With the June primary behind us, fresh in my mind is how hard it is to elect people to be a judge in their county, especially large counties where the cost to campaign is prohibitive. Because of this, I am even more attuned to the fact that when some liberal gets appointed to the bench, it’s almost impossible to get rid of them, and it represents a missed opportunity to have someone on the bench whose values reflect those Republicans would like to see in a Judge.

I remembered that last month the Governor made a slew of judicial appointments but with the primaries in full-gear, I didn’t have time to review them. Today, I took a few minutes to do so, and frankly wished that I had not. Once again (this is becoming a trend), a majority of the Governor’s judicial appointments were NOT from the party of Reagan (or the party of Schwarzenegger, for that matter). Instead, out of twenty new judges appointed around California, only nine are Republicans. You can see the details below.

It is not lost on me that we got the raw end of the deal. You can be sure that if Phil Angelides were Governor, virtually ALL of his picks for the bench would be… Read More

Last night, San Bernardino County Supervisor (and former FR blogger) Brad Mitzelfelt handily avoided a run-off in securing his election victory. (In these multi-candidate skirmishes, if a candidate gets a single vote above 50%, it’s game over).

Brad’s ~62% obviously cleared that hurdle with room to spare.

So imagine his shock when the local newspaper came out this morning (at oh,4ish) withcoverage of the race included the headline "Vogler Still Has Chance At Win For County Supervisor."

Newsflash – Um, no she doesn’t.

I guess this is the High Desert’s version of "Dewey Defeats Truman."… Read More

Without a doubt, the Republican primary for California’s Fourth Congressional District was the highest profile legislative race taking place in yesterday’s statewide elections in California. Whether you look at how the race shaped up locally, or how it was covered Inside The Beltway, the battle between conservative State Senator Tom McClintock and moderate former U.S. Representative Doug Ose was truly looked to as an election-day indicator of where the heart and soul of the GOP was, and whether Republicans want to see change in direction that their party has taken in the United States Capitol.

Despite the massive financial advantage of Doug Ose, who cracked open the family’s platinum piggy-bank to spend a staggering some of personal money, well over $3 million, McClintock was victorious last night. Not only did McClintock win, he won in what can only be characterized as a blow-out, with the… Read More

With all the many candidates chasing few voters today, it brings to mind how interesting our traditional June primary could’ve been if our entire primary was today. Senator Clinton and Obama could have spent a ton of money in CA the last few weeks instead of a pittance in February’s term limit exten….I mean "presidential primary" election, not to mention the entertainment value of their hard fought effort to get all of CA’s delegates at this time.

We coulda been relevant! Would’ve helped our election vendors economy here too. Think of "all that revenue the state has lost" andat a time when the drumbeat for feesand taxes is getting louder because of our messed up budget…but hey, we know that the $90 million taxpayerspaid for a third election this year won’t be missed and will really help make the case for a subsequent term limit proposition to be embraced by the public! Meanwhile all you poll checkers, try to stay awake today, and thanks again Prop 93!… Read More

OC Blog is holding its traditional prediction contest about today’s primary, and FR readers are invited to enter for fun and prizes.

Enter you predictions for the winner and loser(s) in the following contests:

– 33rd Senate District: Mimi Walters v. Harry Sidhu

– 29th Senate District: Bob Huff v. Dennis Mountjoy

– 71st Assembly District: Jeff Miller v. Neil Blais

– 60th Assembly District: Larry Dick v. Curt Hagman

– 1st Supervisor District: Janet Nguyen v. Dina Nguyen v. Hoa Van Tran

– 3rd Supervisor District: Bill Campbell v. Donald Ritze

Entrants need to enter the winning/losing percentages as well as the name of the winning/losing candidates.

Click here to read the rest of the post and make your predictions.… Read More

My boss Karen England was at the Placer County Registrar of Voters this morning when Doug Ose showed up to cast his ballot. Here’s her account from Red County:

Ose Doesn’t Know How to Vote in the 4th CD

As Mike Spence just reported, Doug Ose failed to sign his ballot when he voted at the Placer County Registrar of Voters this morning. I was actually there with Rick Staats and we witnessed the whole episode. Here’s what happened when Ose realized he hadn’t signed his ballot. The election officials had to get a key to unlock and reopen the highly secured ballot box and retrieve his invalid ballot. In true elitist fashion he was unwilling to take responsibility for his incompetence, muttering under his breath “this is bull ****!”

Since when is ballot security bull ****?

Keep in mind that yesterday Ose had McNally Temple employee Richard Robinson call the Registrar’s office and ask to have someone there to “show Doug how to vote.” He needs to be shown how to vote? Guess he… Read More

For die-hard FlashReport politicos, I thought I would take a few minutes and walk you through “Jon’s Guide to Republican Primaries” – a “cheat sheet” of sorts – with some predictions on my part on what promises to be a very low turnout election (thanks Fabian!)…

I should add for the vast majority of FR readers who are not “insiders” – this column might be a bit hard to digest. There is a facet of our readership who “lives” this stuff, and will appreciate all of this. They are the intended audience for this piece.

First and foremost, and this may go without saying, there are no incumbents that are up for re-election this year to Congress, Senate or the Assembly who are facing a serious primary challenger. So you can check all of those legislators off of the list.

THE UNCONTESTED (OR PRACTICALLY UNCONTESTED)… Read More

Competition in the marketplace creates the best possible scenario for the consumer, but it isn’t perfect.

My wife and I registered to vote last month, on the final possible day, at our new home in South Orange County.

We moved into a district that is “Ground Zero” for Republican legislative primaries. We now live in Senate District 33 where Assemblywoman Mimi Walters and Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu are spending vast sums of money to communicate with Republican and DTS voters. We also now live in Assembly District 71 where Corona Councilman Jeff Miller and Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Neil Blais are in a pitched battle for the Republican nomination.

Clearly two newly registered Republicans would be prime targets as supremely likely voters. Right? WRONG, apparently.

Since registering to vote last month, the Fleischman household has received no mail from candidates. Not from Mimi, or Harry, or Jeff, or Neil.

And these candidates have “top… Read More