You may ask yourself, Why Measure Y? Measure Y was placed on November’s ballot in Santa Monica by the initiative process. If it passes it will make adult personal use of marijuana the lowest enforcement priority, unless the use occurs on public property or in conjunction with driving under the influence. So, puffing and driving is a no, no. Anyone taking a walk Friday night by the pier already knows that enforcement of pot laws is low. Along with vagrancy, public drinking etc…. Just don’t let your parking meter expire. Here is how one knows that this is a liberal city and not a libertarian city. While this is on ballot and may pass, the City Council voted to ban all tobacco related smoking around ATM’s movie line and mandated a 20 ft smoke free zone around non-governmental buildings. … Read More

MEMBERS OF THE CALFORNIA REPUBLICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION FILE SUIT AGAINST BROWN CALLING HIM UNQUALIFIED TO BE CALIFORNIA’S TOP COP (CRLA urges Brown to do the honorable thing and withdraw from AG’s race.) Yesterday members of the California Republican Lawyers Association (CRLA) filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court requesting the court to enforce California Government Code section 12503 and established Supreme Court precedents to declare Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. ineligible to be California Attorney General. “Jerry Brown should do the honorable thing and withdraw from the race for Attorney General,” said Steve Baric CRLA Chairman. Baric added “Government Code section 12503 is clear no person shall be eligible for the office of the Attorney General unless he has been admitted to the California State Bar for the five years immediately prior his election.” All California attorneys must continue to fulfill their obligations to retain their admittance to practice law in California. An… Read More

Stories about Phil Angelides’ extreme micro-management leak out from time to time, and whenever they do, they really make you want to scratch your head. You want to say to yourself, "Who does that?"

I cannot miss the opportunity to share with you another vintage anecdotal story from the files of ‘Micromanager Phil’ — which was buried in a Los Angeles Times story today:

Governor Schwarzenegger stopped by the 2nd Assembly/4th Senate District with Senator Aanestad and myself on hand, as well as the City Council members of Colusa, 3 Colusa Supervisors, the Sheriff, andother local officials today to survey the progress on levee repairs. Back in April, he declared the emergency that set aside the usual red tape and years of surveys and studiesthat typically delay levee repairs and maintenance. Colusa County, along the Sacramento river about 50 miles northwest of Sacramento, contains 6 of the growing number [now at 103]of critical levee erosion sights that need immediate repair. This sight at Moon Bend [not known to be a hangout spotof your Democrat Attorney General nominee, JerryBrown] is nearing completion of its repairs, over 1/4 of a linear mile. [Here is local network television coverage… Read More

What is that sound? It is the sound of implosion.

There is no surer sign of a campaign that is in dire straights than when you start having to cancel your television media buys. With the extremely impacted general election, reserved television space is a much sought after commodity. The fact that the Cruz Bustamante for Insurance Commissioner campaign is now starting to ‘release’ rather than purchase huge chucks of time they had reserved on major stations around the state is terrible news for Bustamante and will only further depress any future ability to raise campaign funds. With just a little bit of ‘elbow grease’ research, the FlashReport can tell you that some of his media spot cancellations look like this: SACRAMENTO MARKET He’s cancelled ALL of his spots on KMAX, KOVR, KTXL, KXTV, and the week of 10/23 on KCRA.

SAN… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail (thanks John for the F/R ‘shout-out’):

California Goes Its Own Way

Washington D.C.’s conservative community is acting as if an invasion of barbarian liberals is at the city’s gates. But out in the nation, the picture is a bit more mixed. California conservatives aren’t depressed at all, despite their state’s reputation as a pure blue stronghold. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t a traditional conservative but his lengthy coattails may bring along some top-flight conservative candidates who are running for lesser statewide offices. Should State Senator Tom McClintock be elected lieutenant governor, for instance,… Read More

The crack investigative team at the FlashReport has uncovered documents (attached below for your perusal) showing that political upstart and congressional candidate, Terrance J. (“T.J.”) Cox, was sued for fraud in Texas before moving to California four years ago. Cox is the latest Democrat to challenge popular Republican Congressman George Radanovich in the Central Valley. However, unlike previous challengers, Cox has already lent his campaign more than $500,000. According to court records filed by Atkins Production Services, Inc. in Tarrant County, Texas, Cox “manipulated and cooked the books of his companies to fraudulently sell the businesses and fraudulently obtain an inflated price for the businesses.”

In addition to Cox, others named in the August 1, 2002 suit were T.J. Cox, Inc. and The Framing Solution, two companies owned by Cox while living in Texas. The suit was filed shortly after Cox moved to California and charged that Cox falsified records when he told the new owner his businesses were… Read More

Thanks to a heads-up with some stats courtesy of the Office of the Governor, we can compare some judicial appointment statistics based on party registration of the appointees:

Here are numbers on appointments for the past three years — of course the Governor served only part of 2004 and 2006 is not yet over. While there is still a long way to go for our Republican Governor, his 2006 GOP % of 61 beats 2005’s dismal 52% We’ll be hoping for even more GOP judges for 2007, but even under the watchful eye of Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy (former Executive Director of the California Democratic Party, Naral, Feinstein, blah blah) we are seeing an improvement!

2004 Republican – 2 (33.3%) Democrat – 2 (33.3%) DTS – 2… Read More