Like me, Karen Hanretty (who appeared on once, not twice not three times, but FOUR times this week on the FOX News Channel – way to go!) read a piece in the Los Angeles Times, Governer says Borders are Vulnerable, and got her hopes up. In the piece, the Governor says, "I think that all of this comes down to one thing: The federal government has failed the people of America in a terrible way, in a disastrous way, when it comes to this immigration situation."

Since the Governor has come out in support of a guest worker (read: amnesty) program to legitimize the residency of those who snuck/smuggled/crept/lied/broke the law to come into America, I am trying to figure out if the Governor thinks that the federal government has failed because all of these foreign nationals are here at all? Or does he mean that they have failed because they all should have been allowed to walk into this country ligitimately?

Where is the outrage and desire to deal with the lawbreakers? How can we be a country of laws if we advocate that we excuse citizens of… Read More

GOP Assemblyman Keith Richman wants to take on Democrat Attorney General Bill Lockyer for State Treasurer. Interesting, then, that on all of the bonds, he cast the same ‘aye’ votes that Lockyer would have cast. I thought I knew a lot of jargon, but Katie Levinson at the Schwarzenegger Campaign office has me beat. Do you know what it means to ‘run traps’? Now I do. Maybe we’ll need to ask her for a ‘jargon of the week’ column. Last week, I stood with Eric Roach outside of the big fancy doors to the now-vacant 50th Congressional District office on Capitol Hill. Eric didn’t walk into it on that trip. But I hope he walks into it in January. Speaking of Washington, D.C., Republican Congressman Richard Pombo gets a big TY for lining up White House Tour tix for my Aunt and Uncle. Their lame Democratic Congressman totally let them down. Pombo has a GOP challenger in June — who supporter Kerry for President. LOL. John Howard, the managing editor over … Read More

I was going to make this post a congratulations to Congressman John Campbell and Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa for joining the stable of FlashReport correspondents. Then, I realized. Before the addition of these two gentlemen to the FR ranks, Jon Fleischman’s 15 bloggers included only two elected legislative officials … Mike Spence and yours truly.

I hadn’t much thought about this prior, but of all the illustrious talent blog-posting on this site … names like Schnur and Whalen, Ross and Probolsky, the Professor and Maryanne … only two were held in such high esteem that we could be called HONORABLE. And, even though it was only two of us, no one was apparently clamoring for more "electeds" to post … were they? Mike and I were obviously more than adequate. Then, Jon goes off and "hires" two more.

Come on, what can a congressional representative and a state legislator add to the FlashReport that a councilmember and a school board member can’t? I mean, besides being one of only 435 and 80, in their respective houses, as representatives forthe most powerful nation in the world and arguably the… Read More

The FR got a hot tip that turned out to be very true.

I just got off of the phone with a staffer in the office of Democratic Assemblyman Juan Arambula (pictured) who confirmed that his boss has been told to pack his things — he is being moved to a new office, "5126", said the staffer. I asked him if he knew who occupied that office now, and he said, "Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee."

Have you been to Blakeslee’s office? It’s tiny.

Arambula last night had some very serious concerns about the Infrastructure Bond Package being forced through the legislature. (I hear there were issues surrounding unfairness to county governments, among other concerns). Anyways, he did not provide "aye" votes for ANY of the bond measures.

Sounds to me like the Speaker is punishing a member of his caucus for voting his conscience. I sure hope that all of his Democratic colleagues denounce this… Read More

The infrastructure bonds that the legislature put on the November ballot this morning will re-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. Already armed with advantages over either of his Democratic opponents on taxes, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, and Jessica’s Law, the presence of bonds providing money for road, school and levee construction gives Schwarzenegger an issues arsenal that will be almost impossible for either Steve Westly or Phil Angelides to defeat.

The two strongest arguments against Arnold’s re-election — the criticisms that took him down in last year’s special election — have been that he has accomplished very little in office and that he’s short-changed the state’s schools. Earlier this week, it was announced that the state would take in roughly $4 billion more in tax revenue than had been anticipated. It’s a virtual certainty that Schwarzenegger will use the majority of that money to repay money that the teachers’ unions have argued he owes K-12 education, leaving his Democratic opponent to argue that they would have increased school funding one year earlier than Arnold did.… Read More

EARTH TO SPEAKER HASTERT — WE HAVE A PROBLEM…IN THE 50TH CD.Today, House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert will be appearing in San Diego at a fundraising event for federal lobbyist and former Congressman Brian Bilbray. Bilbray, as you know narrowly (by 1%) won the GOP side of the special election to fill out the unexpired term of former-Congressman-now-convict Randy "Duke’ Cunningham. Hastert’s visit is motivated by one factor — he wants to keep this ‘safe GOP’ seat represented by a Republican. Well, here is something very important for the Speaker and other national Republican leaders to understanding. As a matter of fact, they need to really etch it into their brains:

BRIAN BILBRAY GOT SUCH A SMALL SLIVER OF THE TOTAL VOTES CASTS FOR REPUBLICANS, SOME OF THEM CROSS-OVER VOTES FROM DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. HE IS GOING TO HAVE A EXTRAORDINARILY TOUGH TIME RALLYING GOP… Read More

EARTH TO SPEAKER HASTERT — WE HAVE A PROBLEM…IN THE 50TH CD.Today, House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert will be appearing in San Diego at a fundraising event for federal lobbyist and former Congressman Brian Bilbray. Bilbray, as you know narrowly (by 1%) won the GOP side of the special election to fill out the unexpired term of former-Congressman-now-convict Randy "Duke’ Cunningham. Hastert’s visit is motivated by one factor — he wants to keep this ‘safe GOP’ seat represented by a Republican. Well, here is something very important for the Speaker and other national Republican leaders to understanding. As a matter of fact, they need to really etch it into their brains:

BRIAN BILBRAY GOT SUCH A SMALL SLIVER OF THE TOTAL VOTES CASTS FOR REPUBLICANS, SOME OF THEM CROSS-OVER VOTES FROM DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS. HE IS GOING TO HAVE A EXTRAORDINARILY TOUGH TIME RALLYING GOP… Read More

Gov. Schwarzenegger issued the following statement following this morning’s votes in the Legislature:

"Today is an important day for all of California. For the first time in a generation, we are making a real investment in our state’s future. "First, let me thank the legislative leaders for all of their efforts to make the Strategic Growth Plan a reality. In January, I proposed the Strategic Growth Plan during my State of the State address. Everybody said it couldn’t be done. Everybody said it was impossible to bring both parties together for such a historic undertaking. … Read More