Insurance Commissioner Candidate Steve Poizner is up in the Central Valley with his new ad, "If you Cruz, You Lose". It is one of the best ads running out there right now. You can take a look at it here.

Cruz Bustamante is a nice person, but he has no business running for Insurance Commissioner. This is a race to watch, and I have not a doubt that Poizer will run a competitive race here.… Read More

Liberal Democrat Tom Umberg (pictured to the right) is soon to be a retired member of the State Assembly, as his bid to move up to the State Senate was dealt a fatal blow when he did not capture his own Party’s nomination. That said, Tom Umberg is hoping that his legacy as a legislator will be defined by a piece of legislation that he has passed onto the Governor’s desk (with only one GOP vote) that would, if signed, cause California to participate in a scheme to end-run the United States Constitution, and the electoral college that is used to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Right now, on a state by state basis, depending on who wins a state, each state (by and large in proportion to their population) sends Presidential electors to Washington, D.C. to cast votes on behalf of that state in the Electoral College. We see the physical manifestation of this when we are glued to the television or our computers where we see not only which states go red or… Read More

In case you need a reminder that the main stream Democrat establishment is intent on electing Phil Angelides to be Governor of Claifornia, here is your opportunity. A friend of mine (h/t to DS) is actually on the John Kerry e-mail list.

Come November, Phil Angelides can become a member of the John Kerry LOSERS club. LOL.… Read More

Right now, there is a discussion taking place in the echelons of the California Republican Party about whether the party’s direct mail and e-mail communications will include the Party’s positions on the various statewide ballot measures. This seems like a common sense thing to do. After all, everyone knows which candidates the party supports since they have their party affiliation next to their names — but the ballot measures are not given a partisan label. To help make it more clear, here is an example of a box that can and should appear on every piece of direct mail from the party, whether the party is mailing on behalf of the Governor and the ticket, legislative races, or any particular measure…

The CRP Board of Directors will meet tomorrow — and I think that they should make the inclusion of this chart a requirement for use of the party for sending out postal mail and e-mail. Understand, I don’t agree with all of the party’s adopted positions — but they are the… Read More

We’ll be devoting a LOT of space in the FlashReport between now and election day on why the big bond measures on the November ballot should be rejected by voters.

Yesterday, two important organizations, the Reason Foundation and the Performance Institute, held a major press event to talk about why these bond measures are flawed. You can read plenty on why by going here.

Here is an AP article that ran after the Reason/PI press event:

You will no longer hear about the wild recall election in Rosemead. After spending over 200K Wal-Mart suceesfully helped Gary Taylor and Jay Imperial retain their seats. See story here.It has to be demoralizing to supporters of the recall to see the Wal-Mart open the week before the election. See previous post with links to all the others here.… Read More

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown’s criticism that Sen. Chuck Poochigian is a “career politician” is laughable. When has Jerry Brown ever had a REAL job? He’s either been on the government payroll, running for office, on radio talking about government or giving speeches talking about government. The man has never gone to a business office or punched a time clock. Brown may think he knows what it is like for regular folk trying to live and work in California, but he doesn’t. He’s never had to find child care, look for the right school, talk to a child about being safe in the world or worry about their safety when they go off to college. Poochigian has raised a family in our state and understands why public safety isn’t just public policy—it’s real life to those of us trying to keep our families safe. Poochigian worked in the real… Read More

Today’s report that the unions are gearing up to spend/waste $25 million for Angelides is the best news this Republican has heard in a while.

That the unions were going to spend big was never really in question.

The question before today was where it was going to be spent.

As Jon says on the front page, $100 million might not elect Phil, so spending $25 million is really justthrowing good money after bad.

But, for Republicans – and especially conservatives – this is great news.

Had that money not gone to Angelides, it (or someamount probably nearly as large) would’ve likely gone to some combination of John Garamendi, John Chiang, and Cruz Bustamante (Debra Bowen wouldn’t have been helped much, as some of these unions have endorsed McPherson).

Dropping, say, $8 million each against McClintock, Strickland, and Poizner, each of these candidates could’ve been in real trouble.

I’m sure the unions wouldargue that a rising time raises all ships, and that helping Angelides close… Read More