In competitive campaigns, we’ve all seen candidates of both parties try and create a little "distance" between themselves and their political party. But the Democrat nominee in AD 15 took it to new levels last week.

At a campaign stop Thursday, trial attorney Terry Coleman didn’t just distance himself or even abandoned the Democratic Party, he decided to run against it.

Here is the quote, "Quite frankly, I consider myself to be running against Democrats in this election."

Add to the mix that Coleman isn’t very well known in the East Bay/Central Valley district (his law firm is based out of San Francisco) and incumbent Assemblyman Guy Houston enjoys a 10 to 1 cash-on-hand advantage over Coleman on the last financial disclosures.

Even the Democrat experts over at the California Majority Report call Coleman "a political neophyte" and say that he, "needs to raise cash and profile quickly to have a chance."

Let me translate all this — Democrat leadership didn’t sound too keen on Coleman in the first place, and he has… Read More

AB 1953 (Chan) aims to reduce the amount of lead in plumbing fixtures. (You might say "yawn," but keep reading.) The Leg Counsel’ s Digest says, "Existing law prohibits the introduction into commerce of any pipe, pipe or plumbing fitting, or fixture that is not lead free, except for a pipe that is used in manufacturing or industrial processing," and, "Existing law defines lead free as not more than 8% lead when used with respect to pipes and fittings and not more than 4% by dry weight with respect to plumbing fittings and fixtures. This bill would, commencing on January 1, 2010, revise the term ‘lead free,’ for purposes of manufacturing, industrial processing, and conveying or dispensing water for human consumption, to refer not to the lead content of pipes and pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, and fixtures but to a weighted average lead content of the wetted surface area of the pipes, fittings, and fixtures of not more than 0.25%, to be determined pursuant to a… Read More

AB 1953 (Chan) aims to reduce the amount of lead in plumbing fixtures. (You might say "yawn," but keep reading.) The Leg Counsel’ s Digest says, "Existing law prohibits the introduction into commerce of any pipe, pipe or plumbing fitting, or fixture that is not lead free, except for a pipe that is used in manufacturing or industrial processing," and, "Existing law defines lead free as not more than 8% lead when used with respect to pipes and fittings and not more than 4% by dry weight with respect to plumbing fittings and fixtures. This bill would, commencing on January 1, 2010, revise the term ‘lead free,’ for purposes of manufacturing, industrial processing, and conveying or dispensing water for human consumption, to refer not to the lead content of pipes and pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, and fixtures but to a weighted average lead content of the wetted surface area of the pipes, fittings, and fixtures of not more than 0.25%, to be determined pursuant to a… Read More

Believe it or not, we are quickly approaching the FlashReport’s one year anniversary as an on-line website. Before that, it was an e-mail newsletter for years. You can read the full history of the FR (and find out who it was the inspired me to start it) by reading the entire history of the FR here.

Today I am asking for your help. I am going to update the links menus above this coming week and want to ask for your help in the following four ways:

1) Try the links. If you get time, try to visit some or all of the links to newspapers, editorial pages, cartoons, websites, or blogs. Let me know if the links have a problem, or if they can be pointed more directly than where they take you now.

2) Look over the links and let me know what I am missing. Are there websites that should be on our referral list that are absent? How about blogs that you rely on that you think… Read More

In California and some other states, it is illegal to ask a voter to show proof of identification that they are the voter they claim to be. Therefore, I could go to your polling place, pretend to be you, and the poll worker could not ask me to prove I’m you even if that person knew who you were. That’s a law that promotes fraud. That is nuts. Bills have been introduced nearly every year in the California State Legislature to change this pro-fraud law. They have always failed on party-line votes. This week the House passed HR 4844, The Federal Election Integrity Act,by a vote of 228-196. The vote was almost entirely on party lines with only 4 Democrats voting in favor. The bill will require voters to show a photo ID when voting in federal elections (Congress, Senate, President) beginning in 2008, and in 2010 those IDs will be … Read More

Great news! Today Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 927 which we have written about here on our site and which is one of our "Twenty Worst Bill" that are on his desk.

This Bill would have hiked up fees (taxes) on cargo going in and out of the state via Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors.

When I heard about the veto, I immediately got in touch with Jon Coupal over at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (they had vigorously opposed this legislation) and Jon had this to say:

“Governor Schwarzenegger made taxpayers and the business community breathe a little easier today by vetoing a host of “fee” increase proposals. The democrat majority in the California Legislature has increasingly characterized tax increases as “fee” increases in order to avoid certain constitutionally… Read More

The Los Angeles Times spent weeks hiring a researcher to search every naval record concerning US GOP Senate Nominee Dick Mountjoy. I’m sure they spent time researching everything else in his bio as well.

We all know the LA Times will print anything if it hurts Republicans. I’m sure they have no researcher checking Feinstein out.

The amazing thing here is that this will be more money spent on the campaign than anything the California Republican party will do. To be fair some county chairs in San Diego, LA and San Luis Obispo have been helpful, but the state party won’t even include Dick on the door hangers. They are following the Governor’s lead in not supporting the entire team. Also the LA Lincoln Club maxed out to Dick, but again nothing from the Party.

To date, they allowed Dick to speak at the CRP Convention, but didn’t include him in the candidate profile book.

It is a sad day when the liberally biased LA Timesspend more trying to "torpedo" a campaignthan the State Party is willing to do on behalf of their nominee. Shame.… Read More

If you are into the history of New York City, and some of its most amazing buildings, then you would know that some of the signature tall towers in Manhattan and beyond bear the distinguished “Bing & Bing” trademark. Back in mid-Twentieth century, brothers Alexander and Leo Bing were know for having perfected the art of developing luxury apartment buildings and more. Today, many amazing building around New York City stand as a living legacy of the hard work and ingenuity of the Bing Brothers.

Unfortunately, one of the brothers, Leo Bing, left us another ‘living legacy’ that is bad news for anyone who believes in limited government, liberty for Americans, and the kind of free-market system that allowed two brothers, back in the day, to amass a fortune larger than the annual budget of many countries. Stephen Bing is the grandson of Leo, and his share of an inheritance from the Bing family fortune was estimate, when he got it, to be worth between 400 – 600 million dollars! Stephen dropped… Read More