This just in from longtime FR friend (and fellow Vin Scully devotee) Rob Stutzman, Main thing you should know about Rob before reading the following is that his name does appear on the list of "well compensated" consultants to Meg Whitman’s campaign for Governor.

Who ever said politics wasn’t a contact sport?

Rob Stutzman: Poizner Can’t Win The War I can just imagine last Monday morning’s staff meeting at Poizner for Governor HQ. … Read More

Seems to me that while I have plenty of reasons for why conservatives should for sure not vote for Maldonado’s confirmation, I am struggling to figure out why Democrats would want the guy?

From a Constitutional perspective, if Democrats don’t confirm Maldonado, then it is another Democrat (Steinberg) who is in line to succeed the Governor should calamity occur.

But from a point of principle, and an important one — Democrats are equally victim of Maldonado’s blackmail scheme last February to force his so-called "open primary" onto the ballot. So it seems particularly humiliating to have someone rob you at gun point, and then to vote to give them a promotion.

Never mind the idea that every Democrat who votes for Maldanado is going to create headaches in their own future primaries, taking flak for supporting a Republican (well sort of) for the job.… Read More

Check out this new video… It is a "must watch…"

As FR readers know, we do not typically regurgitate campaign press releases. That said, the one below is from the Fiorina campaign and I am reprinting it for three reasons. The first — it’s an awesome release worthy of praise. The second is that the video above is SO GREAT that it seems appropriate to "reward" good work. And finally, as always, it’s easier to post their work then have to pen my own (although with the formatting it was a close call)…

I will give a shout out to FR friend and actor Robert Davi who does the voice over on the video above. You may recognize his familiar and distinctive voice. Way to go Robert! … Read More

I was kind of surprised by the number released in the 36th Senate District GOP Primary to succeed Dennis Hollingsworth.

I know this will be another shocker. I am biased towards the three candidates.

Assemblyman Joel Anderson is sure to be in the race. From October 2007 to December 2008 I was his Chief of Staff and I’ve known him for almost 20 years. I also know school board member Ken Dickson. Good man and a conservative. I have meet Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone and his sister once at the most recent CRP Convention.

But what stunned me was the Cash on Hand numbers for a primary just a few short months away. Anderson had $242,687.60, while Stone had only $84,944.13 and Ken Dickson was only 900 dollars behind that at $84,013.15.

This is significant because of geography in this race. In the 2002 GOP primary about 17% of voters were from the Riverside part of the district. The rest of the district is in Eastern San Diego County. In 2006 the Riverside portion climbed to a little over 19%.

Hollingsworth overcame the geography deficit by being the conservative candidate and he was only candidate from the Riverside portion of the… Read More

This morning columnist Tim Rutten has an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times entitled, "GOP Hard-liners take aim at Cooley" — the substance of the piece being that Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who has announced a bid for the GOP nomination for Attorney General, is not a fan of California’s 3-Strikes-Law and has raised the ire of one of its authors, Mike Reynolds. Rutten quotes from Reynolds’ piece that ran here on the FlashReport (Rutten, of course, doesn’t reference this site as the source of the piece).

Former California Republican Party Chairman read the piece, and was motivated to e-mail over his own response to Rutten’s piece, for your reading pleasure…

I should probably add quickly that I have been in dialogue with Cooley’s campaign about having him pen a column for FR readers about his candidacy, but have had no luck in getting them to agree to do so.… Read More

According to latest returns for the election held yesterday, Mission Viejo councilman and the currently appointed Mayor, Lance MacLean has been recalled by 6,858 to 6,740, a total of 118 votes. A total of 1,140 votes remain to be counted, and knowledgeable observers state the margin of recall will narrow a little, but that the recall should stand, and MacLean will be forced out of office when the election is formally certified.

Successful recalls don’t happen that often – just ask Assemblyman Anthony Adams that question. The success of the Mission Viejo recall is something significant. It is also significant in who the biggest loser was as a result, which was not MacLean, the target of the recall, or Dale Tyler, a replacement candidate that lost. More on that later….

The "Notice of Recall" Mission Viejo citizens voted on that gave the reasons to recall MacLean, included a charge that he had voted for "lifetime medical benefits" at taxpayer expense for himself and other councilmembers, had voted for a tax increase, and that MacLean had been detained on a charge of assault and battery on a… Read More

This is a "must watch" video to see a Congressman who is completely out of touch with the major drought effecting his district. Liberal Democrat Jim Costa campaigned as a so-called "Blue Dog" (moderate) Democrat, but he votes virtually ALL OF THE TIME with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Someone should perhaps remind the Congressman that unemployment in the San Joaquin Valley is nearly 20 percent and as high as 40 percent in some cities and that according to a recent University of California at Davis study, based on the water reductions outlined in the Delta outlined in the Delta smelt Biological Opinion, revenue losses in the San Joaquin Valley of California for 2009 will be $2.2 billion and job losses at… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…… Read More