In what will be great news for liberals far and wide, I will be leaving on vacation to Great Britain tomorrow morning to return just in time to celebrate America’s birthday on July 4th! The good news is that during my absence, the FlashReport will continue to bring you all of the latest and greatest news on California politics. Nicholas Romero, whom you have seen as a guest editor for this site has been promoted and is now the Managing Editor of the FlashReport. Nick will be editing the main page of the site for the next few weeks, as well as joining the FlashReport Weblog with his own observations and analysis. Congratulations, Nick! I am also pleased to announce that many of our regular contributors from the Weblog have agreed to step up and make sure that this Daily Commentary page updated each and every day, starting with our Central Valley Correspondent, Mike Der Manouel, Jr., who will be posting on this page tomorrow. I’ll still be monitoring my emails (somewhat… Read More

In what will be great news for liberals far and wide, I will be leaving on vacation to Great Britain tomorrow morning to return just in time to celebrate America’s birthday on July 4th! The good news is that during my absence, the FlashReport will continue to bring you all of the latest and greatest news on California politics. Nicholas Romero, whom you have seen as a guest editor for this site has been promoted and is now the Managing Editor of the FlashReport. Nick will be editing the main page of the site for the next few weeks, as well as joining the FlashReport Weblog with his own observations and analysis. Congratulations, Nick! I am also pleased to announce that many of our regular contributors from the Weblog have agreed to step up and make sure that this Daily Commentary page updated each and every day, starting with our Central Valley Correspondent, Mike Der Manouel, Jr., who will be posting on this page tomorrow. I’ll still be monitoring my emails (somewhat… Read More

Last week, when flying from Sacramento to Orange County on a SWA flight, I reported on the ‘notables’ on the flight.

Today’s flight has a different group of interesting characters, though no less notable. Flying with my fiance, Maureen, and me are… State Senator Chuck Poochigian, Assemblyman Chuck Devore, Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, State GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim, former GOP Chairman Mike Schroeder, Republican Insurance Commissioner Nominee Steve Poizner, and from the Governor’s campaign team – Julie Soderlund and a discovery, that the son of my friend Rich Galen (www.mullings.com), Robert, is working for the Governor’s campaign.

With all of these GOPers, I shouldn’t leave out our token Democrat “VIP” – Assemblyman Tom Umberg.

Somehow I don’t think Umberg is going where the rest of us are headed – the Orange County GOP’s big annual Flag Day dinner (with special guests Arnold Schwarzenegger and talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager, of whom I am a huge fan, and whom I am introducing).… Read More

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER ’06 STEVE POIZNER – A STRONG OPPORTUNITY FOR THE GOP Last election day, John Kraft received 617,443 votes. Who is John Kraft? No this isn’t a takeoff from my favorite Ayn Rand novel. John Kraft was a Democratic candidate for State Insurance Commissioner. Kraft received nearly a third of the votes for this office as a virtually unknown candidate who, according to the Secretary of State’s webpage, didn’t even raise the funds required to file a campaign report — which is like $1,000. Well, the real story behind Kraft is not who is he — but rather, who he is… Read More

With speculation swirling around a possible Arnold endorsement of Democrat Dianne Feinstein, Retired State Senator has decided to let the Governor know he is willing and ready to "….fight the liberal policies of Dianne Feinstein, Phil Angelides and others of the far left. "

The Governor should be embracing every nominee of the party. After all aren’t a "Big Tent"?

Read the Mountjoy letter below.… Read More

Long-time readers will recognize this as the third installment of my timetable for driving from here to there in California. Statewide race handlers take note! This trip started on a Friday around 10:10 in downtown San Diego, and ended up in downtown Sacramento around 5:50. To keep this series fresh, I have decided to also add temperature.

As mentioned me, my wife Valerie, and our 2 year old daughter Oncy (Ella) left downtown San Diego at 10:10am, driving north on the 5. It was a comfortable and overcast 68 degrees.

At 11:10 we drove through Irvine, jumping on the 405 for a change of pace. No traffic to speak of. 68 degrees. SAN DIEGO TO IRVINE 1 HOUR.

Around 12:10 we passed the Getty Museum. We did run into traffic around LAX, but nothing to cut your head off over. 75 degrees. IRVINE TO WEST LA 1 HOUR.

It was 1:30 by the time we got to Bakersfield via the 99 (the 5 may be a couple minutes faster, but it’s so boring I’d rather take the 99), and a dreadfully hot 95 degrees. We stopped for a bit to fill up the gas tank (heretofore we’d used half a tank), and to pick up some food at Carl’s Jr. Combined I estimate we… Read More

As most FR readers know, I am not one to post press releases sent to me verbatim. Usually the releases aren’t too notable, or if they are, the downside of printing a release is it seems to exponentially increase the number of press releases SPAMed to me. But that said, if anyone needed a reminder of exactly how much PHIL ANGELIDES LOVES TAX INCREASES, you have to take a read on this info (yes, courtesy of a Schwarzenegger Campaign press release). At least Angelides is consistent — he wants to raise taxes on everything and on everyone! Angelides Promises $10 Billion Tax Increase

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association: Angelides’ "Promises Would Necessitate Tax Increases Exceeding $10 Billion And Even That Figure Is Probably Low." "We have a real problem with the fact that Mr. Angelides’ promises… Read More

The makeup of the Assembly Republican Caucus, which has already been fairly conservative, will be taking a slight shift even more to the right after the new 11-member Freshman class is sworn in this December. Thanks to theatrocious ‘incumbent protection plan’ adopted by the legislature earlier in the decade, almost all of California’s 80 Assembly Districts are not competitive – drawn to either elect a Democrat (which is most of the districts) or a Republican. There are 32 members of the Assembly that are GOPers right now. And if we look at the Republicans who one the party nomination in the 11 seats where the incumbents either did not or could not run for re-election, it isn’t hard to see where I am coming from: Conservatives being replaced by conservatives – in these five districts, the ideology of the new nominee virtually mirrors that of the retiring legislator.