After talking with several folks "in the know" inside of the State Capitol — it is clear that the legislative sessions hastily scheduled for this afternoon are pre-mature. It would appear that Perata and Nunez are somehow trying to push Republicans into making a speedy decision.

To that I say – PUT ON THE BRAKES.

The only rush here is an imaginary deadline that doesn’t exist. What is the advantage of a speedy vote? Well, it seems like there might be two of them that are the most obvious:

I would counsel legislative Republicans that not rushing into a vote, and taking the time to review this proposal (and subsequent proposals if this one doesn’t cut the mustard) is the prudent thing to do. Taking some time would allow legislators to do some pretty… Read More

After a long city council meeting 4 of the 5members of the West Covina City Council and the City Manager were looking to relax and get something to eat. They innocently traveled 20 minutes away to the Dal Rae in Pico Riveria.

I should note that Iknow the W.C. council pretty well and would never disparage them.

Now they are being accused of violating the Brown Act. See article here.

No need to worry. They took the City Attorney along. Councilwomen Shelley Sandersonexplains;

"Sanderson said Alvarez-Glasman was at the dinner to make sure the members did not discuss city business."

Hats off tothe City Attoney for spending his free time (unless hisservices end up in the bill) as chaperone. If more Council’s would do the same thing these problems just wouldn’t come up.

Memo to West Covina Chamber: You really need to work onthe Shop West Covina campaign.… Read More

Thanks to Flash for pointing out the piece from yesterday’s San Bernardino County Sun about the latest development in the misadventures ofRep. Joe Baca and Sons,aka the "Dismal Dynasty". I postedPart I of this year’s sagaon October 9th. The latest Baca blunder came in the form of their inability to get endorsements from the Democratic Party convention last weekend.

(Pictured, left to right) Joe, Joe Jr., and Jeremy — or as he is now known, "J. Baca", are either running for reelection to Congress (Joe the Father), for a promotion from the State Assembly to the State Senate in the overlapping district (Joe the Son, who likes to call himself "Genuine Joe"), or for promotion to the State Assembly from "education consultant" (the other son, "J. Baca", akaJeremy).

Since almost the dawn of… Read More

[Update: Assemblyman Chuck DeVore just called to say that a late-scheduled session has been set in the State Assembly for 5:30 p.m. today…] The Democrats in Sacramento must be really enjoying themselves today. What could possibly be more enjoyable for them than to see Republicans boxed into a corner. In the downstairs office, you have a GOP Governor against whom almost all of the Democrats have endorsed, and across the aisle they have GOP legislators, who stand as their longtime opponents in their quest to massively grow the size and scope of state government. It is being reported in articles all around the state (check them out on the main page of the site) that both houses of the legislature are going to be voting today to send a on a package of four bond measures for the November ballot. It is with great glee that Senate and Assembly Democrats are pushing as hard as they can to include literally as much… Read More

[Update: Assemblyman Chuck DeVore just called to say that a late-scheduled session has been set in the State Assembly for 5:30 p.m. today…]

The Democrats in Sacramento must be really enjoying themselves today. What could possibly be more enjoyable for them than to see Republicans boxed into a corner. In the downstairs office, you have a GOP Governor against whom almost all of the Democrats have endorsed, and across the aisle they have GOP legislators, who stand as their longtime opponents in their quest to massively grow the size and scope of state government. It is being reported in articles all around the state (check them out on the main page of the site) that both houses of the legislature are going to be voting today to send a on a package of four bond measures for the November ballot. It is with great glee that Senate and Assembly Democrats are pushing as hard as they can to include literally as much non-infrastructure spending as possible into a bond package on which the Governor would like to stake his re-election. It’s a win-win for… Read More

I have never met Eric Roach. People tell me he is a great guy. He just lost an election to Brian Bilbray (pictured below, to the right) in the 50th CD. I hope he does not run another campaign June 6th.

Given all the residue from Duke Cunningham’s crimes, It is not going to be easy to hold on to this normally safe Republican seat on this confusing ballot where the general election for the special and the primary for 2006 are on the same ballot. Roach can only win the primary by bringing Bilbray down which will only help the Democrat in the race. The most likely scenario for a successful Roach is to win the primary and allow a Democrat to win the general thereby having to face an incumbent in November. That gives us a very high probability of losing the seat completely. This year will be close enough without losing what should be safe Republican seats over internal squabbles.

Politics is a team sport and the Republican… Read More

I want to add my welcome to Congressman John Campbell. I had the pleasure of working on his campaign for Congress. For obvious reasons I can only call him my second favorite member of Congress. I wanted to pass along just a few FlashReport BLOGER pointers

1) Flash is a real editor who pays close attention to everything posted on his BLOG.

2) If your FlashReport e-mail account is like mine, it will soon fill up with e-mails from people in Nigeria asking you to help them get money out of their country and people wanting to sell you body part enhancements of every kind.

3) This is a great political tool that Jon has created and it is an honor to be part of it, especially since the BLOG roster is filling up with VIPs like yourself.

4) You will soon get the pleasure, much to Jon’s chagrin, of serving with Brian Bilbray in Congress.… Read More

A hearty welcome to U. S. Representative John Campbell to the role of Flashreport contributor.

I am particularly proud to have him aboard for two reasons, first, he is my Member of Congress. And second, it really gives me some peace of mind knowing that my Congressman knows how to use a computer and email and even the back-end system that controls the Flashreport.

If you think about it, there are probably a huge percentage of the 535 Members of Congress who haven’t a clue how to check the weather in NYC let alone add their two cents (in the case of John Campbell his two silver dollars) by posting their thoughts on the web.… Read More