Here is the email sent this morning from Pat Clarey, the Governor’s former Chief of Staff, passing the reigns of her office:

From: Pat Clarey Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 9:01 AM To: All Governor’s Staff Subject: Thank you to all Today I am announcing that I am stepping down on January 1 as Chief of Staff to the Governor. This has been a decision that has been a long time coming. Earlier … Read More

Props go to William Bradley for e-mailing out the news a couple of hours before me. Ironically, I didn’t know it because I wasn’t on his email list. I am now. Perhaps, if you want to be in the loop, you should be… To get on it, email Bill. Bill gets all of the credit/blame if you do or don’t like what he says in his columns. But he gets an "A" for aggressive reporting.

NEW WEST NEWS November 29, 2005 SHAKING OUT ARNOLD’S BIG SHAKEUP … Read More

Wall Street Journal Editorial Staff Writer John Fund has been a longtime friend of the FlashReport, back to the beginning of our e-newsletter in 2001. He’s been a personal friend of mine going back much further. John, a native Californian, keeps a remarkable finger on the pulse of California politics with a network of friends, operatives and contacts that would make many reporters who actually live in California quite envious. He has written two California stories today in the WSJ’s Political Diary (a subscription based publication, but John gave me permission to print these) — one on the Governor’s appointment today of Susan Kennedy, and the other most post-mortem on the Duke Cunningham debacle:

FROM THE WSJ POLITICAL DIARY:

… Read More

Since the Congress went into recess after the November 18 battle royale over Rep. John Murtha’s Iraqi withdrawal resolution, Washington has been very quit. Until Monday of this week when Rep. Duke Cunningham, another Vietnam War veteran, announced his resignation and detailed his astonishing level of corruption.

The already competitive race for the 50th district got more interesting last week when Assemblyman Mark Wyland, who many believed to be an early favorite, dropped out, opting for an easy election to the state senate seat held by Bill Morrow. However, Cunningham’s announcement, which triggers an early spring special election, has given Wyland reason to reconsider. With his personal wealth, a compacted race would give him a significant advantage. Wyland is reconsidering but as of this writing, has yet to make up his mind. His district director, and likely campaign manager, Chip Englander, is leaving for Oklahoma to manage Congressman Ernest Istook’s campaign for governor.

Other competitors for the 50th are Senator Bill Morrow, former Congressman Brian Bilbray, former Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, and… Read More

In this, his latest battle, Randy “Duke” Cunningham found himself surrounded by MIGs. They were not piloted by a foreign enemy this time, but by federal prosecutors from the nation he had first sworn to protect in the 1960s, and which in Vietnam he had done so with honor, distinction, and courage. In this battle, the United States Government, if not having superior firepower, certainly had overwhelming evidence against him.Randy Cunningham had no choice but to surrender.

I first met Cunningham in the late 1980s, after his retirement from the Navy and Top Gun.He was being touted as a potential candidate, and clearly had the credentials.He was speaking to some now forgotten group of Republicans, but I remember his story.It was the first of many times I heard it in the subsequent years.How, upon landing on an aircraft carrier after he and Willie Driscoll downed an enemy fighter, one of the deck crew ran up to him and exclaimed , “We… Read More

About fifteen minutes ago I got off of the telephone with Governor Schwarzenegger. He is spending some of his day today, in advance of an official 2 p.m. press event, making telephone calls to people about his controversial decision to hire Susan Kennedy as his Chief of Staff. After a collegial minute or two (after all, the Governor is one of the friendliest people EVER), the conversation turned to his appointment. We spoke about his choice for a few minutes – well, I let him do most of the talking. I will paraphrase some of what we talked about so that you get the idea.

I expressed to the Governor my concerns – that while I had never met Ms. Kennedy, I had reviewed her resume. I told him that her resume was more partisan on the Democrat side than mine on the GOP side, which was hard to do,

The… Read More

And with one release, Schwarzenegger is hip deep in GOP alligators, and Kennedy is persona non grata with the Dems….

You’ll find this release here, but Probably not at this site: StopSusanKennedy.com

Governor Schwarzenegger Appoints Susan Kennedy Chief of Staff Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Susan Kennedy as chief of staff. "Susan is a hands-on, action-oriented person who gets things done. She is a leader with incredible institutional knowledge about state government and a deep understanding of the public policy process. We have had incredible accomplishments throughout my administration and I look forward to working with Susan to build upon that foundation and make California once again the golden dream by the sea." "Pat has worked … Read More

Should Arnold Schwarzenegger run for re-election as an Independent?

Schwarzenegger has always had an uneasy relationship with the Republican Party’s base. Susan Kennedy’s hiring has only intensified the tensions that have existed since he first announced plans for a ballot initiative to fund after school programs.

Schwarzenegger is a centrist. He’s conservative on economic issues and immigration issues, moderate on cultural and environmental matters. As I’ve written before, that ideological balance is what allowed him to attract the support of swing voters in the recall election. But it has also kept him from forming a stronger relationship with his own party.

Most successful politicians figure out away to balance the needs of their base with the demands of the political center. Bill Clinton did it by calling himself a “New Democrat”. George W. Bush accomplished the same goal by presenting himself as a “compassionate conservative”. Arnold didn’t come up with quite as catchy a turn of phrase for himself, but a governor who repeals the car tax and opposes drivers’ licenses for… Read More