Get free daily email updates

Syndicate this site - RSS

Recent Posts

Blogger Menu

Click here to blog

FlashReport Weblog on California Politics

- Or -
Search blog archive

Jon Fleischman

Today’s Commentary: Political Party Rules, not State Law, decides how Party’s Apportion National Convention Delegates

Everyone knows that the Governor and State Legislators are actively considering a move of the 2008 California Presidential Primary from June to the first Tuesday in February.

There is no doubt that it is within the authority of these politicians to move around the date of California’s primary — and they have done so, a lot, over the years. I would go so far as to say that it is extremely likely that it will move.

In some recent news articles about this potential change of date, there have been references to making changes in the way that the major political parties select their delegates to their respective national political conventions.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full CommentaryRead More

Jon Fleischman

Sanchez And Baca In A Whorific Dustup

This should be amusing to many a Southern California Republican. According to The Politico, Orange County’s lone Democrat Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, she who is oh-so-fond of cats (what’s with these Democrat women and their cats), has quit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus because Congressman Joe Baca, also a Democrat, called her a "whore".

Here’s an exerpt of the piece (now linked via Drudge):

Rep. Loretta Sanchez has quit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, accusingthechairman, Rep. Joe Baca, of telling people she’s a "whore."

Baca denied the charge.

In an interview with The Politico Wednesday, Sanchez, a California Democrat as is Baca, also cited concerns about whether Baca was… Read More

Barry Jantz

Libertarians Link to the FlashReport

The San Diego Libertarian Party knows a good thing when they see it. That’s why they link to the FlashReport from their website. Given our penchant for leaning libertarian on fiscal and economic issues, but not so on the social issues (read:not liberal-tarian), one might think the FR content more philosophically aligned with the GOP. That’s because itis.

In fact, the local GOP — if they wanted some decentand recent Republican content linked from their own website — might considerFR. A quick look at theblog of the Republican Party of San Diego County shows it last updated October 20, 2006.

Info for the local Republican webmaster: TheURL for the FlashReport is http://flashreport.org/, in case you needit.… Read More

James V. Lacy

Libertarians help cost Republicans Congress in 2006

My friend Grover Norquist tipped me to this report from Daily Kos on the impact of the Libertarian Party vote on the recent Congressional elections, including here in California, where the Libertarian Party candidate almost figured in a defeat for Republican Congressman John Doolittle:

The Libertarian spoilers

by kos Wed Jan 31, 2007 at 07:59:56 AM PST One of the under-reported factors for the Democratic victories in 2006 was the spoiler effect that the Libertarian Party played. Here are races in which the Libertarian vote was larger than the Democratic margin of victory:

Missouri Senate

McCaskill (D) 1,047,049 50 Talent (R) 1,001,238 47 Gilmour (L) 47,504 2

Montana Senate

Tester (D) 198,302 49 Burns (R) 195,455 48 Jones (L) 10,324 3

That’s control of the Senate right there. And in the House there was at least one race in which Libertarians helped deliver a seat to Democrats:

IN-09

Hill (D) 110,185 50 Sodrel (R) 100,503 46 Schansberg (L) 9,920 4

In… Read More

Mike Spence

Huge CRP Debt looms large

With only two weeks to go, there is one issue the candidates for CRP officehardly seem to talk about and yet it affects every other aspect of whattheir ability to finish their campaign promises. The CRP is in debt! Not just a little debt, but I’m told and have seen figures that amount to $4.6 million. This is unprecedented for the CRP. Yet, no one is really talking about it. The CRP has clearly earned the "Biggest Party Debt Award". To give some perspective the RNC with all their spending ended $3 million debt. See here. It has now been paid off. When will the CRP’s?Read More

Matthew J. Cunningham

LA Times Jacks OC Blogosphere Story

The LA Times has a story today about the Trung Nguyen Photoshop incident.

The story broke on Red County/OC Blog and was developed and moved forward by the larger OC blogosphere.

Not that you’d know it from the LA Times article, which completely ignores that fact and give no credit to the blogs. Most LA Times readers will think the LAT got the scoop.

Read more about it here and here on Red County/OC Blog.

UPDATE (5:00 p.m.): I got off the phone a little while ago with Jeff Gottlieb, City Editor of the OC edition of the LA Times. Jeff was very gracious. He said it was the policy of the Times to give credit where it is due and that it was an omission in this case, for which he apologized.

That was a classy thing to do.… Read More

Jennifer Nelson

Just when you think it can’t get any worse in DC…

While there are many things I don’t like about living in the Bay Area, one of the biggest is that Congresswoman Barbara Lee represents me in Washingon, D.C. As painful as it is, I subscribe to her constituent email so I can be fully appraised of her goings-on in DC. Today I received the following e-mail from Rep. Lee:

Congresswoman Lee Wields the Gavel Congresswoman Lee will serve as presiding officer of the House today, wielding the gavel and overseeing debate on the House floor between 11:00 AM -1:30 PM Pacific (2:00-4:30 PM Eastern). You can tune in on C-SPAN (Ch. 23 on Comcast, 53 on Castle Cable, 350 on DirecTV, and 210 on Dish Network), or at http://www.c-span.org/watch.

As if having Nancy Pelosi as speaker wasn’t bad enough…..

Read More

Jon Fleischman

Forbes: Arnold’s Health Plan Unhealthy

One the of the brighter lights on the GOP side of the aisle, especially when it comes to economic issues, is certainly businessman Steve Forbes. Forbes is well know, and well respected, for his policy acumen. In his magazine, Forbes pens an opinion column. Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governmental foray into healthcare has made the top of Forbes’ most recent column:

UNHEALTHY…By Steve Forbes Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal for universal health coverage in California underscores the abysmal ignorance of so many–including boatloads of business executives and entrepreneurs–about what it takes to bring rationality, productivity and lower prices to the health care market. The biggest problem is the disconnect between providers and consumers. When theRead More