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

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

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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 : 7:18AM A few weeks ago, FlashReport contributor Matt Rexroad brought to our attention an editorial… Read More

"Battle Tested" and "Conservative" Fiorina take on Senator Boxer on the issue of national security as the former HP Chairman starts to shift her campaign into a general election posture…

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To the average voter, it sounds so innocent.

Levy on tax on lobbyists to finance a “pilot project” that would pay the campaign expenses of candidates in the next two elections for Secretary of State.

But like many ballot initiatives that promise one thing and deliver something quite different, Prop 15 is not what its backers say it is.

Prop 15 doesn’t stop with two elections. It would repeal the ban on tax-supported campaigns statewide. With a simple majority vote, legislators could finance their own campaigns with taxpayer dollars. The same is true for city councils and boards of supervisors.

And it doesn’t stop with the lobbyist tax. Prop 15 invites legislators to use the General Fund or “other sources” to pay for campaign expenses. Those “other sources” include new taxes and fees – not to pay the salaries of police officers and teachers, but to pay for negative ads and junk mail.

Four years ago, 74 percent of voters said NO to Prop 89, a plan to tax businesses to finance political campaigns. In 2000, two-thirds of voters rejected another public campaign financing scheme, Proposition… Read More

Meg Whitman has launched a new anti-Poizner ad — very similar to one previously launched, with some new video shots of her opponent…

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