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Freedom to Ride Except In Riverside

I grew up in an off road motorcycle riding family, thus I know a thing or two about it. In 1971 surf documentary film director extraordinaire Bruce Brown produced the all time motorcycle classic film "On Any Sunday". One of the features of the film was the annual Lake Elsinore Motorcycle Grand Prix. The Grand Prix began in the 1960s and in the early 1970’s Honda even introduced a motorcycle called the Elsinore. The race was shut down in 1973 but was brought back to life in 1996. Lake Elsinore is currently gaining national fame for hosting Extreme Sports. With that in mind, The Lake Elsinore Motorcycle Grand Prix is looking to once again take a national spot light under the leadership of Lake Elsinore Mayor Bob Magee.

So why the history of dirt biking on a political BLOG you say; here is why. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted to knock down yet another domino in the fight to keep "private" in the phrase "private property". The BOS recently sent a draft off-highway vehicle (OHV) ordinance back to the Planning Department requesting that "they either ban OHV use in residential areas… Read More

67th AD Update: McGill Surprise

The 67th Assembly District campaign has been pretty sleepy with OC Supervisor Jim Silva as the presumed winner. Diane Harman (wife of sitting Assemblyman Tom Harman) is also in the race as is Cypress city councilman Mike McGill.

The OC Blog reports that McGill was the strongest fund raiser this period. This is a big surprise since Silva is a sitting county supervisor with the ability to raise BIG money, but apparently hasn’t.

Silva does have more than double the cash on hand of either one of his opponents.

Silva has excellent name ID having served on the city council in Huntington Beach (the largest city in the District) and now on the Board of Supervisors for more than 10 years. Diane Harman has never stood for office and I have never seen her at anything GOP in Orange County, she is trading largely on her husbands name. McGill has been on the Cypress council since 1998. He gained some notoriety for voting with the majority to, well I will let Steve Greenhut of the OC Register explain:

(from back in June 2002) On Tuesday night, in aRead More

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt

Bogh Backs Adams; More on the 59th

Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Russ Bogh (R-Yucaipa) has endorsed Anthony Adams (pictured left) in the 59th Assembly District Republican primary. And by way of further update on the contest for this equally divided L.A. County/San Bernardino County seat, I want to provide some additional thoughts on the heels of Mike Spence’s excellent post yesterday. Read it here. (Mike doesn’t have a dog in this fight. I do — It’s Adams.)

The two candidates with six figures cash-on-hand are Chris Lancaster ($150,000), from LaVerne in L.A. County (pictured right),and Adams ($108,000), from the high desert in San… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Speaker’s Office responds to allegations of Dem’s bring “Pro-Criminal”

Steve Maviglio, spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, sent this item over to me in response to the Spitzer piece and my commentary today:

There’s a reason the Attorney General, California Police Chiefs Association, and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault supported AB 50 – and strongly opposed the unanimous decision by Assembly Republicans to remove $23 million for GPS surveillance of high-risk sex offenders and SAFE teams to monitor sex offenders.

• The Runner legislation says an offender cannot live within 2000 ft. of a school. It does nothing to stop offenders from trespassing… Read More

Bruce is Boss

This guy Bruce McPherson is not messing around. Refuting the premise that it’s a lousy time to be a Republican, he proves it all wrong.

The reports are in, and while I’m definitely an idiot, I think Bruce out raised the 2 Dems….and of Bowens money…over 100K in personal loans.

So for today….our Bruce is the boss.

McPherson $578,450.06 Ortiz $412,096.06 Bowen $367,936.08… Read More

Santa Cruz Pushes for Government Distributed Marijuana Use

The City of Santa Cruz has filed a lawsuit with a federal court in San Jose asking it to grant the city permission to distribute medical marijuana to patients through its “Office of Compassionate Use.” Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the United States government can prosecute users of medical marijuana, the City of Santa Cruz and the ACLU (yes, I am also shocked that the ACLU is advocating that the government distribute illegal drugs) are pushing an appeal which would force the government to honor Prop 215 which was passed in 1996.

Pot smoking and Santa Cruz go together like peanut butter and jelly (or in Santa Cruz like pot brownies and milk) but I believe the “Office of Compassionate Choice” oversteps what local government is intended to do. I don’t know of any other municipalities in California that have offices with the sole purpose of distributing a particular drug and I believe the tax revenue the office will use could be put to more productive uses such as fixing roads, educating kids or mending the precarious Pajaro river… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Feinstein gives $5,700,000 reasons why her re-election looks strong

Senator Dianne Feinstein has reported $5.7 million cash-on-hand as of the end of last year. In the last reporting period, she raised the better part of a million bucks. Of course, this says nothing for her vast personal wealth.

On the GOP side, conservative former State Senator Dick Mountjoy had not entered the race before the 12/31/05 cut-off. Mountjoy, popular among the GOP right, has a strong grassroots network, but is not known for his fundraising prowess.

If there is a political handicapper anywhere in the country who doesn’t have at least 100-1 odds on a reelect for DiFi, I would be surprised.

It’s too bad, given that Feinstein (despite her lack of ‘stridency’ compared to her colleague, Barbara Boxer) is easily to the left of most California voters.… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Rexroad’s thought on angst from right for Arnold

I had been meaning to draw the attention of FlashReport readers to a post by FR friend Matt Rexroad over at the Cal-Races website. I thought it an interesting analysis couched in terms of Congressman Richard Pombo’s re-election challenge, but is really Matt’s assessment that those on the right who are attacking the Governor for his recent shift from a "Live Within Our Means" theme to a "Bond it, build it" theme.

Matt’s post begins like this:

As I read the different attacks on the Governor by the conservatives in the Republican Party I am amazed at how short-sighted they are. Nationally, unless something dramatic happens, Republicans are about to take a beating that has been in the worksRead More