Former State Assemblyman Mike Briggs (R) is contemplating yet another political run, this time for his old City Council seat in Fresno, District 1. A brief background: Briggs served one term on the City Council before running for State Assembly in 1998, winning a contentious four way primary and then breezing through that fall’s general election. Briggs, in his first two years in the State Assembly, made a name for himself in working across the aisle in attempting to craft legislation to help his Central Valley District. Alas, in 2000, Briggs went a little too far. It was his disastrous vote on the 2000 State Budget that set the wheels in motion for California’s fiscal meltdown and massive deficits. Without his vote on that budget bill, California’s fiscal problems wouldn’t be nearly as severe as that are today. I estimate that his vote cost Californians somewhere north of $40 billion in principal and interest.

"Coincidently", a new Congressional District was created by the Democrats right over the top of his Assembly District, again, "coincidently" right after his collaboration with the Democrats on the budget. So, in… Read More

My thoughts on the Gov’s Chief of Staff…

I’ve been too in shock to comment up ‘til now.

No question that Governor Tom McClintock would never had made such an appointment … but, I guess the question remains whether McClintock would have been in the position to choose.

This is the “age old” debate in the GOP, is it not? How far are moderates and many conservatives (me among them) willing to go, how much are we willing to give up, to have a Republican in the statehouse at any cost, or in any number of offices, when the “general consensus” is that a true-blue candidate can’t win?

I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s comments after Neville Chamberlain returned from… Read More

The last several days of discussion hiring have made it clear how tenuous the relationship between the Governor and the Republican grassroots was even before Susan Kennedy was hired. As I noted on my Wednesday posting, these ideological differences have existed from the very beginning of the recall campaign. Many conservatives chose to overlook their differences with Schwarzenegger because of their desire to get rid of Gray Davis, others decided that his positions on the car tax and drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants were enough to overshadow other areas of disagreement, and some were drawn in by the celebrity star power that Arnold radiated on the campaign trail. But whether it’s Kennedy, a tremendous bond measure proposal, or other issues, it’s clear that Republican conservative activists are angrier than they’ve been in over a decade.

So my question is: now what?

The business/lobbying community is supporting Kennedy’s hiring: they’ve been in the newspapers talking about her pro-business credentials all week. It would be one thing if the GOP ideological base and donor base were both furious with… Read More

KEVIN MCCARTHY: KENNEDY APPOINTMENT A "MISTAKE" Yesterday in my commentary, I had a short mention of the fact that while State Senate President Dick Ackerman has been quite vocal, and critical of one of California top’s Democrat operatives being placed into the #1 staff position in the Governor’s office, Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy had been very quiet in the papers.

Since then, I have heard from several sources that McCarthy has actually been a vocal critic of the choice within the closed-door circles of the state capitol, including with the Governor.

I spoke with McCarthy yesterday, and he made it clear to me that he things that this appointment was a mistake. When we spoke, he told me that we can look for public comments from him in the media as early as Monday, vocalizing his concerns. In the meantime, McCarthy says that he has been making his concerns known in his speeches to groups and organizations.

Look for more of a profile on the Assembly Republican Leader and how he will navigate his caucus through the unchartered waters… Read More

There are a couple of reasons why I surmise that the State GOP has been silent on the Kenney Chief of Staff kerfuffle. First, Arnold is now, and always has been his own entity. Although he owes his original election to the GOP base and other disaffected voters, he is not now nor will he ever be our titular leader. You could see this as the RNC Convention last summer, and nothing has changed. I for one have not ever heard from anyone in his administration or campaign, ever. As the founding chairman of the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, former CRP Treasurer and two term Vice Chairman Central, this is fairly astounding. Second, the State Party cannot raise any real money without him, so he will not be criticized. Third, and the reason why I have not protested, is there is no conceivable scenario under which he can be re-elected next year. Now, his appointment of this Chief of Staff has crushed whatever was left of our volunteer base, so even if Arnold has an unlikely spectacular year, there won’t be any rallying the troops come next Labor Day.

I liken this entire Arnold situation to a patient (California) that has to be rushed to the emergency room for a… Read More

OK – it is getting hard to read the playsheets these days, and so it should have come as no surprise to me that I got an email yesterday from Nick Valasquez, the Press Secretary to the Steve Westly for Controller campaign.

Apparently, I confused my former employees of new Schwarzenegger Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy…. (pictured left)

You see, I reported that smarmy Democrat operative Bob Mulholland had taken a position with Westly’s campaign last Thursday. Valasquez correctly pointed out that Mulholland actually went to work for the Angelides campaign!

This makes sense because when Phil Angelides was Chairman of … Read More

Members of the legislature will receive a pay raise of 12% this month. With the raise, they will make $110,880. Of course, this is augmented by a ‘per dium’ payment that they receive to cover the additional costs of travel and residency near the capitol This amount to $153 a day when they are in session. Too much money? Too little money? That debate can rage on – though if you have full-time legislative, you need to give them full–time pay. I’ll let you readers decide what is fair pay. The legislators do not decide their own pay, however. Their compensation is set by an obscure commission, not selected by the voters. More newsworthy than the raise is "the list" – who took the raise and who turned it away. Note, legislators took the raise, but have said they will donate the raise to charity (presumably keeping the tax deduction). Those folks did not make the list.… Read More

Ihate to interrupt all of the well-justified venting over the appointment of Susan Kennedy as Governor Schwarzenegger’s new chief of staff, but I figured FlashReport’s readers might be due for a little distraction. This magazine cover, believe it or not, was published by the first Democrat candidate to announce against 26th District Republican Congressman David Dreier in the 2006 election.

The publisher, Russ Warner, is from Rancho Cucamonga, and he’s absolutely loaded. Obviously this means there’s a possibility he could self-fund. Rancho Cucamonga, in San Bernardino County, is the most conservative part of the 26th district. Having been added to the district in the lastreapportionment, it’s not Dreier stomping grounds (the reigning House Rules… Read More