I have spent the last few days at the Orange County Registrar of Voters as a member of the Harkey team monitoring the vote count.

You will hear more about this count and recount from others and from me later. But it is worth noting now, that I have a new appreciation for the ‘government bureaucrat‘. I have known OC Registrar Neal Kelley as a competent and fair Registrar but we generally don’t work with the people that work throughout the office on a regular basis.

These last few days I have found them to be just as knowledgeable and just as fair. That doesn’t mean they have bent over backwards for either the Harkey or Harman campaigns, they have just responded to our requests and been generally pleasant.

If you think I am just kissing up–believe me, if there was something askew to report, I would post it!… Read More

I’m in a rush this morning — so I will just draw attention to a few important items on today’s main page: The lead story today is right out of the Wall Street Journal. You’ve all heard me go on (and on) about the spending problems that we have in Congress. Since the GOP majority was elected in 1994 in the House, federal spending is UP over 33%. Conservative Republicans in the House, understanding that our majority is at stake, have become more aggressive in trying to curb our spending. The leadership of the Republican Study Committee (the conservatives in the House) started some very real negotiations with GOP leaders about spending cuts. As these negotiations have become more ‘real’ — there is squeeling coming out of the House Appropriations Committee (one of the "pork" committees of Congress) where apparently Representative Jerry Lewis, a California Congressman who chairs the committee, has a problem with House Republicans negotiating cuts in spending without going through…HIS committee. In no uncertain terms, Jerry Lewis should applaud any effort to cut spending, whether these… Read More

I’m in a rush this morning — so I will just draw attention to a few important items on today’s main page: The lead story today is right out of the Wall Street Journal. You’ve all heard me go on (and on) about the spending problems that we have in Congress. Since the GOP majority was elected in 1994 in the House, federal spending is UP over 33%. Conservative Republicans in the House, understanding that our majority is at stake, have become more aggressive in trying to curb our spending. The leadership of the Republican Study Committee (the conservatives in the House) started some very real negotiations with GOP leaders about spending cuts. As these negotiations have become more ‘real’ — there is squeeling coming out of the House Appropriations Committee (one of the "pork" committees of Congress) where apparently Representative Jerry Lewis, a California Congressman who chairs the committee, has a problem with House Republicans negotiating cuts in spending without going through…HIS committee. In no uncertain terms, Jerry Lewis should applaud any effort to cut spending, whether these… Read More

Unfortunately, I knew I was going to write this post days ago. Nervous about its content, I even ran the idea by Fleischman and my best friend. I wondered aloud how I was going to convey my disappointment in the outcome of the 50th without sounding arrogant, whiny, or without taking full responsibility for my very good friend Bill Morrow’s place in a race he wanted badly to win and I wanted even more badly for all the right reasons.

I thought about a blog “war room” post but that seemed contrived. I wanted to put you, the- oh-so-devoted — and smart —- Flash reader inside the Morrow campaign in a way that was honest, interesting, and thoughtful. I hope to give a unique insight into the “what could have been” campaign without sounding like a typical consultant with a plane to catch orwhiny loser…so…like a band unsure if the audience is receptive…I’ve decided to go for it.

To humor the disclaimer police, my name is Joe Justin and I was Bill Morrow’s consultant and I take full and total responsibility for the conduct of his race (note to those back… Read More

As devoted FR readers know, elections took place in areas outside San Diego and Orange counties. You can see a previous post on Arcadia here.

The big city to have municipal election was Long Beach. The three-term Mayor Beverly O’Neil is retiring. There will be a runoff between SCE Exec Bob Foster and Councilman Frank Colonna. Colonna is a registered Republican. He has a steep hill to climb. Foster got 48.5% of the vote.The flasher cop cameup very short..See my post here. In the hotly contested city auditor’s race Laura Dowd was successful in paying back incumbent Gary Burroughs. You can see my last post on that here.

Finally there are a couple elections too close to call still. See here. Will the Long… Read More

LIVE from the OC Registrar of Voters…

There are no votes left to count. So the unofficial final count in SD 35 is 37,840 (38.76%) for Harman, 37,604 (38.52%) for Harkey and 22,176 (22.72%) for the Democrat, Caballero.

So, while there are no more votes to count, there are almost a hundred thousand votes to be RE-counted. Which is what I think will happen now.

A .24% difference (236 votes) seems like a small number of votes to pick up, but as someone who has worked a lot of recounts, it would be impressive if Diane Harkey could make this up. that said, improbable is not impossible.

Acting Registrar Neal Kelley will certify this election soon, and then it will be Team Harkey’s call, on whether to finance a hand-count of the ballots…

Stay tuned!… Read More

The books are almost closed on the Special Election in SD 35. Almost 300 votes stand between conservative Diane Harkey and a seat in the California legislature. Assemblyman Tom Harman is sitting in an enviable position – especially when you consider that only 600 or so provisional ballot stand left to counted.

Nevertheless, if you took a vote here on the public side of the counter at the Registrar, Harkey would win overwhelmingly. There are about 30 Harkey volunteers here led by Scott Hart, Jimmy Camp, Adam Probolsky and former FEC member/elections attorney extraordinairre Daryll Wold.

The Harman folks, all five of them, are led up by Duane Dichiara, Jen Jacobs and former FPPC commissioner/legal beagle Ben Davidian.

Of course, the outcome is more or less assured today. I’ve been doing this stuff for too long.

But my counsel to Team Harkey will be to look into a recount. Recounts are never bad because they just provide a microscope to the process. Will it change the outcome? Probably not. But it will give peace of mind to thousands of Harkey supports who will want to know that every avenue was persued in ensuring that… Read More

Today’s Bee profiles the Valley Taxpayer’s Coalition and three of its leaders. Former Fresno City Council members Chris Mathys and Ken Steitz form the nucleus of this group, with the assistance of former City Manager and current Lincoln Club of Fresno County officer Jeff Reid. Reid is the policy guy, and no one read more and understands better the quagmire of government information than he.

Actually, this is my favorite "thing" about the taxpayer groups. They actually read legislation and fine print and when they point out the details it makes people crazy.

That having been said, I don’t support all of their viewpoints. But they are a critical counterweight to those in local and county government that would tax and spend without a thought, and an even better counterweight to business men and women that get a little wild on the spending side as well, with government money, of course.

So, let’s not be afraid of or hold taxpayer groups in contempt. We… Read More