Setting last nights unpleasantness aside for a moment, ithad beenexpected the Guv will announce a special session on our crumbling budget and call for that today, with the likelihood that the Assembly and Senate will convene that session Thursdayand immediately recess it. The caucuses meet anyway on Thursday to elect their caucus leaders so everyone will be in town anyway, the termed out and the newbies.Conveningit allows the special session budget committees to be formed and perhaps hammer out some fixes to the massive budget revenue shortfall..or not.

Republicans remain firm that no new tax, sales tax, tax onbusiness, whatever,will help fix thisslumped over economyor subsequently, state revenues.Instead removing dumb mandates like AB 32 could help kickstart some investor confidence, along with our position of tax credit incentives to employ people and invest in this state, not Nevada. We’ll see. It would figure that we only have til November 25 with this session as Thanksgiving is 2 days later and the true end of the term is November 30 at midnight. The new crop will be sworn in the… Read More

A good friend of mine who has always lived in the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana and Missouri) moved to California about two years ago. Yesterday was her first California election.

She called me today and left this message on my voice mail:

“Jennifer, so I live in a state that values the safety of its chickens more than the safety of its daughters?”

It’s sad, but true.… Read More

We’ll put out a Winners & Losers column for this General Election. Who should make the list? Who were the movers in front of the ballot measures? How about behind the scenes? Architects of legislative wins or defeats? How about some big local races? IE’s that worked? Didn’t work? Send in your suggestions, and we’ll try to see if we can’t inflate the egos of some winners — and dump on the losers (politely, in most cases).

Send in your suggestions here, or comment below.… Read More

I have gotten a lot of e-mails and a few phone calls this morning lamenting the "loss" of Tony Strickland’s bid for State Senate in the 19th District. Currently, he is down around 100 votes to Hannah Beth "Taxin’" Jackson.

That said, the race is FAR FROM OVER. In the Ventura County Star, it is being reported that "tens of thousands" of late absentee and provision ballots remain to be counted. You can be sure that similar large numbers of late votes remain to be cast in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles County portions of this sprawling district.

I have no doubt that Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans have dispatched their top operatives and attorneys to the three Registrar offices, as this kind of thing turns into quite a production.

It actually reminds me of a similar situation not too long ago. Jeff Denham was down over 300 votes on election night in his first bid for the State Senate in 2002. He went on to win by over 1800 votes. Like Strickland, Denham was called "too conservative" for… Read More

Wherever one or more TV cameras may gather, there you shall find Gloria Allred.

The left-wing media hound attorney is going to announce a lawsuit against Proposition 8 in a few minutes.

On what legal basis? Who knows.

The political basis, of course, is media exposure for Gloria Allred.… Read More

Here at the FlashReport, we’ll be live-blogging election results for California. I am at the Hyatt Hotel in Irvine, site of the California Republican Party’s election night party, safely sequestered in the "war room" were election contests across the country and especially here in California will be closely monitered.

… Read More

Tonight, FR Publisher Jon Fleischman will "host" a live chat on the FR blog page, as election results come in. Using new technology, FR blog readers will be able to tune in to the live chat, and weigh in themselves in real time!

Be sure to check out the action later this afternoon, when the polls start to close on the East Coast. The live blog feed will appear atop FR’s blog page tonight.… Read More

They are spreading the eats and drinks around. Donuts, Coffee, Donuts, Pizza, Donuts, Ice Cream, Donutsand yes..Tequila are all free to voters at various locations throughout Los Angeles County.

No word on what ACORN is offering folks. But there are free donuts.… Read More