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

RICHARD POMBO: A REAL HERO You never know what you are going to find as you sift through almost 50 websites early each morning – that’s a big part of the fun of putting together the main page of the FlashReport each morning. Will it be a crisis? A scandal? A major piece of breaking news? Well, today I was extremely pleased to see a major profile in the San Diego Union Tribune of one of California’s greatest assets, Congressman Richard Pombo, who hails from the Stockton area. I’ve known Richard Pombo since he was ‘just’ a rancher, with his modest 500 acre spread in Tracy. Pombo is just the kind of politician that you would expect a conservative like me to really like. With the strongest foundations possible — his faith and his great family — Pombo went off to Washington to try and make a difference. His commitment to voters was straight from his conscience and… Read More

RICHARD POMBO: A REAL HERO You never know what you are going to find as you sift through almost 50 websites early each morning – that’s a big part of the fun of putting together the main page of the FlashReport each morning. Will it be a crisis? A scandal? A major piece of breaking news? Well, today I was extremely pleased to see a major profile in the San Diego Union Tribune of one of California’s greatest assets, Congressman Richard Pombo, who hails from the Stockton area. I’ve known Richard Pombo since he was ‘just’ a rancher, with his modest 500 acre spread in Tracy. Pombo is just the kind of politician that you would expect a conservative like me to really like. With the strongest foundations possible — his faith and his great family — Pombo went off to Washington to try and make a difference. His commitment to voters was straight from his conscience and… 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

I reported earlier this week that Supervisors in Santa Barbara County were considering moving the county seat north to Buelton or Santa Maria. The Santa Barbara News Press is reporting today that the Board is promising to keep the county seat in Santa Barbara.

Backpedaling from the notion of moving the county’s center of gravity north, North County supervisors on Friday pledged to keep the seat of government in the city of Santa Barbara.

"The county seat is established in Santa Barbara, and that’s where it ought to stay into perpetuity," said Supervisor Joe Centeno, one of three North County supervisors who are considering moving a variety of county services to the north. You can read the rest of the article here.… Read More

The campaign of Hemet Mayor Robin Lowe, who is running for the 65th Assembly District, put out a press release this morning naming some new endorsements. Included in this list was Corona Mayor Jeff Miller, who is also the new Chairman of the Riverside Republican Party. Apparently Miller’s name was included on this press release of endorsements by mistake. The Lowe Campaign made immediate correction to this with a follow up email within two hours. I say good job to the Lowe campaign, mistakes happen and it is great to see campaigns come forth and correct them so quickly.

Contrast this to Howard Kaloogian, one of the candidates for the 50th Congressional District. It has been pointed on two statewide BLOGs this week that his claimed endorsement by the California Pro Life Council is bogus. CPLC has stated that is currently endorsing no one in that race. It would be wise for Kaloogian to follow the lead of Robin Lowe and retract endorsements that you don’t really have.… Read More

According to the Alliance of Western Milk Producers, Governor Schwarzenegger has asked dairyman Dennis Leonardi to resign his position on the Northern California Water Resources Board because he sells his milk to Humboldt Creamery, which has a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NDPES) permit. There is a state law disallows any board member from receiving more than 10% of their income from an organization that holds an NPDES. Leonardi’s business does not hold the permit–the creamery he sells his milk to holds the permit. I do not believe that this is a new law that was enacted after Leonardi was appointed so the question is: what changed between when Leonardi was appointed and now? The Alliance, which calls this situation a "travesty," believes that the governor’s office is interpreting the law too… Read More

We’re now making an effort to keep a closer eye on Gubernatorial appointments, with a specific eye on political party registration. Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced twelve appointments (read more detail here). If you are keeping score, they are: 7 Democrats, 3 Republicans, and 2 Decline-to-State.

DEMOCRATS: 7 Cleotha Adams, 49, of Marysville, has been appointed to the Corrections Standards Authority. Adams is a Democrat.

Carol Biondi, 62, of Los Angeles, has been appointed to the Corrections Standards Authority. Biondi is a Democrat.

Robyn Boyer, 57, of… Read More