The MSM has reported that Secretary of State Debra Bowen is considering running to replace Jane Harman in the U.S. House of Representatives, who recently quit her job representing the 36th CD, based in southern and coastal Los Angeles County (see map here).

If Bowen (pictured left) runs, it raises an interesting question, first broached today by our friends at CalBuzz. The Secretary of State’s chief… Read More

FR friend Shane Goldmacher has a starting blog post over at the Los Angeles Times Politi-cal website where he reveals that the California Department of Public Health (which collects money from a tax on cigarette passed by voters back in 1988 to then use for a number of purposes including anti-smoking education) made a decision to run a taxpayer funded anti-smoking ad — during the Superbowl!

The decision to place and fund this ad was apparently made by Colleen Stevens at the state health department. From the Goldmacher piece… For her part, Colleen Stevens, chief of the Tobacco Control Media Campaign at the California Department of Public Health, said she was thrilled by the Super Bowl exposure. The year’s football game drew a record 111 million viewers nationally, according the Nielsen’s estimates. The state’s ad aired at least in Los… Read More

Note to State Senator Mark Leno, and the host of other liberal politicians who really, really hate that California’s Constitution includes voter-approved taxpayer protections. There is a sound policy reason for why it takes a two-thirds vote in order to raise taxes — it is to prevent majority tyranny.… Read More

Conservative Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, a fresher face on the national scene,will be very much in the spotlight at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, opening today at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on upper Connecticut, N.W. in Washington, D.C. And a last minute addition appears to be Donald Trump! CPAC promoters are stating that registration hit 10,000 people yesterday, a staggering number. Other major speakers on the agenda through this weekend, include Newt Gingrich, Senator and Congressman Rand and Ron Paul; Congressmen Paul Ryan and Allen West (West is a black Republican just elected to a Florida district in the recent anti-Obama landslide), Senators Lee, McConnell, and Thune; Governors Daniels, Barbour (both formerly Reagan White House officials) and Perry; and my buddy Herman Cain, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and a former Federal Reserveofficial, among many others.

Much of the conference will be available on the CSPAN channels. Speeches will also be available in real time at the CPAC website,… Read More

Random Thoughts On The Passing California Political Scene…

Sometime in the not-so-distant past, some smart people at the San Francisco Chronicle decided that in order to try and make more income from their website, they would start to charge a fee to read some of the online articles. For our purposes, this has meant that as I we compile political stories from over 80 websites for the FlashReport main page, we regularly have to skip stories from the Chronicle (supposedly these stories get unblocked a couple of days later, when our readers no longer care about the news of a couple of days ago). It is amazing to me that only now, almost two years after many of them voted to put it on the ballot, that state legislators are starting to realize how terrible Proposition 14 actually is — and understand that it actually makes things worse in California (if that is possible). Before the passage of Prop. 14, we had a primary election so that political parties could determine nominees through a broad process that … Read More

Prominent California Democrat strategist and consultant Garry South predicts Republicans pick up the United States Senate in 2012… From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

Webb Exit Tilts Senate Map How much trouble are Democrats in as a result of Virginia Sen. Jim Webb’s decision to retire in a normally Republican state? A great deal if, you listen to Democratic consultant Garry South. "It would take divine intervention to save Democratic control of the Senate in 2012," Mr. South told Politico.com. "Neither party can defend 23 Senate seats in a single election year."… Read More

The last two redistricting efforts in California have brought major changes to the Congressional delegation.

The 1992 election saw the election of Lynn Woolsey, Anna Eschoo, Buck McKeon, Xavier Becerra, Maxine Waters, Jane Harman, Ken Calvert, and Bob Filner. Next year will mark twenty years in Congress for this group. Harman would be an exception because of the break she took to unsuccessfully run for Governor but then came back a few years latter but now she is planning to resign mid term.

In 2002 we saw Dennis Cardoza, Devin Nunes, Adam Schiff, and Linda Sanchez go to Washington.

Although every member of the California Congressional delegation has been elected since 1972 (Stark) almost one quarter came to Congress for the first time following these two redistricting cycles.

My prediction is that even though reapportionment did not add any Congressional seats in California retirement will provide at least eight new Members of Congress from California in 2013.

The following members will be 65 or older in 2012. Wally Herger 67, Dan Lungren 66, Doris Matsui 68, Lynn Woolsey 75, George Miller 67, Nancy Pelosi 72, Barbara… Read More

For the first time in 25 years, the American Conservative Union, noted for it’s "coin of the realm" annual Congressional ratings and for being the lead organization in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference has a new Chairman. David Keene, a former national chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, took the reins of ACU in the early 1980s after the prior Chairman, Congressman Bob Bauman (another former YAF national chairman) resigned after a personal scandal. Keene greatly grew CPAC over the years and maintained high regards for the credibility of the ACU ratings. Now David is scheduled to take over soon as the new President of the National Rifle Association, and by his own admission states he just can’t chair two major organizations at the same time. So, he resigned at the ACU board of directors meeting in Washington, D.C. at the Marriott Wardman Park on upper Connecticut, N.W., and today the Chairmanship opened up for the first time in three decades, during the board meeting.

Elected without opposition, but not unanimously, was Al Cardenas of Florida. Al is a former chairman of… Read More