Last evening, I had the opportunity to attend a reception for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his Commonwealth PACat The St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point. It was an entertaining event with many in attendance. Governor Romney was, as I have always seen him, polished and clear.This is perhaps why I was unpleasantly alarmed by something he said.He elucidates his thoughts well, so I don’t believe I misheard or misunderstood him. (I have since been assured by friends and blogging colleagues that I hadn’t).

After Olympic anecdotes, Romney transitioned into public policy. While comparing the academic output of the United States, China and India of engineers, doctors and scientists in pure numbers as part of a greater point about our economic future, he said something like, ‘We should… Read More

From the Capitol Morning Report today (subscribe here): Jason Kinney of California Strategies reports plans to launch a political website and blog for Democrats called The California Majority Report. The tag line on Kinney’s announcement reads, "THE political website for California Democrats who don’t play politics – they live it." It’s being published by three insiders of the former Gov. Gray Davis… Read More

AN IMPORTANCE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Dear FR Reader,

This weekend many FlashReport readers will be attending the California Republican Party Convention in Los Angeles. It is an important convention for a lot of reasons, the most significant of which is that it is a great opportunity for grassroots GOP leaders from around the state to come together in support of our great Republican ticket as we are less than a hundred days from the general election. I know that I have already put in a lot of hours on behalf of GOP candidates for statewide and local office this year, and will invest a lot more between now and election day!

Of course Republican Party conventions are also a key opportunity to take some time to discuss the future of our party, where we are going over the coming weeks, months and years. This convention will be the last time that CRP delegates will come together until the… Read More

The last famous San Diegan to announce his retirement, andthen announce his un-retirement, ended up winning a mayoral re-election, only to subsequently have to resign from office in some semblance of disgrace.

Future NFL Hall-of-Famer Junior Seau, please take a lesson from Dick Murphy.

From SignOnSanDiego:

"Three days after announcing his retirement from the National Football League, former Chargers linebacker Junior Seau could be on the verge of returning."

Read the story here. As a tribute to Joe Justin, someone please provide me a song title that describes thispolitics-mirrors-sports scenario.… Read More

Looks like ‘for sure’ no redistricting measure for November’s ballot. The Assembly did not take up SCA 3 which was passed out of the Senate yesterday. However, a gut-and-amend measure was attempted during today’s session to cause theenabling language to be ready to place the still unfinished SCA 3 on the November 2006ballot. This, as most Republican members sawit, was putting the "caboose in front of the engine" in that SCA 3 hadn’t really beenexamined by our members, let alone voted out. How can you vote out the enabling language to place landmark constitutional change on the ballot when the ink isn’t even dry on the Amendment itself, let alone having not read it? Kinda reminds me of how the bonds were handled. [oops, did I say that?]

The net effect is it won’t be on November 2006, but we can still hear the bill during the last 2 weeks of this session and ready a measure that can be taken up on ’08’s ballot…still plenty of time before 2010 census. We could’ve been working on this allthis year to achieve reform, as promised by those that helped defeat Prop 77,… Read More

The latest from David Drucker over at Roll Call Newspaper…

As California officials on Wednesday moved one step closer to severing politicians’ ability to gerrymander themselves safe seats, a Democratic-affiliated 527 group is launching today with the intent of maximizing partisan gain in the 2012 redistricting process in states across the country. After it appeared the measure was dead, the California Senate Wednesday passed State Constitutional Amendment 3 with the requisite two-thirds majority. If approved in similar fashion by the state Assembly and ratified by voters, the amendment would remove from the Legislature the power to draw legislative and Congressional districts, granting that task instead to an 11-member independent commission. In a direct but unrelated counter-move, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal… Read More

Picture this: You’re the smartest guy in California, and you’re running for governor. You went to Harvard, so you must be smart. Certainly a lot smarter than your opponent, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went to community college and got his degree from a college that you’ve never heard of.

You try not to brag too much about your Harvard education because, after all, you’re the champion of the little guy. The middle class. The working stiff who isn’t smart enough to get into Harvard. But you were. Because you’re the smartest guy in California.

Sadly, your campaign team, through no fault of their own, isn’t as smart as you. Therefore, you’ll have to do all the work yourself and delegate the bits and pieces.

Like today when you had this brilliant idea to have the California Democratic Party put out a press release pointing a bright red arrow at Schwarzenegger, who is appearing at a fundraiser with America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani. (Who, by the way, graduated from Manhattan College and got his law degree from New York University Law School. Egads!)

Imagine all the negative press and moral indignation that will surely… Read More

The state GOP convention starts tomorrow in LA and along with the usual crowd and typical jockeying for resolutions, by-law changes an endorsements (or non-endorsements) for November ballot initiatives, the Governor will have a strong presence through volunteers and paid staff.

And if you want the latest in insider Arnold texted right to your mobile, they are telling convention goers to text "Gov" to 50555 and then reply with a "Yes" to confirm.

I expect you’ll get something every few hours about a rally or ice cream reception. I doubt it will be anything interesting but cool idea nonetheless.

You can also go to the campaign web site to sign up.… Read More