Let me give a hearty shout-out to the OC Blog for alerting me to this great column, penned by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, that appears on the Orange County GOP website. When I read it, I thought to myself, perhaps if this column were read here on the FlashReport by our readers, it would resonate with many, and make it clear to many others that Congressman Rohrabacher speaks for many, many of us who are outraged at the idea that millions of people who snuck/crept/smuggled/lied their way into America would be legitimized through amnesty*.

The Congressman’s article is entitled Turn Off the Faucet First, and begins like this:

If a bathtub is overflowing and water is spilling onto the floor, the first thing most rational people would do is turn off the faucet, remove the sink stopper and let the water drain. Then the clean up… Read More

Your GOP Primary opponent is an incumbent, who just got done crossing the state to qualify the popular Jesica’s Law initiative. The initiative will crack down on sex offenders.

Q.What do you do?

A. Hold a press conference attacking her on the issue of sex offenders.

That is exactly what happened in the 36th Assembly District race between Jessica Law co-author Sharon Runner and Palmdale Mayor James Ledford.

Next Garamendi will attack McClintock for being weak on taxes or Feinstein will hit Mountjoy on illegal immigration. That sound you hear is Ledford’s campaign going over like a led ballon. No GPS trackernecessay to see where this is going.

See the article here.… Read More

In one of the best political developments of the last 10 years, Republican fiscal "moderates" in Pennsylvania had their asses handed to them in the primary elections yesterday. You can read about it here, but the moral of the story is – conservatives will come out and defeat big spending Republicansin primaries. And as I have penned before, this is exactly what must happen to drive change in the GOP. With the immigration disaster looming, and federal spending at an all time high, conservatives sent moderates a big message last night – everyone needs to get their act together orits over. All you guys that voted for those big bonds ought to take notice too. As long as we keep spending literally all of the surplus and failing to deal with structural State deficits, you are all vulnerable too.… Read More

In California Political Review Online, Bill Saracino (an author always worth reading) looks at two hotly contested GOP primaries, posting an outstanding piece, "The Goldwater dictum," and asks the questions that only June 6 will answer….

Saracino reminds us of Senator Barry Goldwater, withdrawing his name from nomination at the 1960 Republican National Convention: “Let’s grow up conservatives. We want to take this Party back, and I think someday we can. Let’s get to work."Saracino continues:

Conservative political acumen will be tested in two Assembly Primaries June 6: those in the 59th and 77th A.D.s. Do conservatives have their act together? Or will they continue to allow internecine warfare to elect liberals in solidly conservative districts? These elections will tell.

I’ll let someone else weigh in on the 59th, if Saracino’s piece… Read More

Yesterday, the Senate rejected a very reasonable amendment by Senator Isakson (R-Ga.) to their immigration bill by a vote of 55-40. The amendment would simply have postponed implementation of any guest worker program until the federal government certifies that the borders are secure. This seems to endorse the idea of a guest worker program that is unenforceable which means it will only lead to more illegal immigration. The defeat of this amendment ensures that any bill coming out of the Senate is likely to be very flawed.

On the positive side, it appears that we in the House may pass a reasonble budget today. It is not as good as the RSC budget but at least it moves things in the right direction by increasing spending less than the growth in population and inflation. It will also eliminate a number of federal programs.… Read More

Throughout the day, I have had the opportunity to talk to many of the other supporters of the House version of the immigration bill. Despite the President’s speech and the additional activity on the Senate side, I have yet to run into anyone who is changing their position. If anything most members are becoming more resolved in their support of the House’s enforcement only bill. If the Senate goes in the direction it looks like they are going, there will be a big gulf between the two houses. The House is where the people are.… Read More

In the 74th Assembly District Primary race between Garrick (Coronado Communications), Waldron (GilliardBlanningWysocki), and Packard (self) a ‘strategy’ memorandum from Waldron’s campaign consultants, obviously unintentionally made public, has been circulating over the past week. The contents clearly demonstrate exactly why every political consultant cringes at the thought of their honest strategic and tactical thoughts being made public.

The memorandum details the results of what must have been rather disheartening Waldron polling. “We have our work cut out for us” the memo states in the first paragraph. Generally, this is not the kind of encouragement a candidate who is considering sinking 100k of their own money into a race likes to hear.

It then goes on to describe in agonizing detail that Waldron’s Escondido base, where she has been a councilwoman for a fair number of years, is not a base after all. In fact Waldron’s positives in Escondido, the only place she currently has significant name identification, are 16.2%. Not bad until you read further and see Waldron’s negatives are 21.6%. In her hometown. The… Read More

I’ve known Shawn and Michelle Steel since 1988. Both have been kind any generous to me over the years. In fact, Shawn played a key role as a mentor and a role-model for me back in my college days when I was an activist and a leader in Young Americans for Freedom, Shawn having served as State Co-Chairman of Cal-YAF with Dana Rohrabacher back in the day. This year, Michelle is running for the State Board of Equalization. She would make a fine board-member. Ironically (and inconveniently for many people, including myself) another strong conservative, Ray Haynes, is also running in the same race for BOE. I’ve known Ray since 1990 and also consider him a close friend. Ray has been in the legislature for many years, and has been a consistent voice of sanity in the liberal chaos that dominates the State Capitol.

I penned an early analysis of this Haynes/Steel donnybrook back in August of last year, and in that… Read More