It’s Saturday. And Congress is in session. Worse yet, it’s a week before Christmas and Congress is in session. And Congress will be in session on Sunday. While this unfortunate fact is bad for most of us, it’s been good for newly minted Congressman John Campbell who was sworn in just one week ago.

One of the reasons that the Congress is still in session is immigration. The House GOP is bitterly split over the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner. The fight is over two issues: holding businesses that hire illegals responsible and guest-worker programs.

The bill has two sentences which seemingly appear to expand guest-worker programs but are in fact, merely a restatement of current law. However, some view this as an opening for the Senate to expand guest-worker. Others recognize that regardless of how tough the border security and law… Read More

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top education advisor, Alan Bersin, thinks it is time to raise taxes to give more money to the state’s K-12 school system. According to the California School Boards Association website, Bersin recently gave a speech to the group in which he called for an end to the “gridlock” between the anti-tax forces and “those of us on the district level (who) are faced with absolute requirements for additional resources." Bersin called on the CSBA to help educate the public on the need for new taxes, praising them for "skilled leadership." (Did you forget, Mr. Bersin, that CSBA’s "skilled leadership" helped defeat your boss’ important reform poposals in the special election? Probably not.)

… Read More

Yesterday the the House overwhelmingly passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Act of 2005 after years of doing virtually nothing, in a post 9-11 world, to protect our borders. Whether this excellent legislation makes it through the process and onto the President’s desk for signature is another story. To become law, it must survive a tough conference committee process and a US Senate where all good ideas go to die. Two local Valley Republican lawmakers, George Radanovich, and Devin Nunes, voted no. I’m at a loss as to why. I understand the pressure from the US Chamber of Commerce and Western Growers Association. Maybe Radanovich and Nunes they knew the votes were there and voted no to heed big agriculture’s call. We DO need a flow of labor into the Central Valley to handle a year round agricultural harvest, and the labor supply, due to the Minuteman project and other factors, was the worst we’ve seen here in many, many years. Still, does getting grapes off the vine or lettuce out of the ground really rise to the level of an issue like Homeland Security? I don’t think so. Our members of Congress have to get their… Read More

I think today may be the ‘slowest’ news day in terms of reporting California political news since the inception of the online version of the FlashReport. I suspect we will be seeing more of these kinds of spare-story days as we get into the holidays. Political reporters and columnists put in a lot of time during this year’s special election, so it makes sense that they would be taking more time off – and this is on top of the fact that California’s politicians are also enjoying the holiday season.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of political news going on in the country (especially out of the Congress) — but the focus of this website is on California political news.

Today I will take an opportunity to draw your attention to some of the recent posts on the FlashReport Weblog. Of course, if you missed any of my daily commentaires, you can click here to review them all by time, and catch up on my attempts a being a cub-reporter/columnist.

* Last week the California Republican Party Board of Directors met with Governor Schwarzenegger to,… Read More

I am going to share some thoughts with you about this meeting at the took place, and I am adding this sentence at the beginning of my commentary, having just written it. I understand from all that the meeting with the Governor was a productive one, and went well. That overall, board members were very pleased with the opportunity to give meaningful input to the state’s top Republican… Now, onto my other thoughts…

CRP BOARD MEETS WITH GOVERNOR IN ATTENDANCE… Yesterday afternoon, for about an hour, the Board of Directors of the California Republican Party, along with some guests, had a meeting at the Hyatt Hotel across the street from the Capitol. The board members gathered first at the GOP’s Sacramento headquarters (the meeting location was not disclosed to board members ahead of time). Then they were escorted as a group to the Hyatt where the meeting took place. It did not take long for the ‘cone of… Read More

If you didn’t see yesterday’s Union-Tribune front page story on the "other" Inzunza, it’s a must, a blockbuster when it comes to the ramifications it will likely have on next year’s 79th Assembly District race.

Nick Inzunza, mayor of National City and brother of resigned SD City Councilman Ralph Inzunza of stripper-gate fame, just had the county’s "newspaper of record" hand him his political future in a dead bouquet of black roses, kinda like those growing in front of one of his rentals.

The 79th seat, currently held by Juan Vargas, has one of the highest Democratic registrations in the state … it’s considered a cakewalk in November for the D winningthe primary … unless the Republican nominee gets to run against a slum lord.

Before yesterday, Mayor Inzunza was considered the Democratic front-runner for the seat. Some may say theU-T isn’t doing… Read More

There was a great column by Shane Goldmacher in yesterday’s edition of Capitol Weekly. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, you should. I am biased though, because it prominently features this website, and talks about the influence that it is having on California politics!

Also prominently mentioned are the efforts of my long time friend, Steve Frank. Like me, Steve is a former President of the California Republican Assembly (though he is OLD, so his Presidency was like around Lincoln’s time, or something like that). In all seriousness, Steve and I were on the phone joking about the ‘Rise of the Jewish Right’ — pretty funny!

Here is the beginning of the article, with a link to the rest at the bottom:

This morning members and guests of the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club (I’ve been a member for over a decade) were to hear a post-election polling analysis from pollster Steve Kinney. He wasn’t there and Assemblyman Bob Huff was asked to fill in at the last minute or give off the cuff remarks if you will. Bob Huff represents parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. He spoke about many issues, but his comments on Kennedy are also worth noting. Bob has a 100% voting record on the CRA Score Card. See the rest here .He doesn’t sign off on pulling the pre-primary endorsement and wants the Gov. to win. Huff says he relayed to the Governor "that he knows no one in my district who supports this appointment.” Huff added that “Leadership is not just doing things, sometimes it is symbolic. And this was important”. Huff continued, “People can only hold their nose so much and that this is the point people are at.” He told the … Read More