"Two Elections, One Conservative Choice." This is the big print on the first piece of political mail that will hit the mailboxes of Republican voters in the 50th Congressional District in the campaign of conservative businessman Bill Hauf, who will today announce his official ‘entry’ into the race for the regular June primary for this heavily GOP Congressional District occupied until late last year by former Congressman/now-convict Duke Cunningham. You can check out the mail piece by clicking the link to it at the bottom of this column. In April, a host of GOP candidates duked it out in the Special Election ‘primary’ and former Congressman now Federal lobbyist Brian Bilbray, with about 15% of the GOP vote in that dust-up, earned the honors to go up against Democrat Francine Busby in June. But this special election run-off is on the same ballot as the regular primary, where all of the GOP candidates who appeared on the special election ballot last month once-again appear. Bill Hauf, who had a poor showing in that April election (less than 2%) has decided to run in the regular primary. Hauf… Read More

“I have decided to mount an aggressive campaign for the Republican nomination to save this seat for the Republican majority in Congress. I will campaign seven days a week between now and June 6th and spend whatever it takes to prevail in next month’s Republican primary,” Bill Hauf said.

“Brian Bilbray, my opponent in the June 6th primary, has achieved what no one thought possible. He has single-handedly taken a safe Republican congressional seat in North County and placed it in jeopardy and, according to one recent poll, he now trails Democrat Francine Busby by 5%,” Hauf added. “Brian Bilbray has come up from his lifelong home in South County with a liberal agenda that has… Read More

Last week, near the East steps at the Capitol, when my Calaveras Legislative Frog Jump contestant, Bury Bonds, lurched hard left from the starting pad I was hoping it would not be indicative of the rest of the week, [nor Bury’s leftward lurch further indicative of this Capitol in November] Bury finished mid pack, without any performance enhancements. Last year was about 3rd.Hmm.

Alas, my eminent domain reform bill, ACA 22 was up in Assembly Housing and Communal, er, Community Development and after impassioned testimony by witnesses having had property bulldozed already or threatened to do so, the committee voted party line with 2 Reps supporting limiting eminent domain to true public uses and 2 Dems opposing…plus 3 Dems abstaining. Maybe if the committee members were present during testimony, they would’ve been swayed a bit. Well, OK, they wouldn’t.

This whole reform has been ignored for most of a year by this legislative body. Senator McClintockintroduced twobills on the Senate side,… Read More

Sunday, the Union-Tribune effectively ended the campaign of candidate Scott Packard in San Diego’s 74th Assembly District GOP Primary. Until fairly recently, Scott (son of former Congressman Ron Packard) was a Nevada contractor. Turns out Scott got his contractor’s license revoked in Nevada because he was found guilty serious ethical and financial violations. And he didn’t pay the fines, or a $100,000+ lawsuit judgment from one of his clients that successfully sued him. Then the Union Tribune pointed out that Scott now works for a local construction company (you guessed it) without a California contractor’s license. A representative of State of California was quoted as saying “it doesn’t sound good” that they will grant him a license after his antics in Nevada. Spiraling…

The majority of Scott’s endorsement’s are local city mayors (Carlsbad Mayor Lewis, Encinitas Mayor Guerin, Oceanside Mayor Wood, San Marcos Mayor Smith, and Vista Mayor Vance). This morning, there has been much speculation on whether or not they were made aware of Scott’s history before they endorsed, and when they will start jumping… Read More

In the upcoming special election in the 50th Congressional District, conservatives must come out to the polls and vote for Brian Bilbray. Why is this, you ask? Bilbray has an iffy-record on holding the line on Congressional spending, he supports abortion rights, opposes traditional family values, earned himself a flunking grade from the National Rifle Association, and proudly is endorsed from a lot of the folks in Washington who are a part of our spending nightmare in Congress (Bilbray’s press release touting the endorsement of House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, famously dubbed the ‘King of Pork’ was an ominous foreshadowing of where Bilbray will fall in the ‘order of things’ in the House Republican Conference). The reason for electing Bilbray, which is our reason for defeating Francine Busby (a flaming lefty), is to maintain a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. I don’t have to paint to big of a picture for you — just… Read More

Here is a column I wrote for this week’s issue of the OC Metro. I will have more thoughts for you on the subject of immigration after the President’s speech on Monday night. Enjoy:

Immigration Solution Broad agreement on basic tenets can point the way forward

As I write this, Congress has not yet been able to come to agreement on an immigration bill. I suspect that that will still be the case by the time you read this. This is a difficult issue to agree on because of the volatility and emotion surrounding it lately.

Our TV screens have been filled with lots of images of the extremes on the issue of illegal immigration. On one side are those who would have no border controls and allow anyone to come here and claim all the rights of citizenship on whatever basis they choose (including terrorists). On the other side are some people who are against all immigration, legal or otherwise.

Once we reject those ideas from the fringes, I think there are a few tenets of the immigration issue that can be embraced by the vast majority of rational-thinking individuals in the middle. These tenets are not a complete solution. But they are a guide… Read More

In the upcoming special election in the 50th Congressional District, conservatives must come out to the polls and vote for Brian Bilbray. Why is this, you ask? Bilbray has an iffy-record on holding the line on Congressional spending, he supports abortion rights, opposes traditional family values, earned himself a flunking grade from the National Rifle Association, and proudly is endorsed from a lot of the folks in Washington who are a part of our spending nightmare in Congress (Bilbray’s press release touting the endorsement of House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, famously dubbed the ‘King of Pork’ was an ominous foreshadowing of where Bilbray will fall in the ‘order of things’ in the House Republican Conference). The reason for electing Bilbray, which is our reason for defeating Francine Busby (a flaming lefty), is to maintain a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. I don’t have to paint to big of a picture for you — just… Read More

A hearty congratulations from everyone here at Team FlashReport goes out to our friend Assemblyman Mike Villines of Fresno. Last week, Villines was tapped by Assembly Republicans (and their leader, George Plescia) to head up their elections and political efforts going into the fall elections. Villines, a strong conservative, is considered by many to be a rising star among Republican legislators in Sacramento because of his political acumen. Clearly this must be a sentiment shared by his colleagues as he has been tapped with a very important post. We’ll try to find out who will be serving on this important committee with Villines. In the meantime, I caught up to Mike this morning while he was driving across the Fresno County/Madera County line (I kid you not, on his way to a "Flatlanders Parade" — pretty funny). I spoke with him about his new role, and he is pretty excited about it.

"I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves, and working with my colleagues to… Read More