This morning, unexpectedly, Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham pled guilty to bribery, tax evasion, conspiracy and who knows what more. US Attorney Carol Lam was just on the local news stating that he took some $2 million in bribes from defense contractors in exchange for favors. Cunningham will be holding a press conference in 45 minutes downtown. I’ll be there and report back in this publication. My guess – he resigns and there is a special called within 90 days to fill the seats. All bets are off – the Congressional, Senate, and Assembly races in question are a madhouse of speculation.… Read More

Here’s the deal on this road apple…..I’ve attempted no less than 3 drafts at this profile of my friend Matt Rexroad’s looney plan to move to a bigger stage on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.. Its taken me so long that Fleischman has stopped believing me that I was almost done….and throw in today that I dropped my lap top and you sense my frustration writing this goofy thing.

I tried to do the lame music title thing..I’d tell you that Arron Tippin’s “Got to Stand For Something” when combined with its popularity among a supportive public of the first Bush desert war…I’d explain how that song would be a potentially good metaphor for who Matt is as a politician…then I got bored with that line of thought and then moved on to some biographical version…I’d give you the url tosome credible third party publicationand tell you that does a good job of catching Matt….but I once in a while… Read More

During the early 1990s, I worked in state Sen. John Lewis’ district office. As anyone who has worked in a D.O. can attest, listening to constituents with…unique perspectives on the nature of reality.

An unexpected phone call the day after Thanksgiving splashed me with an unwelcome dose of deja vu.

Ace reporter Jean Pasco quoted me in an LAT piece on the 48th CD special election — specifically on Jim Gilchrist’s snownball-in-hell chance of winning:

Today I focus on attorneys. You will see some of them have political practices, others are in criminal law. All of them are OC Power Brokers.

NOTE: Many of these attorneys have been the driving force behind electing judges and the district attorney now and in the past. I don’t want to politicize the bench unnecessarily but know that these are the players who got many of our respected jurists their jobs, both appointed and elected.

Tom Malcolm. A Jones Day partner and major Republican donor he is the Dean of the OC legal community and respected by ALL.

John Ramirez. A partner at Rutan & Tucker, he is among the top land use/initiative lawyers in CA. If you need to qualify an… Read More

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I’m sure everyone enjoyed some turkey. Well, there is another turkey being talked about in Sacramento – a public policy turkey. There is a lot of talk swirling around about a potential massive infrastructure bond measure that would be of epic proportions – numbers that have been talked about range from $50 to $100 billion (how many zeroes is that? Hmmm…$100,000,000,000.00). Anyways, you can read plenty about my thoughts on this in my commentary today.

Jon Coupal, the respected President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has penned an exclusive column for today’s FlashReport where is eloquently lays out the reasons why such a bond measure would be poor public policy, and bad news for California taxpayer.

In all of my conversations that I have had with folks about this potential… Read More

I trust that had a great Thanksgiving Holiday! This will be a busy week at the FlashReport, so I hope that you will check back to this site each and every day! Today’s featured column was written exclusively for the FlashReport by Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Entitled, Massive Bond Threatens State’s Future, Coupal walks us through the reasons why now is exactly the wrong time for the state to be looking at further leveraging its precarious financial position with a mega-bond (I’ve heard numbers ranging from 50-100 BILLION dollars) deal. From what I have heard so far, one idea being bounced around is to borrow this huge some of money, and use current moneys that are spent on construction and infrastructure to pay off the principle of that loan. Then we would pay the interest of that loan with general fund dollars.… Read More

Unions spent tens of millions of dollars to prove to all Californians that they fight for regular people. Working class people like nurses, firefighters and teachers.

The city of Los Angeles’ Union of Engineers and Architects provedthe point bystaging a protest at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). I’m sure the sight of protesters and the watching cops warmed the hearts of the working people that had to get back to LA after spending Thanksgiving somewhere else. Read it here.

I’m sure the returning passengers couldn’t understand why the protesters had worked 17 months with out a contract. Poor devils.

The Daily News reminded us in an editorial that Los Angeles has the highest paid city workers in the nation. But the passengers, I’m sure remembered that the DWP in the city had a huge 28% increase over five years and that these fine fellows deserved a similiar raise as well.

Unions are our friends and proved it by jamming LAX… Read More

The Washington Post reports this morning that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t the only governor facing a clemency decision, but the politics involved for Mark Warner of Virginia are much different. Warner is the current favorite of the centrist, "faith-based" Democrats lining up for the 2008 presidential primaries, who’s political success has been predicated on his ability to reach out to the culturally conservative swing voters who’ve been supporting Republicans in recent years.

Let’s assume that Warner, like Schwarzenegger, will not allow political motivations to influence his decision over a man’s life. But both governors are certainly aware of the political ramifications of their respective decisions. And Warner’s advisors must remember another southern governor who flew back to Arkansas from the campaign trail in 1992 to personally oversee the execution of a mentally retarded criminal.

But what’s most interesting about the debate in Virginia isn’t the political impact on… Read More