The California Alliance to Protect Private Private Property rights is an outstanding organization that was founded with the idea that decisions like the Supreme Court made in their 2005 Kelo vs. New London decision where wrong, and that the private property rights of Americans are quickly eroding. I can’t say it any better than the Alliance’s President, Marko Mlikotin, who says, “Californians feel it is wrong for government to profit by seizing private property from unwilling sellers, only to use the property for projects that benefit the wealthy and politically connected." Obviously we were all saddenned when Proposition 90, the Save Our Homes ballot measure, was narrowly defeated last November (a FR ‘shout out’ again to Assemblywoman Mimi Walters for her heroic efforts on behalf of qualifying and campaigning for that ballot initiative). But now there is some great news to report as we go forward… Public Opinion Strategies (POS) is one of the most respected public research firms in America, and their California point man, Steve Kinney, has a decades-long track… Read More

When the campaign for the California Republican Party Vice Chairmanship began, I was honored to lend my support to the candidacy of my dear friend and fellow GOP activist, Jalene Forbis. You must know that when she decided to withdraw from the campaign for vice chairman, she immediately threw her support to former State Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro-a man of accomplishment, great reputation and conservative values. I’ve known Tom for nearly six years and of his reputation as a standard bearer for our party for much longer, including his time in the Assembly and his valiant efforts to run for, and very nearly win, that coastal Congressional seat for our side.

The reasons I have joined Jalene in supporting Tom Bordonaro for Vice Chairman are many, but most important among them is that he has demonstrated the highest degree of character and sound judgment throught out his public life. I believe our state party deserves to have such a leader as vice chairman as we enter this critical presidential cycle.

Tom Bordonaro can be trusted to use all of his boundless energy and experience to support the successful development of our grassroots infrastructure… Read More

On the executive conference call last Wed. I tried frantically to get the various phones in my house to work the code so I could ask a question. They never worked. But, it didn’t matter. The spin machine of the CRP is in full gear. One of the interesting things mentioned by Chairman Sundheim was that donors don’t like the disunity caused by blogs and emails talking about the CRP etc..

I doubt they like a party in debt without accountabilty either. But, for sake of theargument how do we acheive unity?

If it was truly important to the party, we would have an audit. We would ask all 1600 memebrs of the state party to come to a meeting and explain what happened. This is how we spent the money, these are things in place so it doesn’t happen again etc… In other words The CRP be open with us about what is going on. Communication.

What the CRP members get is stonewalling, half-truths and excuses.

May the new CRP leadership be open and honest with the membership.… 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

Mitzelfelt Should Announce for San Bernardino Supe Re-Elect…Soon As has been reported in these pages, San Bernardino County’s newest Supervisor, Brad Mitzelfelt, was appointed a month ago by his colleagues to serve the remaining months of the term of popular departing incumbent Bill Postmus. FR Friend Postmus was elected to serve as Assessor and he enjoyed seeing his former chief-of-staff take over his seat. Of course Mitzelfelt, a former FlashReport Correspondent, has a distinguished career in public service, which includes a stint as a gubernatorial appointee to his county’s Fair Board and as Chairman of the Victor Valley Transit Authority. In fact, Mitzlefelt’s keen understanding of local government has helped him get off to a tremendous start in his new role as a supervisor. He has already outlined a broad policy agenda that charts a course of improving public safety,… Read More

Mitzelfelt Should Announce for San Bernardino Supe Re-Elect…Soon As has been reported in these pages, San Bernardino County’s newest Supervisor, Brad Mitzelfelt, was appointed a month ago by his colleagues to serve the remaining months of the term of popular departing incumbent Bill Postmus. FR Friend Postmus was elected to serve as Assessor and he enjoyed seeing his former chief-of-staff take over his seat. Of course Mitzelfelt, a former FlashReport Correspondent, has a distinguished career in public service, which includes a stint as a gubernatorial appointee to his county’s Fair Board and as Chairman of the Victor Valley Transit Authority. In fact, Mitzlefelt’s keen understanding of local government has helped him get off to a tremendous start in his new role as a supervisor. He has already outlined a broad policy agenda that charts a course of improving public safety,… Read More