Last week, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger reached outside of his own political party, tapping former California Democrat Party Executive Director Susan Kennedy to be his new Chief of Staff. Kennedy has been serving the last couple of years as an appointee of recalled Governor Gray Davis to the Public Utilities Commission, taking that post after having served as Davis’ Deputy Chief of Staff. Kennedy’s bizarre connections made for unique post to the FR blog.

I’ve written about this appointment a few times, as well as a recap of a conversation I had with Governor Schwarzenegger here.

I can tell you that I continue to get a steady string of e-mails from folks were are quite upset over the appointment – now well over a thousand of them. It was… Read More

Bill Leonard, one of the two Republican Members of the Board of Equalization, is well regarding throughout California. During his time on the Board, as well as many, many years preceding that as a member of both the State Senate and State Assembly, Leonard has earned a reputation for being smart, thoughtful and articulate Republican Leader. Today in his weekly e-mail, the Leonard Letter, the Board of Equalization Member had some very strong words on the Governor’s appointment of former Gray Davis’ Deputy Chief of Staff, Susan Davis, to head up his own staff:

I just received an email from William Bennett Finn, the VERY capable political reporter for the North San Diego County Times.

He sent the following:

Wyland announces run for state Senate

After weeks of speculation over whether he would decide to run for Congress or the state Senate or both, Mark Wyland told the North County Times on Monday that he will definitely run for the state Senate seat now held by Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside.

Morrow will leave office due to term limits and has already declared his candidacy for the 50th District congressional seat that until last week was held by Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Wyland’s announcement to run for the Senate would appear to take him… Read More

The last several days of discussion hiring have made it clear how tenuous the relationship between the Governor and the Republican grassroots was even before Susan Kennedy was hired. As I noted on my Wednesday posting, these ideological differences have existed from the very beginning of the recall campaign. Many conservatives chose to overlook their differences with Schwarzenegger because of their desire to get rid of Gray Davis, others decided that his positions on the car tax and drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants were enough to overshadow other areas of disagreement, and some were drawn in by the celebrity star power that Arnold radiated on the campaign trail. But whether it’s Kennedy, a tremendous bond measure proposal, or other issues, it’s clear that Republican conservative activists are angrier than they’ve been in over a decade.

So my question is: now what?

The business/lobbying community is supporting Kennedy’s hiring: they’ve been in the newspapers talking about her pro-business credentials all week. It would be one thing if the GOP ideological base and donor base were both furious with… Read More

SPECIAL ELECTION THIS TUESDAY While only a small portion of FR readers are from Orange County relatively, and even less in live in the 48th Congressional District, I want to remind folks that this Tuesday is the special election to fill the unexpired term of Congressman Christopher Cox, who resigned from Congress after being tapped by the President to head the Federal Exchange Commission. This race is being viewed nationally because minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist is on the ballot as an American Independent. Every political observer has said that Gilchrist has no shot, but that how well he does will signal, nationally, whether the GOP has a problem on the immigration issue. … Read More

Former State Assemblyman Mike Briggs (R) is contemplating yet another political run, this time for his old City Council seat in Fresno, District 1. A brief background: Briggs served one term on the City Council before running for State Assembly in 1998, winning a contentious four way primary and then breezing through that fall’s general election. Briggs, in his first two years in the State Assembly, made a name for himself in working across the aisle in attempting to craft legislation to help his Central Valley District. Alas, in 2000, Briggs went a little too far. It was his disastrous vote on the 2000 State Budget that set the wheels in motion for California’s fiscal meltdown and massive deficits. Without his vote on that budget bill, California’s fiscal problems wouldn’t be nearly as severe as that are today. I estimate that his vote cost Californians somewhere north of $40 billion in principal and interest.

"Coincidently", a new Congressional District was created by the Democrats right over the top of his Assembly District, again, "coincidently" right after his collaboration with the Democrats on the budget. So, in… Read More

My thoughts on the Gov’s Chief of Staff…

I’ve been too in shock to comment up ‘til now.

No question that Governor Tom McClintock would never had made such an appointment … but, I guess the question remains whether McClintock would have been in the position to choose.

This is the “age old” debate in the GOP, is it not? How far are moderates and many conservatives (me among them) willing to go, how much are we willing to give up, to have a Republican in the statehouse at any cost, or in any number of offices, when the “general consensus” is that a true-blue candidate can’t win?

I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s comments after Neville Chamberlain returned from… Read More

Ihate to interrupt all of the well-justified venting over the appointment of Susan Kennedy as Governor Schwarzenegger’s new chief of staff, but I figured FlashReport’s readers might be due for a little distraction. This magazine cover, believe it or not, was published by the first Democrat candidate to announce against 26th District Republican Congressman David Dreier in the 2006 election.

The publisher, Russ Warner, is from Rancho Cucamonga, and he’s absolutely loaded. Obviously this means there’s a possibility he could self-fund. Rancho Cucamonga, in San Bernardino County, is the most conservative part of the 26th district. Having been added to the district in the lastreapportionment, it’s not Dreier stomping grounds (the reigning House Rules… Read More