I recently read that our Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with Senater Trent Lott of Mississippi were introducing legislation aimed at getting rid of this process of Congressional ‘earmarking’ where individual Members of Congress insert their pet programs into spending bills. It was this process that allowed the discraced and soon-to-be-jailed former Congressman Duke Cunningham to slide contracts to the folks that padding him with millions in return.

I came across the analysis below from Human Events that really shows that Feinstein and Lott are trying to make the earmarking process more ‘transparent’ but are doing nothing to try and curb it, unlike two of their colleagues, John McCain and Tom Cobern.

If anyone knows if any California Members of Congress are serious about stopping this practice of earmarking, and are willing to talk about it — please have them contact me.

Here is the HE piece from their… Read More

The FlashReport started hearing a buzz yesterday that first-term Assemblyman Van Tran, who is now seeking the GOP nomination for the 34th State Senate seat being vacated by the term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn, had endorsed Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen to replace him in the Assembly.

The source of the rumors was a mailing that has gone out from Nguyen’s campaign inviting people to a February 9th fundraising event with special guest Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, on which Tran is listed at the top of the Host Committee.

Knowing how close Van is with both Nguyen and the other GOP candiate vying for his seat, businessman Jim Righeimer, I put a call into Van so that I could try to sort this out.

Van told me that, "Both Janet and Jim are friends of mine – long standing friends. Janet asked me to lend my name to be on the host committee [for this event] in early January, at least a couple of weeks before I made my announcement for State Senate, and before Jim Righeimer had let everyone… Read More

THE WATER "FEE" IS A TAX. PERIOD. Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association penned a piece that appeared in the FlashReport, drawing the distinction between a tax and a fee. Given that he is an authorative source on the matter, let’s make no mistake about it. There is a currently a proposal on the table to increase the tax burden on Californians by several billion (yes, with a "B") a year. This proposal would place a mandatory fee of $3/month ($36/year) on every parcel of property in the state, and then these funds would go towards water-related infrastructure investments. But the key is that there is no nexus to an individual’s payment and a project nearby that directly benefits them. Instead, all of these billions of dollars collected locally will be shipped to Sacramento and spent there by politicians. If this isn’t a tax increase, I don’t know what is. … Read More

THE WATER "FEE" IS A TAX. PERIOD. Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association penned a piece that appeared in the FlashReport, drawing the distinction between a tax and a fee. Given that he is an authorative source on the matter, let’s make no mistake about it. There is a currently a proposal on the table to increase the tax burden on Californians by several billion (yes, with a "B") a year. This proposal would place a mandatory fee of $3/month ($36/year) on every parcel of property in the state, and then these funds would go towards water-related infrastructure investments. But the key is that there is no nexus to an individual’s payment and a project nearby that directly benefits them. Instead, all of these billions of dollars collected locally will be shipped to Sacramento and spent there by politicians. If this isn’t a tax increase, I don’t know what is. This tax increase is in the fine print of a… Read More

I don’t think Susan Kennedy is a Communist sympathizer. I don’t think she’s a spy for Gray Davis or Phil Angelides. I don’t know much about her politics, although it sounds like she’s somewhere to the left of most Republicans and somewhere to the right of most Democrats. Which, as most of the participants on this website have decided, is pretty much where her boss is.

But after reading Friday’s Los Angeles Times’ story on the payment Kennedy received from the Schwarzenegger campaign committee, I have an entirely different set of concerns than most of my fellow bloggers. My worry is less about ideology than it is about ethics. Or at least, the appearance of ethical questions in an administration that promised to clean up Sacramento when it came to power.

There’s all sorts of revisionist history about what elected Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first place. There are those who think it was his celebrity that pulled him into office, an opinion that not only drastically underestimates the intellectual capabilities of California voters but ignores the fact that Arnold’s campaign didn’t really catch fire until… Read More

65th Assembly ( San Bernardino & Riverside Counties) candidate Brenda Salas has announced a few new endorsements, primarily a hand full of local city council folks, who I am sure are very important in their communities, but when you are running for the Assembly it would be nice to see some members of the Assembly endorse you.

Brenda is a very gracious and hard working young woman. She is a city Councilmember in Banning , I have had the pleasure of speaking with her on many an occasion and find her bright and articulate. The problem with her candidacy comes from the fact that she used to be a staff member for Congressman Joe “Open Borders” Baca, a Democrat in San Bernardino County. Given the political environment theses days, her association is going to be a tough issue to get around in a closed Republican Primary.

Salas has a very talented campaign consultant, Joe Giardiello, out of Los Angeles working for her. I have known Joe for years and respect his talents. If were to offer my free unsolicited advice- (free and unsolicited is getting exactly what you paid for it) it would be this- Before you tell the Republican primary voters… Read More

On January 14th I posted on this leading California / National Political BLOG that Rep. Roy Blunt had the votes to be the Republican Leader in the House of Representatives. As we all know, I was wrong. I do believe that on January 14th Blunt did have the 117 votes to be the Leader, the problem for him came on Feb 2nd when the voting took place and he only had 109 in the end.

I have a good friend who works in a senior position for Blunt. Before I posted Blunt’s press release that day, I point blank asked him if what they were saying was true, as I did not want to use the FlashReport as a flack vehicle for whoever puts out what spin. My source confirmed the information was correct and as I said, on January 14th I believed it was true.

As many of us have learned in politics, the only poll that matters is the one taken on Election Day. Rep. Roy Blunt (as did my boss Rep. Darrell Issa) was reminded of that this week. For those of you out there who send me nasty e-mails or posted on their BLOGS a.k.a Power Blue Report chastising me for lying about Blunt’s votes. I admit I was wrong about the out… Read More

The contest for the 34th Senate District is the most contentious election contest in Orange County (with arguable exception the Diane Harkey-Tom Harman race for John Campbell’s old Senate seat).

I think our readers know how it is lining up: Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher versus Assemblyman Van Tran on the GOP side, and Assemblyman Tom Umberg and OC Supervisor Lou Correa on the Democratic side.

Since the 34th SD is at parity in terms of partisan registration, Daucher’s candidacy is being sold as giving the GOP a better shot at picking it up — the argument being that her moderate makes her a stronger general election candidate in a toss-up district like the 35th.

Although I strongly disagree with her on several issues, I like Lynn. I got to spend some time with her and her husband Don at the Republican National Convention in 2004. She’s a very gracious person.

However, part of the problem with moderate politicians is they tend to… Read More