Be sure to check out The Colbert Report’s segment on the Sanchez-Baca "Whore"-gate controversy, titled "CALIFORNIA VALUES WATCH". Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is Paris (Hilton). Her sister, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, is Nikki (Hilton). Congressman Joe Baca is Nicole Richie. And Speaker Nunez is Lindsay Lohan!

Get theKleenex out ’cause this clip is hilarious!

Following that, is another tear jerking clip on Newsom’s affair with his campaign manager’s wife, titled "SAN FRANCISCO TREAT", or should we say… Read More

The following is from BOE member Bill Leonard. So don’t look for many answers from the CRP honchos.

***Did CRP Pay “Volunteers” $120 Per Hour?***

In recent issues I have discussed the need for a detailed audit of the California Republican Party’s spending for the November election. There remain far more questions than answers, despite numerous calls for a full accounting. The party’s efforts to register new voters may provide the best example. For decades, the CRP paid Republican volunteer organizations a bounty of up to $3 for each newly registered Republicans voter. Despite problems here and there, this was very effective– both in numbers of voters registered and as a means of funding local Republican organizations. In accordance with state law, Republican volunteers also registered voters from other parties. Last fall, though, the CRP abandoned this successful volunteer-based program in favor of hiring vendors directly.

These paid vendors allegedly focused on registering voters in just 13 of California’s 58 counties. They were… Read More

The CRP maynot have a bounty program, they may be in $4.6 million of debt, but they have a little cash and staff time to turn on it’s own members.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has a proposal to change the way delegates are selected.

Today a letter arrived from Duf Sundheim, Ron Nehring and Tim Morgan opposing the change. Who paid for this mailing??? No doubt the CRP. As well an offical email and press release from CRP staff attacked the proposal.

Sundheim and company have every right to have their opinion. They should not be allowed to use CRP dollars to influence the decision. Of course this party has paid consultants from party coffers to run "proxy" drills to bottle up items they don’t like.

The CRP leaders worry about disunity and then shamelessly abuse CRP dollars to attack a members proposal. Let the members decide and the leaders implement.

Regardless of your view can’t we at least agree that CRP resources should not be spent attacking member proposals?

Devore’s Email follows:

Dear CRP Member,

By now… Read More

Lots of the political blogs today have been talking about Trung Nguyen’s landslide 7-vote lead/win over heartbreakingly-close 2nd place finisher Janet Nguyen.

What I haven’t seen yet is any of the major accolades that should go to Team Trung for pulling this off.

They were under funded. They had a candidate that didn’t start with the name id of others. They didn’t get the inside-baseball support, nor mountains of independent expenditure support from the unions.

What they did have was a great team that developed a fantastic plan. And they stuck to it. They campaigned extensively within the Vietnamese community, and yet didn’t cede votes in certain conservative blocks of the electorate – positioning Trung to grab some anti-illegal immigration votes and some anti-tax votes here and there amongst base Republican votes.

I guess some lesson can be taken from observing Trung’s race. Campaigns needn’t try to be all things to all people.

Lead Consultant Joe Giardiello deserves at least a park or something named… Read More

With aRepublican win in Tuesday’s OC Supe Contest, years worth of efforts from the Orange County Republican establishment paid their first big dividend: a Republican in the only seat the Democrats really have a reasonable shot at ever holding.

Millions of dollars and countless thousands of hours had been invested in registering new Republican voters, in signing up Permanent Absentee Voters, and in making what was once s solid Democrat seat, competitive again.

We’ve now hadanother day to absorb Trung Nguyen’s victory, and to come to the realization that there is a near statistical impossibility of Janet finding 8 votes to change the election outcome. Lots of attention is now turning to “the next step,” that being actually keeping the seat when it comes up in two years.

Surely, no split field will exist this time: it will be the epicenter of probably the most expensive Supervisor’s race in Orange County history. Another Vietnamese face to compliment Assemblyman Van Tran can only do great things for the Republican Party in Central County.

But wait. Not so fast.

Word spreading is that runner-up Janet Nguyen isn’t merely… Read More

Yesterday, Sacramento County became the first county in the state to ban the sale of sex items within 1,000 feet of a school, child care center, library, church community center, park, bus stop or recreation center.

Besides protecting the kids in Orangevale, the ordinance had some political impacts as well. It was sponsored by Chairwoman Roberta MacGlashan — a client of fellow Flashreport correspondent Tab Berg and potential candidate in Assembly District 10. The district is safe for Republicans and moves like these help position her for a Republican primary where the most conservative candidate usually wins.… Read More

I am thrilled to report that today the Governor signed my SB 41 – The California Fallen Firefighters Assistance Tax Clarification Act of 2006.

It was a bitter-sweet event.

It was wonderful that all obstacles have been removed, so the families of the five firefighters that lost their lives fighting the Esperanza Fire will now be able to receive the $1.3 million that the community spontaneously donated to the Central County United Way for them. It was great that the governor made a special trip to Riverside County to sign the bill and express his sympathy for the families and gratitude on behalf of the state to the heroes that lost their lives.

It was terribly sadwe had to do this at all.

Last October,an arsonist started the Esperanza fire that destroyed 34 homes, caused nearly $10 million dollars in damage and claimed the lives of… Read More

When Van Tran first ran for assembly in 2004 he invested huge energy and moneyinto registering Vietnamese voters into the Republican party. Some have estimated he registered over 10,000 new Vietnamese voters. Predictably, during his mud wrestling primary, his opponent accused Van of being "Vietnamese". It was an ugly primary, appealing to left over red neck feelings of a by-gone era. Van’sopponent using Vietnamese national colors to "show" that Van Tran wasn’t a regular Republican backfired. Van won the primary in central Orange County going away. But he did need the 10,000 new Vietnamese voters.

Just 3 years later, Republican Vietnamese voters astound all political pundits.

Experienced pols assumed with 7 Republicans running in a 10 person field for 1st District Supervisor, and, worst than that, 3 Vietnamese Republicans were going to "divide" the fledgling Vietnamese vote. In other words,it would be Supervisor Umberg.

The results in this winner take all Special election yesterday, is that he two top candidates areJanet and TrungNguyen . No relation. Janet now has the lead, but as of this morning… Read More