– On Tuesday, Republican State Senator Tony Strickland formally announced his candidacy for the newly minted, very competitive 26th Congressional District. Yesterday Strickland announced that he has already raised $317,915 (with none of that being transfers of any funds from his existing State Senate campaign committee). Strickland’s strong showing reinforces what I said when Congressman Elton Gallegly announced his retirement — Strickland is a stronger candidate for the GOP to win that seat than Gallegly would have been.

– No doubt the winner of the “most enjoyable response to the Governor’s State of the State Address award” goes to longtime FR friend State Senator Joel Anderson, with his press release entitled, “I want to work with the Governor but sometimes it’s hard to take him seriously.”

– Vice President Biden came into San Francisco to perform a series of “cashectomies” on the liberal donor class in the area. Apparently he… Read More

Here is the response to the Governor’s State of the State Address from Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff and Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway:

Republican Response to Gov. Brown’s State of the State from CA Assembly GOP on Vimeo.

Here is the response to the State of the State Address from California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro:

… Read More

Here’s my response to Governor Jerry Brown’s State of the State address:

“I agree with the Governor that we must do more to spur job creation and investment in our state. Unfortunately, by pushing higher taxes, the Governor sends the entirely wrong message. We don’t need higher taxes, we need more private sector jobs.

“Despite some modest job growth, more than two million Californians remain unemployed. Rather than drive more job creators and wage earners away from our state, we should be doing everything in our power to help them stay here and succeed.

“When Californians have jobs, the state always has plenty of revenue. The Governor should be campaigning for jobs, not higher taxes.”… Read More

I just got a press release from the “Think Long Committee” announcing that they are putting off until 2012 plans to place a measure on the statewide ballot to “broaden” the tax base in California to include taxes on services.

While I think that there is actually some opportunity to bring people together behind the idea of broadening the tax base so that such a big chunk of the state’s tax income doesn’t come from a pretty darned small group of the most wealthy Californians (thus substituting predictability for volatility in the state’s budgeting process) — this committee’s contribution to the process was a proposed ballot measure that purported to be about tax “reform” — but was in a large measure about tax increases. Their draft proposal was not “revenue neutral” — a key component to bring any right-thinkers to the discussion about broadening the tax base — instead the Think Long Committee went with a rather-short sighted proposal to play a shell game that, when over, would have meant a $10 BILLION tax increase. Good Lord.

The think long committee is made up of… Read More

I have known Ed Royce going back to the late-80’s. Back then, he was a California State Senator and I was a brand-new activist with Young Americans for Freedom, a great conservative youth organization of which Royce himself if an alumnus. Of course now Royce is a long-serving Member of Congress (he was first elected in 1992) and is really doing a great job. Despite having served in the House of Representatives for nearly two decades, Royce continues to possess the enthusiasm, energy and passion that he had the day he first walked under the Capitol Dome. So many Members of Congress become “institutionalized” and become distant from the cause — but not Royce. Royce combines his unflagging energy with fierce determination to make a difference. Not only is he well regarded as a legislator, especially noted for his expertise in the areas of finance and foreign policy, but equally importantly is that he is totally engaged on the political side. For years Royce has been a leader within the National Republican Congressional Committee, and continues to be a key leader on party issues at the state and county levels. To be honest, I couldn’t be… Read More

We have confirmed that shortly Congressman Gary Miller, who had been drawn into a seat withe Congressman Ed Royce, will announce that he is instead running in the 31st Congressional District, where Jerry Lewis lives, but Congressman Lewis has announced his retirement. When he announces (shortly), Miller will share that he has already been endorsed by Speaker John Boehner and NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions.… Read More

The other shoe has dropped — big-spending GOP Congressman Jerry Lewis has formally announced his retirement! (No, we didn’t get a release). Here is a story by ace DC reporter Ben Goad with the Riverside Press Enterprise. A few days ago the FlashReport put out an alert notifying readers that Lewis had been calling long-time supporters letting them know he was going to retire. The next day the Congressman’s press secretary denied it, saying that no decisions had been made by the Congressman. Yet, here we are, with the Congressman making his announcement at the end of the week, which is what he told to the supporters with whom we spoke under strict confidentiality.

We’ll be writing a lot more about why Lewis’ retirement is good for the Republican Party, and good for America. The bottom line is that Lewis spent the vast majority of his time in Congress lording over federal spending,… Read More

If you’re a political or issue activist, you’ve likely been to these “outreach” and “consensus” meetings, where proponents rig the procedure (and often pack the audience) to get the results they desire while ignoring, stifling, or ridiculing dissent.

Though there are many variations, this procedure is best known as the Delphi Technique. It’s a con job used mostly (though by no means exclusively) by the Left so that they can later claim to the gullible and/or allied press that everyone agrees with their suppositions and conclusions.

Here’s a worthwhile video demonstrating how this strategy works in an actual meeting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-zpA1althjo… Read More