Disclosure: I don’t work for any of the candidates. I know Campbell and Poizner, and have met with Whitman, but my only current involvement is that I want the GOP to win because I think a Democrat Governor will mean crushing taxes and a radical agenda that will damage California for decades.

Currently there are three (3) candidates working to secure the GOP nomination – all from Northern California and all more moderate than much of the base of the Republican Party.

Many – myself included – have talked about the likelihood that a more conservative, Southern California Republican could enter the race. But the window is rapidly closing for a new entry.

Here’s a run down of the current line-up:

Tom Campbell is the candidate of ideas. He is easily the smartest, most articulate person in the race – the… Read More

Much has been whispered about and written about in passing about the fact that Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby had a sexual harassment complaint filed against him by a county employee. The matter went to court where a lot of — explicit — testimony was made on the record. The very abbreviated version is that a trial court judge found that there was some merit to the allegations however an appellate court disagreed. Ultimately the matter was settled, and as Norby is quick to point out, with no payments of taxpayer funds being paid out.

That said, expect to see a lot about this matter given the circumstances that led to the vacancy in this Assembly seat.

In what is a harbinger of what will be one of the most negative and entertaining special elections in recent memory, Linda Ackerman has dropped a mail piece that hit today hitting Norby on this issue.

In an earlier post I indicated that it was likely that the negative attacks on Norby would come from independent expenditures (rumors abound that Sacramento third-house folks are working on one). But I was wrong. This is probably an indicator that if such an independent effort is… Read More

I am not even going to waste a lot of time on this blog post. Lisa V. over at the Contra Costa Times Blog reports that earlier today it was announced that the Bay Area Council is going to dump $2 million into qualifying the measures to create a Constitutional Convention for California, if approved by the voters.

Let me make this crystal clear for the Bay Area Council and all others out there who think this might be a good idea.

Are you holding on to your chair? Here comes the truth…

California’s Public Employee Unions will try to coopt and control the convention process. If unsuccessful, they will use their vast resources to obliterate whatever that convention brings back to the voters for approval.

Instead of sinking millions into this fool’s errand, the Bay Area Council should join with those already looking at a paycheck protection measure. Until the pervasive financial influence of the public employee unions is terminated, the road to comprehensive reform of California government is impassable.… Read More

FlashReport Reader:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Western Conservative Political Action Conference (Western CPAC), I am pleased to announce that we have just confirmed that Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, and BigGovernment.com has confirmed that he will be giving opening comments on a star-studded political technology panel that I will be hosting this Saturday. "This Saturday," you ask??!! YES, WESTERN CPAC WILL BE TAKING PLACE THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY RIGHT IN THE HEART OF ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA. If you haven’t already, you should check out our website here which is chock-full of information on the event.… Read More

Over the past week or so Meg Whitman has been announcing various interest-group coalitions from around California supporting her campaign for Governor. Just yesterday she announced statewide law enforcement leaders.

Later this morning she will roll out her Agriculture Coaltion Leadership Team. But we have a "sneak peak" here for FlashReport readers… Agriculture Coalition Co-Chairs Jesse Alderete, President, California Farm Labor Contractors’ Alliance Mark Borba, Owner, Borba Farms… Read More

There isn’t a normal Republican out there who wouldn’t be upset and concerned by many of the pieces of legislation that Governor Schwarzenegger signed on Sunday night. Just the number of bills that he signed that went to his desk without a single Republican vote in either the Senate or Assembly should be of grave concern.

Today we’re giving a FlashReport Patriot Award to Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee who, being a normal Republican, reacted pretty strongly and directly to the Governor’s bill signings in an e-mail that he, according to Capitol Weekly, sent to his 28 Assembly Republican Colleagues. I’ll reprint the first part of the e-mail below, and provide a link to the Capitol Weekly story where you can see the entire thing.

While I would imagine it was not Blakeslee’s intention for this email to be out in the public eye, I can assure that the Assemblyman has put into writing what a great many Republicans were and are thinking about Arnold… Read More

Don’t forget to follow our Twitter feed dedicated exclusively to the AD72 special election. Allan Bartlett tweeted CRA endorsing convention results last night, and I just tweeted the latest fundraising figures for the Norby for Assembly campaign — his biggest single-day money results yet, including a maximum contribution from a pernicious special interest!… Read More

Good work from our College Republicans:

For the second time in the past month our state’s youngest activists traveled to the Bay Area to help Republican businessman David Harmer in his effort to defeat Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi for the Congressional seat vacated by Ellen Tauscher. After energizing speeches by Harmer and CRP Vice-Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, on Saturday morning just over 40 College Republicans from across California joined a dozen Young Republicans to spend their weekend walking door-to-door and making phone calls for Harmer. To show his gratitude for their hard work Tom Del Beccaro invited the groups to his home for dinner after the walk.… Read More