The 67th Assembly District campaign has been pretty sleepy with OC Supervisor Jim Silva as the presumed winner. Diane Harman (wife of sitting Assemblyman Tom Harman) is also in the race as is Cypress city councilman Mike McGill.

The OC Blog reports that McGill was the strongest fund raiser this period. This is a big surprise since Silva is a sitting county supervisor with the ability to raise BIG money, but apparently hasn’t.

Silva does have more than double the cash on hand of either one of his opponents.

Silva has excellent name ID having served on the city council in Huntington Beach (the largest city in the District) and now on the Board of Supervisors for more than 10 years. Diane Harman has never stood for office and I have never seen her at anything GOP in Orange County, she is trading largely on her husbands name. McGill has been on the Cypress council since 1998. He gained some notoriety for voting with the majority to, well I will let Steve Greenhut of the OC Register explain:

(from back in June 2002) On Tuesday night, in a… Read More

Yesterday morning, in the State Capitol, Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured) approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, furiously waving a printout of the Assemblyman column which was featured yesterday in the FlashReport…he uttered profanities at Spitzer, telling him he had gone to far. The issue brought to the fore in Spitzer’s column was that the Democratic majority on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, hand picked by Speaker Nunez, is "pro-criminal" – regularly voting down common-sense tough-on-crime measures on a party-line vote. Of course, the Speaker has stacked this committee with some of the most left-wing members of his caucus! This confrontation was a precurser to the Assembly floor session later where the lower house of the legislature was debating the passage of a crime bill package (Assembly Bill 50) that represented a significant watering down of the tough-on-crime elements introduced as… Read More

Yesterday morning, in the State Capitol, Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured) approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, furiously waving a printout of the Assemblyman column which was featured yesterday in the FlashReport…he uttered profanities at Spitzer, telling him he had gone to far. The issue brought to the fore in Spitzer’s column was that the Democratic majority on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, hand picked by Speaker Nunez, is "pro-criminal" – regularly voting down common-sense tough-on-crime measures on a party-line vote. Of course, the Speaker has stacked this committee with some of the most left-wing members of his caucus! This confrontation was a precurser to the Assembly floor session later where the lower house of the legislature was debating the passage of a crime bill package (Assembly Bill 50) that represented a significant watering down of the tough-on-crime elements introduced as… Read More

I had been meaning to draw the attention of FlashReport readers to a post by FR friend Matt Rexroad over at the Cal-Races website. I thought it an interesting analysis couched in terms of Congressman Richard Pombo’s re-election challenge, but is really Matt’s assessment that those on the right who are attacking the Governor for his recent shift from a "Live Within Our Means" theme to a "Bond it, build it" theme.

Matt’s post begins like this:

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BATTLE GOES LOCAL Just about anyone you talk to agrees that the federal government is not dealing adequately with the huge illegal immigration problem facing our country. The proportions of the problem and its impact are profound. Probably one of the most challenging aspects of the immigration problem with which to deal is the fact that millions upon millions of undocumented aliens are living within America now, and it is dealing with that part of the illegal immigration dilemma that is the most controversial of all issues surrounding this debate. Second to that would be border control issues. I was intrigued to read that a local city councilman from Santa Clarita (home of Magic Mountain, in northern Los Angeles County) has proposed that local governments get more proactive in discouraging illegal immigration by making it harder for undocumented aliens to get work. Some of his proposals include… Read More

Disclosures are rolling out for Assembly races. This is a fast over-view of San Diego hot spots, more to come…

In the 77th (LaSuer) Nurse/Businesswoman Beecham (Coronado Communications Client) brought in 134k in the last period and has 133k on hand. Much of Beecham’s fundraising was in the form of a loan, but she has the capability of partially self-funding. Businessman/activist Anderson (Nygren) brought in 44k and has 116k on hand. Anderson’s disclosures were notable for the sheer number of medium and small doners, many activist types. City Councilman Dale (Wainio) brught in 57k and has 91k on hand. Dale spent quite a bit this last go round on overhead. Beyer’s (Justin) on line file has not updated yet… I’ll update when they are in.

In the 74th (Wyland) Businessman Garrick (Coronado Communications Client) raised 213k this period and ended with 348 cash on hand. City Councilwoman Waldron (Gilliard) raised 47k this period and ended with 188k on hand, less on hand than on the less disclosure because of somewhat heavy overhead spending. More than half of the Garrick money is his own, both in the form of a loan and outright… Read More

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BATTLE GOES LOCAL Just about anyone you talk to agrees that the federal government is not dealing adequately with the huge illegal immigration problem facing our country. The proportions of the problem and its impact are profound. Probably one of the most challenging aspects of the immigration problem with which to deal is the fact that millions upon millions of undocumented aliens are living within America now, and it is dealing with that part of the illegal immigration dilemma that is the most controversial of all issues surrounding this debate. Second to that would be border control issues. I was intrigued to read that a local city councilman from Santa Clarita (home of Magic Mountain, in northern Los Angeles County) has proposed that local governments get more proactive in discouraging illegal immigration by making it harder for undocumented aliens to get work. Some of his proposals include… Read More

There they were. My guys. Congressmen George Radanovich and Devin Nunes. Our Central Valley dream team. On TV, State of the Union. The President has just said this: “We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy – even though this economy could not function without them”, and my two Congressmen were on their feet, standing and clapping.

Don’t get me wrong. I love these guys. You’ll see my name on their FEC reports. But I realized at that moment how badly big ag is beating them up. I mean, I’ve not ever heard any complaint about immigrants. So I don’t know what the heck the President was talking about. But illegal immigrants are a different story. The GOP base as well as the rest of America have a legitimate complaint about this issue, for reasons of Homeland Security alone. And what the farmers really don’t want to happen is the flow of illegal immigrants to stop because labor shortages are MURDER right now in the ag industry. So, George and Devin, if the issue is illegal, not legal, immigration, exactly what were you clapping about anyway?… Read More