In the first California election of 2006, reform Republican Kevin Faulconer (disclaimer – Coronado Communications client) appears to have defeated the labor council’s Lorena Gonzalez 50.99% to 49.01% (14,050 to 13,506) in the race for San Diego’s 2nd City Council seat. There are 2,500 remaining absentee votes to be counted – mostly absentees. If the numbers hold, this was a huge upset that quite literally will alter the direction of the seventh largest city in America.

This victory gives Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders the leverage he needs to pass his City Hall reform agenda. There are now three Republicans on the city council, one conservative Democrat (who is Council President), one populist ("surfer chick" Donna Frye who recently lost the Mayoral race) and three machine Democrats. Better, Frye actually lost her own 6th Council seat to Sanders in the Mayoral race, which indicates she may be interested in jumping on the reform team in order to avoid the serious challenge that… Read More

TIME TO BUY STOCK IN JUSTIN COMPANY! Congratulations go out to FlashReport Sacramento Correspondent Joe Justin. For those who didn’t realize that in addition to writing for this site, Joe actually does other work…Joe is recognized as one of California’s most accomplished political campaign professionals. His resume is long, and his successes around the country are many. It was announced yesterday in a caucus of Assembly Republicans that Joe has been tapped by Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to be the lead political consultant overseeing efforts to pick up GOP seats in the lower house in this year’s elections! This is a great pick! Now whether even ‘Mighty Joe’ can impact the iron-clad districts of the infamous "Incumbent Protection" reapportionment plan we have in place in this state…?? … Read More

TIME TO BUY STOCK IN JUSTIN COMPANY! Congratulations go out to FlashReport Sacramento Correspondent Joe Justin. For those who didn’t realize that in addition to writing for this site, Joe actually does other work…Joe is recognized as one of California’s most accomplished political campaign professionals. His resume is long, and his successes around the country are many. It was announced yesterday in a caucus of Assembly Republicans that Joe has been tapped by Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to be the lead political consultant overseeing efforts to pick up GOP seats in the lower house in this year’s elections! This is a great pick! Now whether even ‘Mighty Joe’ can impact the iron-clad districts of the infamous "Incumbent Protection" reapportionment plan we have in place in this state…?? … Read More

Today I received a PowerPoint presentation from my friend Roman Buhler. Roman and I have known each other for decades, usually on separate sides of primaries or party battles where the conservative movement is backing a candidate for public or party office, and Roman is working with the Bill Thomas machine to elect people to office who meet one of two criteria: have undying loyalty to Bill Thomas, or are devoid of the passion of conservative beliefs that gets in the way of Thomas’ Jedi Mind Tricks. Anyways, I often say that like a broken clock shows the right time twice a day, even Bill and Roman can get something right (if by accident). They are 100% right on the need to take redistricting away from the legislators. I guess the idea is that the voters should choose their elected officials, and not the other way around. Roman and I have developed a mutual respect for one another through our mutual passion for politics. Back to the PowerPoint.… Read More

This is a rare year for turnover in Fresno County elections. In our neck of the woods, those elected countywide don’t ever lose o it can get quite boring around here at times in local politics. But over the last two local election cycles most of the county administrative offices have turned over after retirements by long term officeholders. This year presents two major announcements. First, Sheriff Richard Pierce if retiring after serving two terms. He followed longtime Sheriff Steve Magarian, who was Sheriff for over a decade. Announced candidates thus far are few, but a well known Clovis City Councilman and former Mayor, Jose Flores, has announced his intention to succeed Pierce. Councilman Flores is also a captain in the Sheriff’s department and appears to be the early frontrunner. If elected, he would become one of the only Hispanic countywide officeholders in Fresno County history. And, yes, he is a recent convert to Republicanism.

The next major retirement announcement came from longtime County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Pete Mehas. A lifelong Republican, he has an educational and political resume too voluminous to reprint here.… Read More

Probably the most telling comment of the budget announcement yesterday was when the governor made the joke about his motorcycle accident. It answered a nagging question in my mind: How much was pillow talk directing state policy? The answer is one I was fairly certain of: a lot.

In case you missed it, the governor’s joke was (as reported by the Sac Bee): "A car pulled out in front of me … I just couldn’t make a decision which way to go.… Read More

Pomona is one of the largest cities in Los Angeles County. It seems to always be in the Democratic column come election time. However, the Mayor’s office has been held by Republicans most recently Eddie Cortez. He passed away last year and a special election was held to replace him.Three Republican council members jumped in.

All of them were beat by the heavily union backed Norma Torres.We are talking more mail and IE’s for Norma than the other candidates combined. One Rep councilman, George Hunter who came in second was supported by the Pomonapolice unions.

She won by about250 votes, according to the City Clerk employee I just talked to. Results MAY be posted on the web by now at the city web site.Memo to city officials—get your act together and post election results on the web!

On interesting thing is that former Pomona City Councilwoman and State Senator publicly supported Republican Dan Rodriguez. Norma Torres was going to run againstSoto for the Assembly seat she now seeks. See the rest of… Read More

First, an update on the Leader race. RSC Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana and Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of California have both taken their names out of the race. Conservatives in the House are still optimistic that Arizona Rep. John Shadegg will still decide to jump in though its seems Shadegg is unconvinced 1) that he can win and 2) that is useful for conservatives to run and lose. Yet, there is a desire to clean house and Shadegg could benefit from that.

On that note, there is a movement among the GOP Conference to have full leadership elections and have a fresh start. However, Conference rules do not require that and by my understanding, that would take 50 members to sign a petition calling for full elections (it might even require a petition for each of the 8 elected positions). This movement is not limited to conservatives and could build steam.

If Roy Blunt wins the Leader race (by my count he has a very slight lead), he would then vacate the Whip’s job. Here the candidates lined up to replace him:

… Read More