WHAT WILL THE GOVERNOR DO?? SPECIAL ELECTION TIMING…

Orange County and San Diego are looking to have special elections very soon. In San Diego, the Congressional seat belonging to the disgraceful Duke Cunningham is now wide open. It is safe GOP territory. Similarly, in Orange County, with John Campbell’s election to Congress, his State Senate seat is wide open – also a safe GOP seat.

The political low-down on these primaries has been, and will be talked about on this blog. But the purpose of this post is to talk about the fact that Governor Schwarzenegger has to choose when these special elections will take place. He does have some lattitude.

Election officials from both counties have asked to have these elections consolidated with the June primary, for a savings of many, many millions of dollars. If the Governor does this, then the primaries (which is the whole game for… Read More

Good call by the Gov (see my previous post).

SPECIAL ELECTION PROCLAMATION

BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim and order that a special election shall be held on the 6th day of June, 2006 within the 50th Congressional District of the State to fill the vacancy in the office of Member of Congress from said district arising from the resignation of office by Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

I also hereby proclaim and order that a special election shall be held on the 6th day of June, 2006 within the 35th Senate District of the State to fill the vacancy in the office of California State Senator from said district arising from the resignation of office by John Campbell.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 15th day of December, 2005.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Governor of California

###

(I posted via Blackberry, so pardon any messed up fromating)… Read More

What follows is the official statement put forth by State GOP Communications Director Karen Hanretty after the State Party Board meeting:

"The California Republican Party Board of Directors met today with Governor Schwarzenegger to have a frank and free flowing discussion about his recent appointment of Susan Kennedy as his new chief of staff.

The Board advised the governor on his appointment and in response to a question, he reaffirmed his support for his chief of staff as well as his life-long support for Republican principles.

The Board emphasized to the Governor the importance of remaining committed to his policies of not raising taxes, opposing drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants and expressed concern over proposed bonding in 2006."… Read More

Memo to all CRP Board Members: If you didn’t discuss specifically how the GOP is going to overcome the political agenda of nurses, teachers, firefighters, cops and firemen, you have wasted your time. I don’t care if Pat Buchanan or Pee Wee Herman is the chief of staff for the Governor, unless we begin to address tactical issues for winning statewide elections, its just hot air. Remember, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is, how to we win elections? Micromanaging the Governor’s staff selections isn’t a strategy.… Read More

[Publishers note to Mike, and to the other contrubutors – I agree with everything in this post, but our mantra here on the FlashReport website is, "ALL California politics, ALL of the time." This post, of of course, is more about international politics. I won’t delete the post as I don’t operate that way, but to my team – please remember that we have a focus on this website. Of course, when Mike talks about ‘peace through capitulation’ below, I pray for our Governor to have the strength to continue to fend off Democrat attempts to grow government, through higher taxes or bonded indebtedness. – Flash]

Liberals, who know less about democratic government than anyone I know, continually sneer at the US’s attempts to export democracy around the globe. They want to achieve piece through capitulation, which has never worked in the history of mankind. The following account of the Iraqi election should make all real Americans proud.

By JAMES TARANTO

Ho Hum, an Election We were up late last night, and just after 1 a.m. EST we… Read More

Some claim that although the City of San Diego and its politicians are in the headlines oft of late, and even sometimes the butt of late-nite TV jokes, that most of the city’s businesses and citizens are not impacted by their government’s sorry state.

Far more say the opposite, that the woes of municipal gummint are indeed negatively impacting business, which in turn is resulting in less tax revenue for the city. Downward spiral.

In yesterday’s Voice of San Diego, retired CEO Gary Sutton weighs in, penning "Jobs Aren’t Leaving SD? Right…" Read it here.

Former mayoral candidate and government watchdog Richard Rider says this of the article:

(It is ) an excellent article on the City ofSan Diego’s declining health. Not just the city government’s deteriorating services and fiscal meltdown, but as a center ofcommerce. San Diego midsize businesses either die or leave town.

Perhaps most… Read More

If I were putting together a strategy for Arnold Schwarzenegger to employ that would attempt to calm the anger among Republican activists regarding his hiring of Susan Kennedy (which I am not), I would hire a Democrat to do something really extreme that reminded Republicans why Arnold is still their best option next year.

So I’m assuming that the Schwarzenegger team has put Democratic Assemblyman Paul Koretz on their payroll, and bribed him to propose legislation and hold high-profile hearings to push for a death penalty moratorium in California. Then the governor could spend the first few months of his re-election campaign fighting heroically to preserve the death penalty in the state, while Phil Angelides and Steve Westly looked for safe hiding places until their party’s primary was over.

But even for a principled opponent of capital punishment, and even for a legislature gerrymandered into safe districts, Koretz’s quote in this morning’s Los Angeles Times offers an excellent reminder on why competitive legislative elections would improve the quality of political debate in California. Defending his proposal, Koretz told… Read More

"Republican lawmakers scolded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, telling him in a closed-door meeting how seriously his support among party stalwarts is wavering." – Los Angeles Times

**So…want to know which 19 GOP Assemblymembers actually showed up to hear from the Governor in yesterday’s caucus meeting? It’s at the bottom of this Commentary!**

In today’s Commentary:

I continue to be knotted up inside over the… Read More