Several weeks ago, all hell broke loose in Ventura County when longtime US Representative Elton Gallegly stated that although he filed as a candidate for re-election to his seat, he would not run for re-election due to health concerns. This announcement spawned a last minute flurry of activity over who would, and could, legally file for and run for that seat. For a while it looked like an unknown challenger, Michael Tenenbaum, would waltz into the seat due to being in the right place at the right time. After significant pressure from national GOPers, including the Speaker of the House, Gallegly decided to campaign for his seat and is likely to be re-elected. (Notably, shortly after Gallegly announced his decision not to run, I suggested here on the FlashReport that he should be re-elected regardless of whether he campaigned to prevent a no-name from becoming the unintended beneficiary of a nominally open seat in Congress).

Now, legislation sponsored by State Senator Jim Battin (R-La Quinta), is being put forward to fix the glitch that could… Read More

[Today’s guest commentary is written by Adam Probolsky]

Give me a home There is a lot of talk about affordable housing. There is also some legislation and local governments trying to solve the problem: fewer and fewer lower and middle income workers and retirees can afford to live in the established urban and suburban neighborhoods they want and need to live. Today’s OC Register touches on the issue and basically suggests lessening the burden on developers to speed the process and reduce the cost of building. That is a fine idea, but in a market where the million-dollar home is about all you can find, more needs to be done.

By more, I mean, more non-profits engaging in the process and more sane minded residents supporting projects that allow grandma and grandpa to live close to their grand-kids. I am a planning commissioner in … Read More

[Today’s guest commentary is written by Adam Probolsky]

Give me a home There is a lot of talk about affordable housing. There is also some legislation and local governments trying to solve the problem: fewer and fewer lower and middle income workers and retirees can afford to live in the established urban and suburban neighborhoods they want and need to live. Today’s OC Register touches on the issue and basically suggests lessening the burden on developers to speed the process and reduce the cost of building. That is a fine idea, but in a market where the million-dollar home is about all you can find, more needs to be done.

By more, I mean, more non-profits engaging in the process and more sane minded residents supporting projects that allow grandma and grandpa to live close to their grand-kids. I am a planning commissioner in … Read More

As a lifelong Republican I am sad that almost all of my blogging is criticism of my own Party. This Congress failure to act on so many issues is disturbing, and energy policy is it’s latest debacle.

Today’s A1, above the fold piece in the Fresno Bee regarding Congress’ intent to investigate price gouging by oil companies was downright laughable. As usual, the Congress is a day late and many dollar short. We’ve known about our energy situation for years, yet we refuse to go get resources underneath our own soil. It’s a joke. As I wrote for the Lincoln Club of Fresno County website in June, 2004, the President has failed to lead on energy policy and he can’t blame the Senate.

When a President fails to issue any vetoes during his term he has a hard time leveraging his own Party, thus, the Senate largely ignores his wishes. If a few more of these GOP Senators, plus red state Democrat Senators has tougher opposition, it might be different. Instead, this White House gets bullied around on too many fronts.

The President could send a shock wave… Read More

The Long Beach election of April 11th is over…almost. As FR readers know the election came down to the last ballots in several races. See previous post here.The one race local Republicans werestill watching was Council District #3. In that race long time GOP activist Norm Ryan was in a battle to get to the June run-off. It looks like he came up short….but of course there is a recount going on. Read the story and results here.… Read More

A few months ago I published a popular blog about the drive times between cities in California during one of my wretched drives from San Diego to Sacramento. I must have gotten 100 responses with various anecdotes and personal travel times, so I thought I’d post on the topic again today.

Yesterday evening my wife, our daughter and I left downtown Sacramento at exactly 3pm… bound for San Diego. There was stop stop and go traffic for a bit in Sacramento and outside of Stockton, but we reached Stockton at 3:45, Modesto at 4:15, and Fresno at 5:30. My average speed was probably 70mph. We stopped at one of the innumerable and ersatz food stops for 15 minutes in Tulare County to grab a burger and jump back in the car. My 2 year old preceded to eat 3/4 of the burger then got a kick out of throwing the rest at the back of my head. Outside of Fresno my speed was closer to 80 or 85mph – we reached Bakersfield at 7:15, 4 hours and 15 minutes after we left Sacramento. Interestingly, I drive a Volvo and I had only used 2/5 a tank of gas at this point.

My next jump was over the Grapevine and along the 5 past downtown LA, which had little traffic. I passed… Read More

Today’s Commentary is penned by FlashReport contributor Tom Ross. Ross, a longtime political consultant and activist, is a Sacramento Area contributor for the FlashReport. Jon Fleischman, who normally pens this page, is on vacation… FROM TOM ROSS…

There are some good reports today on the new independent expenditure (IE) campaign that is being launched by the Tsakopoulos family on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. As always, Bill Bradley is on top of the development and discusses the problems the ie campaign faces — paying more than candidate campaigns for the TV commercials and the believability that this is really independent.

Kevin Yamamura in the Sac Bee reports that the IE is… Read More

Today’s Commentary is penned by FlashReport contributor Tom Ross. Ross, a longtime political consultant and activist, is a Sacramento Area contributor for the FlashReport. Jon Fleischman, who normally pens this page, is on vacation… FROM TOM ROSS…

There are some good reports today on the new independent expenditure (IE) campaign that is being launched by the Tsakopoulos family on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. As always, Bill Bradley is on top of the development and discusses the problems the ie campaign faces — paying more than candidate campaigns for the TV commercials and the believability that this is really independent.

Kevin Yamamura in the Sac Bee reports that the IE is… Read More