I’ve been feeling the heat – from my right, because I am an early supporter of Rudy Giuliani for President. I’ve got a number of reasons, but as a pro – life, anti – special rights and pro – second Amendment voter, the "single issue" voter now scares the heck out of me.

I’ve moved beyond conservatism as a standard for candidate support. Why? Because conservative rhetoric has become empty rhetoric. There has been no consistent "conservatism" practiced at any level of government in the last ten years. And frankly, when I hear members of our Party bloviating about "limited government", blah, blah blah, I could really care less. In my judgment, most of the Republican base has also lost faith. In California, where our "Republican" Governor believes centrism equals liberalism, the base is in no better shape.

So let’s look at the set of issues framing the 2008 presidential run. For me, its all about committing to the War on Terrorists. Romney has no experience in this area at all, and McCain’s… Read More

A few weeks back, Seneca at OC Blog had an interesting post about Orange County political figures spotted at a fundraiser for Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani that brought in over $300,000. Seneca said "I was pleased to see notable members of Orange County’s political and community leaders present including Paul Folino, Rich Wagner, Dale Dykema, Bill Simon, Dick Marconi, Lucy Dunn, Diane Harkey, Mario Rodriguez, Tony Rackacus, Jim Lacy, Jim Palmer and Tracy Price (the list could go on). All things said, the event went off extremely successfully, leaving me anxious to get on the invite list for the next OC fundraiser for the frontrunner." (Happy to be on the list!)

But not to be outdone, Mitt Romney’s campaign has a new fundraiser planned in the Orange County for March 16, and there are some equally interesting names from the O.C. on the host committee for that event, including former state Republican Party Chair Mike Schroeder and wife Susan, Jim Righeimer, prominent O.C. pollster Adam Probolsky, the Lincoln Club’s Buck Johns, devout Mormons Bob and LaDorna Eichenberg, Newport Beach political guru Dave Ellis, Congressman John… Read More

The basis of power for an urban Republican Party County Chairman is the ability to project force.

In order to project force the Chairman must be able to pay the rent and staff. The purpose to paying the rent and paying staff is to build a precinct organization that allows the Chairman and his committee to distribute tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of pieces of literature with the Party’s endorsed candidates on it to GOP voters, and turn those voters out, and thus win elections.

There are various bells and whistles a County Party can add after these basics, but these basics come first. Period. If you don’t have the manpower, and the money to support the manpower, then nothing else follows. Not money. Not victories. Nothing. Just a sham and a series of depressing meetings in the back of a library or county adminstration building..

This being said, any Chairman and his leading staff should read Chip Englander’s "Building a Republican Precinct Representative Program in Six Months". It’s the single most important nuts and bolts document available, and should be the Bible of any decent organization, and any… Read More

The Assembly Desk closed bill introduction today at the 5 PM deadline. Yesterday at the end of floor session, the bill intro’s were up to about AB 720 or so. Todaythe Desk was carpet bombed with another 1000 bills, ending at AB 1705 last we checked…plus probably another 100 "committee bills" floating around.

As a buddy of mine says at the end of the bill ‘spring planting season’,I didn’t know there was that much wrong with California.… Read More

The FlashReport would like to congratulate the three members of California’s Congressional delegation who have been tapped with ‘high honors’ from the National Taxpayers Union — receiving their coveted "Taxpayer Friends" rating… And the winners are… Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce and our own FR Beltway Correspondent John Campbell!! It should come as no surprise to FR readers that among the many "F" recipients (all Democrats) from the NTU for 2006 were our two United States Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and of course our new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Here is how each of the Republicans from California scored, since we follow GOPers most closely here at the FR: Brian Bilbray: *n/a – Bilbray was elected in a special election in 2006 and so was not rated. Mary Bono: C-… Read More

Online media is quickly outpacing the "real" media thanks to e-pioneers like Jon Fleischman (yes, a gratuitous compliment – he is the boss). E-media and blogs are nimble, aggressive and timely — and it’s hard for the traditional media to keep pace.

(If you don’t believe it, note the resources papers like the Sacramento Bee are shifting to online reporting…)

So when rumors fly across the blogosphere that Governor Schwarzenegger was checking out of the Presidential race, I had to take notice.

But talking with sources "in the know", it’s possible these reports are just wrong. In fact, Schwarzenegger may be planning an endorsement for the upcoming Presidential race — despite the reports on Politico.com.

If I’m wrong, I’ll post a mea culpa, but it makes more sense for him to endorse than not, so I’m betting one of the Presidential candidates will get a much anticipated phone call from the Terminator.

Here’s my thoughts:

The Governor is a media-genic star who loves the spotlight — sitting out the biggest political show on the biggest state just… Read More

The FlashReport would like to congratulate the three members of California’s Congressional delegation who have been tapped with ‘high honors’ from the National Taxpayers Union — receiving their coveted "Taxpayer Friends" rating… And the winners are… Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce and our own FR Beltway Correspondent John Campbell!! It should come as no surprise to FR readers that among the many "F" recipients (all Democrats) from the NTU for 2006 were our two United States Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and of course our new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Here is how each of the Republicans from California scored, since we follow GOPers most closely here at the FR…

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

There is a ‘must read’ story in the new Beltway Uber-Online Newspaper, The Politico, where reporter Roger Simon publishes a story after conducting a 45 minute private interview with Governor Schwarzenegger. In the story, apparently the Governor told Simon that he would not endorse a Republican in the Presidential primary, though he had praise for McCain and Giuliani for being "centrist" and the kind of Republicans that can win California. The way that Simon worded his story, there is no commitment that the Governor will limit his endorsement options to only the GOP nominee… The Governor quelched any rumors that his wife, Maria Schriver, might run for public office herself, talks about how Democrats are being unfair to Hillary, and expresses his support for a date-specific withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. You can see the story here. … Read More