When the dam breaks, you know that the water is going to rush through and wash out that quiet little town down the hill. With that same certainly, you knew when you saw this rather awkward (for Steve Poizner) article run over the weekend in the San Jose Mercury News, that you would invariably see the Meg Whitman campaign figure out a way to "elevate its prominence in the political marketplace" — they have created a web ad.

Of course, as I have said all along, I am a total sucker for these things. So here is a hard hitting web ad from the Whitman campaign blasting Poizner. When the Whitman campaign released the hit, they also sent out some backup materials, which you can read here.

We’ve emailed the Poizner campaign, asking them if they have any general or specific response to this piece. If we get a response, we’ll share it!

… Read More

As we continue to assess the lay of the land of Republican primaries in “safe” GOP or competitive seats, today we turn our virtual magnifying glass on the 68th Assembly District. This district is located in the center-west of Orange County. (See the map here.) It includes all or part of the following cities: Stanton, Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Costa Mesa. The seat is currently held by my friend going back to college days, Republican Assemblyman Van Tran. Tran is departing the Assembly after his third allowable term, and is running hard for Congress, where he is challenging incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez.

By the numbers, the seat has been considered safe Republican. There are 90,496 GOP voters (41%), 72,992 Democrat voters (33%), and 47,166 Decline to… Read More

As we continue to assess the lay of the land of Republican primaries in “safe” GOP or competitive seats, today we turn our virtual magnifying glass on the 68th Assembly District. This district is located in the center-west of Orange County. (See the map here.) It includes all or part of the following cities: Stanton, Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Costa Mesa. The seat is currently held by my friend going back to college days, Republican Assemblyman Van Tran. Tran is departing the Assembly after his third allowable term, and is running hard for Congress, where he is challenging incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez.

By the numbers, the seat has been considered safe Republican. There are 90,496 GOP voters (41%), 72,992 Democrat voters (33%), and 47,166 Decline to… Read More

We’ve pinched Senate pro Tem Leader Darrell Steinberg for his myopic blindness in dealing with the notorious CAIR [Council of American Islamic Relations]. CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in a major terrorist trial in Texas, as stated by the US Justice Department and the FBI is now defending the Iranian controlled Mosques, now seized by the FBI and Homeland Security—under Obama, no less. Carmichael mosque seized by Homeland Security—less than 10 miles from Steinberg’s office.

These seizures are now realclose to home. In fact, only a few minutes drive from Steinberg’s ornate Senate office. On September 1, the page asked how could Steinberg sponsor the CAIR event in the Capitol Rotunda celebrating Ramadan. No one objects to Ramadan. But any… Read More

7:20 pmUpdate…All the related data that only a wonk and/or a hack could possibly relish in has been added to the SDRostra post. __________________________ See the press release below and don’t even begin to tell me that aging name ID from the green-and-white-car days doesn’t mean anything.

That said, it’s still significantly early. Name ID can be softened just as significantly with financial resources and momentum. AppointedSheriff Bill Gore and former Assemblyman Jay La Suer have plenty of time to pick up both. Alternatively, Jim Duffy has the same amount of time to try to translate left-over name ID into something that heads off a closing pack.

This race will be way closer than the early polling shows, but this does help spell out for the entire field how to strategize going forward.

Watch for Duffy to continue to capitalize on his family name, while balancingthat against his own background and leadership skills, as well as his support by labor groups.

Watch Gore try to springboard on the support of retired… Read More

One of the greatest—if not the greatest—hindrances to real government reform in California is the unions. Flush with cash from mandatory dues, these self-serving organizations exert so much power over the majority party that they brazenly issue public threats against legislators. The Heritage Foundation posted a blog this morning reporting just how big a threat organized labor is to the rest of the nation.

Heritage scholar James Sherk explains that unions are no longer organizations that protect the interests of workers in the private sector. Instead, the majority of union members are in government, sapping taxpayer dollars for benefits and pensions that private sector employees will never see—especially since the private, productive sector must finance these government workers’ benefits.

Sherk cites California as an example of unions pushing for taxes on private entities to finance their entrenched government bureaucracy: “In… Read More

Capitol Weekly recently surveyed legislators and their cheif’s of staff on who they think are the top lobbyists. This is a great measure of relationships and real ability. And rememnber, lobbyists cannot make political contributions to state elected officials, so thats not a factor here.

MOST CONNECTED LOBBYISTS Bev Hansenof Lang Hansen O’Malley Miller whichrepresents California Trucking Association, CIty of Chino Hills, City of San Clemente, Union Pacific Railroad and Wal-Mart Stores.

Darius Andersonof Platinum Advisors which counts 24 Hour Fitness, Boeing, Lennar, County of Orange and UPS among its clients.

Also with Platinum Advisors,… Read More

In today’s Sacramento Bee, Steve Wiegand has an important article that every FlashReport reader should take in, entitled Long Hours In Capitol Mean Lousy Lawmaking, Critics Say. There’s a great photo of a worn-out Senator George Runner accompanying the piece.

Weigands piece takes note of the fact that four times this year alone, the State Legislature has engaged in the practice of having long, late-night marathon sessions where our elected representatives are forced to fight exhaustion and sleep deprivation as "deals" are put together.

We saw this happen first with the February budget debacle that brought us the largest tax increase in the history of any state. In July, another long time dealing with budget gets and an early morning gauging of taxpayers by adjusting withholding timelines, then there was the end of session with adjourned at 6am — and finally last week the embarrassing water-torture exercize that went to the wee hours.

**There is more – click the… Read More