The important California Republican Assembly endorsement went to Cypress Councilman Mike McGill running for the 67th Assembly District against Supervisor Jim Silva and legislator’s wife Diane Harman. Also endorsed was Jim Righeimer, GOP donor/businessman running for the 68th Assembly Distinct against Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen.

The Righeimer endorsement was no surprise. He is a long time conservative activist who has strong support in the grassroots.

McGill’s endorsement is shocking. He is a good guy, but no movement conservative.

The CRA endorsement is a huge boost to Righeimer who’s opponent Nguyen just claimed the Cal Chamber endorsement today.… Read More

The convention this weekend continued the ongoing GOP dialogue about our governor and our party. Going into the convention, Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign announced that Mindy Fletcher Tucker, the governor’s deputy chief of staff for external affairs, was joining the organization as deputy campaign manager. The campaign is shaping up to be a great GOP organization.

But, in truth, I’d be happier with a boatload of Democrat staffers running the campaign, getting him re-elected, and then have our folks in the governor’s office, shaping policy, keeping the civil servants in line and negotiating with the legislature, instead of the other way around.

With the ongoing exodus of Republicans from the Horseshoe, my issue with Schwarzenegger is not what the campaign will do to keep my vote (all… Read More

As I begin to write about the California Republican Party Convention that I attended this weekend at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, I should start out by saying that as the week goes by, I (along with many other FR weblog contributors who attended the convention) will be following this piece with other thoughts, observations, stories and vignettes on things that happened in the hallways, backrooms, and hospitality suites at the convention. Of course, the highlight of our review of the CRP convention will come late in the week when the FlashReport releases our latest version of the Winners & Losers of the CRP convention. For the last ten convention (going back five years), the W&L edition of the FR has looked back over the weekend, from just about every imaginable angle, and tried to figure out how people fared, from topics as varied as political elections to personal attire. We really encourage input as we figure this all out, as the FR and our team couldn’t be everywhere, so please submit your ideas here. My first… Read More

From Senator Chuck Poochigian’s office:

Poochigian Requests Attorney General Investigation into Use of Taxpayer Funds for “Preschool for All” Campaign

SACRAMENTO – Senator Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno) has requested a formal Attorney General investigation into whether taxpayer funds were illegally used to influence signature gathering efforts and build support for the Proposition 82 “Preschool for All” campaign. Below is a statement from Senator Poochigian on his request, followed by the text of the letter sent to Attorney General Bill Lockyer on February 24, 2006:

“There have been calls for audits to connect the paper trail about the process in which taxpayer money was spent on the ‘First 5 California’ and… Read More

Arnold’s Conservative Understudy

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger walked into a potential lion’s den over the weekend when he spoke at the California Republican Party convention in San Jose. The typically conservative delegates aren’t fans of his plans to borrow a massive $222 billion for infrastructure projects without first reforming contracting rules that dramatically boost construction costs. His plan to raise California’s minimum wage has also fallen flat with conservatives.

But the Governator nonetheless picked up some ground simply by showing up and making a strong pitch that the party should be united for the fall elections. He reminded delegates that he has held the line on taxes and vetoed many bills passed by the Democratic legislature. His efforts were aided by a new alliance with State Senator Tom McClintock, a hard-shell… Read More

I’m posting this from my Blackberry, so pardon any formatting issues. But I have had a few people today tell me that a good friend of the FlashReport, Bill Christiansen, is coming onboard in the coming days at the Director of the coordinated State GOP Victory ’06 program. This is an important position as Bill will have the primary responsibility of working with all of the players involved in this cycle’s elections — The Governor’s campaign, the downticket candidate campaigns, any party-endorsed ballot measure campaigns, Senate and Assembly GOP campaigns, the RNC, NRSC, NRCC and all of the GOP infrastructure (State Party, County Committees, Vol Orgs,etc) – and getting everyone marching in the same direction. A Herculean task to be sure, but Bill will have a lot of help.

Bill brings to the table a lot of relevant experience to help him — most notably his two most recent political jobs — he is fresh off of a multi-year stint as Executive Director of the Arizona State Republican Party, and before that he was Executive Director of the Orange County GOP for the better part of a decade.

Bill brings… Read More

These days, central Orange County is a hotbed of political activity. The nucleus of the craziness is the bigger-than-life double-contested-primary race to see who will succeed State Senator Joe Dunn (D-Lives out of the district) in the 34th State Senate District. One of the candidates in the contested GOP primary for that seat is Assemblyman Van Tran. Tran’s Senate candidacy sets the stage for a GOP primary in his 68th Assembly District seat, which he has represented for only one term.

As has been mentioned on the FR before, there are two candidates running in this Republican primary (in the 68th, Democrats need not apply). One is long-time GOP activist and donor Jim Righeimer. The other is Janet Nguyen, who is a member of the Garden Grove City Council, and works as an executive with the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.… Read More

The FlashReport has learned tonight from Assemblyman Van Tran that he has decided NOT to run for the State Senate in the 34th State Senate District. Instead, he will sit out the Senate race, and seek re-election to the 68th Assembly Seat he has occupied since 2004.

Tran said that his decision was not based on his ability to defeat his primary opponent in the race, Lynn Daucher. Rather, he felt that coming out of a bruising primary would make it virtually impossible to beat the eventual Democratic nominee, especially with his feeling that there was a lack of unity from certain critical fellow Republican leaders.

There is still a primary match-up though for Daucher, with the opponent being long-time Santa Ana Republican activist Lupe Moreno. But clearly she will not be as formidable a challenger to the well-funded Daucher as Tran would have been. The most immediate ripple-effect here is that Tran will now seek reelection in the 68th district where a GOP donnybrook was in full… Read More