read More

I am sick to my stomach this morning, reading the stories that detail the actions of former Congressman Duke Cunningham.

When he first resigned as news came out about how he had used his office for personal gain, I made my opinion on this very clear. After all, like so many others, I had walked precincts for Cunningham and gotten to know him. During my many years of being a volunteer leader in conservative and Republican politics, I had always been proud that we had a decorated veteran, and a conservative stalwart like "Duke" in Congress. Anyone involved or interested in public policy or politics needs to read these articles today. It is overwhelming that one person can have combined so much greed with so little ethical standards. We’re talking millions. We’re talking about handwritten memos detailing how much personal take the Congressman would need to award government… Read More

I am sick to my stomach this morning, reading the stories that detail the actions of former Congressman Duke Cunningham.

When he first resigned as news came out about how he had used his office for personal gain, I made my opinion on this very clear. After all, like so many others, I had walked precincts for Cunningham and gotten to know him. During my many years of being a volunteer leader in conservative and Republican politics, I had always been proud that we had a decorated veteran, and a conservative stalwart like "Duke" in Congress. Anyone involved or interested in public policy or politics needs to read these articles today. It is overwhelming that one person can have combined so much greed with so little ethical standards. We’re talking millions. We’re talking about handwritten memos detailing how much personal take the Congressman would need to award government… Read More

For those who do not know, after my interest in politics, two other areas of passion for me include travel and wine. I consider myself to be a wine ‘enthusiast’ — having a modest collection of my own. I’ve been a member of the Free the Grapes organization for many years. These are the folks fighting make sure that all Americans, regardless of which state they call home, have the ability to order wine directly from wineries and wine producers. You see, going back to the days of Prohibition, there are a lot of states that have prohibitions on the direct-shipping of wine to consumers or to businesses. Many states have what they call a ‘3-Tier’ shipping system, which means that states require wine shipments to go through a distributor, and then on to the consumer. This is an antiquated system that is really government regulation that forces wine consumers to spend more on their wines, as this… Read More