I think that when the voters put term limits in place, one reason that many did so was because being an elected legislator should not be a career. Rather, it should be an opportunity for those who have had very real life experiences to spend a six or eight years in Sacramento, and then they would return back to the private sector, allowing other noble citizens to step forward and give of their time.

Long gone are the days of ‘career-politicians’ who serve twenty, thirty or in some cases over forty years in the legislature. Long gone are the kind of parochial politicians who use their offices to milk millions out of political supporters to enhance their lifestyles, and to live supremus alius – above others. Willie Brown is and his kind are long gone, right? WRONG.

I was absolutely floored today when I received a copy of a complaint filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) against State Senate President Don Perata… Read More

History and arts are full of examples of how the acquisition of power leads to the corruption of the individual who seeks and obtains power. The Stars Wars movies are an anthology of how one person seeks to obtain power for good reasons (to save the life of the woman he loves) and it turns him into the evil Darth Vader. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is about how the power of the one ring can destroy anyone who wields that power, and that the only way to preserve society is to destroy that power. Indeed, the story of the recent Republican reign in Congress is the story of how the acquisition and maintainence of power led to corruption at a variety of levels. Duke Cunningham and Jack Abramoff were not the worst of the offenders. The worst was those who used their power, and the massive federal budget, to try to ensure their continuance in power. Earmarks, pork in the common parlance, are the source of that corruption. Subtle though it may be, the use of other people’s money to buy support for the maintainence of power is the worst kind of corruption there is, and Republicans, who promised not to engage in that kind of behavior, deserved to lose Congress for… Read More

Who Runs California?

Special elections for the House in one-party districts are often very low-turnout affairs, with victory going to whichever special interest group cranks up the most supporters on behalf of its preferred candidate. That was certainly the case in Long Beach, Calif. this week when voters selected a replacement for Democratic Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald who died in April of cancer.

The two major competing special interests, I mean candidates, were State Assemblywoman Laura Richardson, who like Ms. Millender-McDonald is from a long-powerful African-American machine, and State Senator Jenny Oropeza, with her own base in the district’s strong Hispanic population. Ms. Richardson wound up winning the first round by 38% to 31% over Ms. Oropeza, positioning herself for a certain victory over a hapless Republican in the August runoff.

… Read More

Former State Senator Republican Leader Jim Nielson, who retired from the Senate back in 1990, has decided that he is ready, once again, to serve the residents of the "North State" (as FR blogger Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa likes to refer to his sprawling 2nd District). This morning Nielson (pictured to the right, with Tom McClintock in the background), the youngest Senate GOP Leader in California history, is currently serving as a Deputy Commissioner of the California Board of Prison Terms. The Second Assembly District is ‘safe’ GOP territory, and LaMalfa is currently in his third and final term (though gearing up for a State Senate run himself in 2010).

As someone who served many years in the State Senate, we’ll be looking more at Nielson’s record as a Republican. That said, I do remember that Nielson co-authored (with Paul Gann) the Victims Bill of Rights. And in recent years, we’ve… Read More

For anyone following the current debate in Washington with the President, Teddy Kennedy and others trying to push through a terrible amnesty bill, this video below is a "must see" — Ronald Reagan’s former Attorney General and close friend Ed Meese contemplates on what the Gipper would think of this current proposal… ALERT: AP is reporting that the amnesty bill wen’t down – 14 votes short of what it needed. YEAH!… Read More

Former State Senator Republican Leader Jim Nielson, who retired from the Senate back in 1990, has decided that he is ready, once again, to serve the residents of the "North State" (as FR blogger Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa likes to refer to his sprawling 2nd District). This morning Nielson (pictured to the right, with Tom McClintock in the background), the youngest Senate GOP Leader in California history, is currently serving as a Deputy Commissioner of the California Board of Prison Terms. The Second Assembly District is ‘safe’ GOP territory, and LaMalfa is currently in his third and final term (though gearing up for a State Senate run himself in 2010).

As someone who served many years in the State Senate, we’ll be looking more at Nielson’s record as a Republican. That said, I do remember that Nielson co-authored (with Paul Gann) the Victims Bill of Rights. And in recent years, we’ve… Read More

CRP hired the wrong guy to be COO. Plain and simple. As many of you know the CRP has hired Bill Christiansen as the new temporary COO. First, we hear Billis an American, although I haven’t seen proof. Second, Bill is an accomplished political operative, former ED in Orange County and Arizona,a graduate of UCLA and of course his last gig was as the statewide coordinater for Victory ’06. For those of you new to the Victory ’06 saga, it was the statewide arm of the CAGOP that spent massively on behalf of the Governor (I would argue and the evidence indicates at the expense of everyone else on the ticket.) See here, its just not me. … Read More

Well, I don’t there is such a caucus, but there is no doubt that if there was one, it’s Chairman would be none other than Orange County’s Assemblyman Mike Duvall.

I get LOTS of e-mail newsletters from state legislators (if I am not on your list, you should add jon@flashreport.org), and today I received Duvall’s Dispatch. I ‘lifted’ this cool photo of the Assemblyman straight from it…

Did you know that Mike Duvall was born on Flag Day? See what you can find out by reading legislative newsletters? Of course, Duvall does not mention that he shares a birthday with none other than Donald Trump!

Perhaps when ill-fated attempt to extend term-limits fails next February, Duvall can go up to Fabian Nunez, and say,… Read More