Tom Campbell has put up a new ad worth 30 seconds to watch. He makes the case that you should vote for him because an LA Times survey says that voters support him over Barbara Boxer. This argument is totally not-compelling to me. While people should feel free to vote for Campbell if they like his positions on the issues, I am still suffering from post traumatic stress disorder from having served as Executive Director of the California Republican party in the 2000 election cycle when Campbell was our nominee for U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein. Campbell made all of the same arguments then as he is now about why he thinks he has the best chance of winning. Why didn’t he win in 2000? Turns out Campbell, who is a nice guy, is a lousy fundraiser. I wonder how a poll would show him doing against Boxer after a few months of being out-spent twenty to one? I would find it more compelling if Campbell could articulate in a commercial what he is going to do differently in 2010 than he did in 2000… Let me make it clear — I like Steve Poizner. He’s personable, … Read More

FlashReport Contributor Jim Lacy had an opportunity recently to interview GOP Congressional candidate John Dennis, who hopes to be the Republican Party’s standard bearer against Speaker Nancy Pelosi this Fall… In the photo to the right, Dennis is pictured with retired Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr, at the 2009 Western CPAC Conference…

Three Minutes With John Dennis By Jim Lacy One of the most interesting races in the Bay Area is the GOP primary fight in the 8th Congressional District for the right to take on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I caught up with the leading candidate, John Dennis, for a brief chat on the campaign trail…

JL: You have an unusual background for a Republican candidate… … Read More

Yesterday on my way back from Sacramento, I tuned into one of my favorite talk radio hosts, Tom Sullivan (a long-time KFBK personality, Sullivan is now syndicated and works out of New York).During yesterday’s show, Sullivan asked listeners to call in and discuss a handful of important U.S. Senate seats, including Barbara Boxer’s seat. He wanted to know if people were practical voters (voting for the candidate most likely to win) or principled voters (voting for the candidate most near and dear to your heart and political beliefs). His analysis of the California seat, in a nutshell, was this:Chuck DeVore is the Tea Party candidate and doesn’t have a shot at unseating Boxer; Carly Fiorina is an unknown political entity, a disgraced corporate exec (his words, not mine) and doesn’t have a shot; Tom Campbell is an experienced public servant and respected academic and is the only candidate that has a shot at unseating Boxer.Practical voters would vote for Campbell. … Read More

In 1994 I was the Chief of Staff for then Assemblyman Wm. J. "Pete Knight. We had a total of three people on staff. Sharon Thorson and me in the Capitol and one person in the Palmdale district office.

In the early fall that year the phones just started lighting up with upset people that were convinced that the Assemblyman was a closet liberal. No mater what we told them they would scream at us that Pete Knight was this closet RINO that really was a plant. When we finally got someone sane on the phone that would talk to us we found out that the Traditional Values Coalition had sent out what seemed like umpteen million cards claiming that Pete Knight was pro-choice (and something else that I can’t remember).

Well our phones lit up. People screamed at us. No matter what we told them they did not care.

Constituents were actually calling Pete Knight’s office and telling us we were working for a closet liberal.

When I called the people in charge of the card it was too late. They were printed and out.

It appears that 59th Assembly District Republican candidate… Read More

There is nothing more insidious than when government uses taxpayer dollars to advocate for tax increases. When you see it happen, it makes your stomach turn — and it happens all too often. With a h/t to FR friend Scott Schmidt, we bring you the latest egregious example of the taxpayers who finance the deficit-challenged Los Angeles Unified School District being plied with persuasive "informational" commercials about Measure E — a massive property tax increase measure coming up for a vote that, if passed, would increase property taxes in that district to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars ($370 million, to be more precise, says LAUSD). We note that at the same time that LAUSD is asking taxpayers to pony up more cash, there are no attendant reforms or accountability measures being put forward by LAUSD politicians. Go figure.

There are two "information" tv ads out… Read More

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UPDATE: GOP candidate Matt Kokkonen has now signed the ATR pledge and faxed it in. His campaign consultant assures me that when Kokkonen ran for Asembly a few years back he signed the pledge at that time as well. We are hopeful that "Katcho" Achadjian will also sign and fax in the pledge as well. This will allow Republicans to unifty againt the Democrats this fall on the tax issue. ORIGINAL POST : 7:18AMA few weeks ago, FlashReport contributor Matt Rexroad brought to our attention an editorial… Read More

From yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

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