At the California Republican Assembly convention two weeks ago actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez delivered a remarkable speech during the Saturday evening dinner. Rodriguez’s family farm has been hit hard by the judicial ruling that shut off water to the Central Valley because of the Sacramento delta smelt. My Townhall article this week is about Rodriguez and the government-inflicted water shortages hurting California farmers.

The state GOP needs to take note of the anger many Latino Democrats are feeling right now because their party won’t do anything to stop the insane government policies. Instead of merely talking about Hispanic outreach, the CA GOP should be in the Central Valley explaining to voters how Republicans believe in the principles of a limited government that won’t place the interests of a fish above the wellbeing of citizens. If you have the chance, I recommend listening to Rodriguez’s entire speech to the CRA, available on iTunes. It’s inspiring and offers the GOP a clear message on how to appeal to… Read More

Many FlashReport readers may not be aware of the fact that there is a special election taking place in Los Angeles County RIGHT NOW. President Obama tapped a local Democrat to serve in his Cabinet, opening up a seat in East Los Angeles County. Longtime FR friend and California Republican Party Regional Vice Chairman for that area, Doug Boyd, pens this introduction to the situation, and his words are followed with some commentary from the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for the seat, Teresa Hernandez… AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE An introduction by Doug Boyd … Read More

A New Beginning For Republicans in Los Angeles County By Nicole Ingram Today I write to the FlashReport community as a proud Young Republican from Los Angeles. Last night in the county in America with the most Republicans, we elected a new Republican Party executive board. Over the past six months there has been a lot of worry, a lot of confusion, and a lot of division about the direction of what we the party should be doing next. Glen Forsch, who had been elected Chairman earlier this year, honorably stepped down as did his executive board, and I want to thank them for their courage and poise. It is not always easy facing a crowd of people who disagree with your politics and they can not be commended enough.

Being a native Angeleno and life long republican, it means the world to me that we elected a board that represents all Republicans throughout the county. Our… Read More

A New Beginning For Republicans in Los Angeles County By Nicole Ingram

Today I write to the FlashReport community as a proud Young Republican from Los Angeles. Last night in the county in America with the most Republicans, we elected a new Republican Party executive board. Over the past six months there has been a lot of worry, a lot of confusion, and a lot of division about the direction of what we the party should be doing next. Glen Forsch, who had been elected Chairman earlier this year, honorably stepped down as did his executive board, and I want to thank them for their courage and poise. It is not always easy facing a crowd of people who disagree with your politics and they can not be commended enough.

Being a native Angeleno and life long republican, it means the world to me that we elected a board that represents all Republicans throughout the county. Our board represents the diversity of… Read More

Sam Blakeslee, the leader of Assembly Republicans(he formally assumes the job in a couple of weeks, but for our purposes, he’s the top dog…), on the May Revisions: “Whether we are facing a $15 billion or $21 billion problem, the Governor’s May Revise clearly shows that both parties must approach this budget crisis with a clear sense of purpose and urgency. Now is the time for us to lead with the resolve that Californians are demanding and get our state back on the right track. Assembly Republicans have already begun working to find responsible ways to balance the budget while instituting reforms to help our economy recover from this recession as rapidly as possible. “We know these tough choices will cause great hardship for many Californians who are already hurting and have great empathy for those who will be impacted. But embracing the status quo will only produce greater pain and deeper cuts in the long run. A budget that addresses only cuts without fundamentally reforming the way state government operates will leave… Read More

There are always two challenges with my attempting to opine on complex policy proposals too quickly — the first is that as someone who spends some time looking at policy, but is decidedly NOT a policy expert, it is risky to weigh in to substantively too early. What if I totally misread or don’t understand a key point or proposal? The other challenge is that I also miss the chance to see what other people say first — yikes!

That said, I want to make some broad observations.

I may be the only pundit out there who will say this — but here it goes: I’m excited! While the circumstances of how we got to this point, such as years of overspending and the current economic, recession, are tragic – they say that, "adverse situations create unique opportunities for change."

In all of the years that I have been involved in fighting against the ever-growing size of the state government, and working hard to protect the freedom and liberty of state taxpayers, it has been a losing battle. It is true what they say — is it much easier to increase state spending than it is to reduce it. These proposed,… Read More

In the interest of getting into out to readers quickly, I will throw this information from the Governor’s Offce without comment for now…

STATE BUDGET MAY REVISION 2009-10: TWO BUDGET SCENARIOS FACED WITH TWO POTENTIAL DEFICIT NUMBERS THE GOVERNOR IS PREPARED TO TACKLE BOTH

“Californians have a right to know the truth about the problems our state is facing and the steps we would have to take to solve our deficit.” (Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 5/14/09)

The global recession has caused California’s revenues to continue their plummet, leaving our state with a $15.4 billion shortfall that could get worse in a matter of days. If the $5.8 billion in February budget solutions are rejected on the May 19 ballot, our budget deficit will increase to $21.3 billion – forcing unprecedented actions that will affect every Californian.

Today, the Governor is releasing two May Revision proposals because he believes the people deserve to know what steps must be taken to balance our budget in both scenarios. While both will be painful, if Propositions 1A-1F fail, California will be faced… Read More

EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS! Everyone has to be from somewhere, and the worldwide headquarters of the FlashReport is located here in Orange County, California. So I am exceptionally pleased to share with our readers that Orange County’s top two elected law enforcement leaders, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, have both come out publicly agains the entire slate of meaures before voters on May 19, Propositions 1A-1F.

I am proud that these two are showing statewide leadership, and looking out for the interests of taxpayers, by opposing this terrible package of ballot measures.

Here is what they had to say:

District Attorney Tony RackauckasI categorically oppose these measures because they increase our taxes by $16 billion on top of the $12 billion dollar tax increase that the Legislature dumped on us just two months ago. This is all being done so that over all spending… Read More