The Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democratic Club met last week to make endorsement in the mayor’s race and statewide primary races. According to the Oakland Tribune, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown could not get enough votes to capture the local Democratic club’s endorsement in his primary fight against Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. It boggles that mind that Brown, who should not only benefit from being the local homeboy, but also from the Bay Area’s anything-but-LA attitude, couldn’t get enough support to get an endorsement from a bunch of Bay Area Democrats.

It does not bode well for City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente that he came in third in the race for the club’s endorsement. Although members couldn’t agree on a mayoral candidate either, the top two vote getters were former… Read More

As I write at 10:45 a.m., SD County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price is announcing her endorsement of Alan Uke for the 50th C.D. seat. The U-T and North County Times are at the announcement, so the FlashReport is breaking the news here.

The Slater-Price endorsement is significant in that Pam was long rumored to be interested in the seat, and while leaving many guessing into February about her intentions, she would have been a major contender. She is very popular in her Sup district, which for the most part IS the 50th congressional. Contrary to rumors of Uke slowing his spending, this likely means he will spend big to tout Pam’s support of his candidacy.

Philosophically, Slater-Price is a GOP moderate and believes that it takes similar views to win the district. As I recall, she has called the area "Fiscally conservative, socially moderate, and environmentally liberal." Morrow, Kaloogian and Roach may not see it that way.

Whether this puts Uke in a position to compete with Bilbray’s more moderate record, or… Read More

It is being reported today by Fresno Bee editorial board member gail Marshall that in an interview that the Bee Ed Board conducted with Governor Schwarzenegger, he told them that he will not fire Rob Reiner as Chairman of the California Children and Families Commission. Marshall, in her blog post, says that: "Schwarzenegger said there is only an "appearance" of a problem with Reiner, and he sees no reason to remove him at this point. The governor said it isn’t right to dump Reiner without evidence of wrongdoing."

First and foremost, this is bad news. Bad because the reason to appoint a new Chairman of the Commission (remember, Reiner’s term of four-years to which he was appointed by Gray Davis has long expired) is because there should be someone in charge of this Commission who shares the Governor’s vision and philosophy. Specifically, Reiner has decided to go ahead and put a massive tax increase measure on the upcoming ballot. Reiner has made himself the issue by being such an outspoken, partisan… Read More

This writer is bearish on the Governor’s chances this November and I have written extensively about his struggles. In today’s Fresno Bee I made some commentsabout why our GOP base is depressed. Its quite simple, and not entirely Arnold’s fault.

First, the federal budget deficit and immigration reform are not being addressed. Bush and Congress have created this mess and are failing, while in the majority, to tackle other problems. This negatively impacts the passions of Republican voters in California – and hurts Arnold.

Second, Arnold has allowed State spending to careen only marginally less out of control than under Gray Davis. He has lost his moral authority as a fiscal conservative and doesn’t appear to care. We understand that he would never run his companies this way, yet he runs the Government with structural deficits. Where is the business acumen?

Third, the base doesn’t like borrowing and spending and this is the centerpiece of Arnold’s program. We view borrowing and… Read More

Every now and then, one of my readers asks me how I manage my time. How do I do all of the things that are required to get the FlashReport up and running each day, and also work at a full time job? (For those readers who have not tuned up by biography page, I work as a Public Information Officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.)

This seems like as good a time as any to tell you about how it all works. First and foremost, it simply wouldn’t be possible to do the FR each day if it were not for the fine website development team at Cloudspace, the firm that helped me to "stand-up" this website.

There are really two aspects to updating the FR. The first happens each and every morning. I am up at the wee hours (well, 5:45ish or so) and that is when I sift through over 60 webpages looking for relevant items on California politics. As I do this, thanks to the innovative software designed by Cloudspace,… Read More

Every now and then, one of my readers asks me how I manage my time. How do I do all of the things that are required to get the FlashReport up and running each day, and also work at a full time job? (For those readers who have not tuned up by biography page, I work as a Public Information Officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.)

This seems like as good a time as any to tell you about how it all works. First and foremost, it simply wouldn’t be possible to do the FR each day if it were not for the fine website development team at Cloudspace, the firm that helped me to "stand-up" this website.

There are really two aspects to updating the FR. The first happens each and every morning. I am up at the wee hours (well, 5:45ish or so) and that is when I sift through over 60 webpages looking for relevant items on California politics. As I do this, thanks to the innovative software designed by Cloudspace,… Read More

In Los Angeles, many newspaper weeklies have great stories about issues and candidates. While many take a leftist slant, they can be insightful and useful. LA’s City Beat has an article about the four challengers that filed against Sheriff Lee Baca. See article here. Some of the insights on Baca’s problems are discussed well. Again the real question is will there be enough money to bring Baca down? See my previous posts on this race here.… Read More

Today I encourage you to take a few minutes and read the columns of both of today’s Golden Pen award winning pieces — both from veteran political columnists at the Sacramento Bee. Dan Walters pens a piece where he compares the political challenges that face Arnold Schwarzenegger today with those that faces former Governor Pete Wilson back in 1994 when he was running for re-election, facing daunting poll numbers. Wilson was able to flip things around by taking a bold stand with the California electorate on the immigration issue. Walters theorizes that the ability is there for Governor Schwarzenegger to do the same. Walters’ colleague, Dan Weintraub (pictured), formalizes his thoughts, looking back on the attempt by the Governor to put together a massive bond package. He correctly points out the major flaw — which is that the Democrats in the legislature will work to… Read More