I have been out of the office all day, and so this isn’t news to some — but I want to congratulate my good friend and FlashReport contributor Dan Schnur on his appointment by Governor Schwarzenegger to serve as Chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission. Schnur will fill out the term of former State Senator Ross Johnson, who retired for health reasons.

I would write something lengthy and flowery, but since Torey Van Oot and Anthony York have done a swell job at the Sacramento Bee and LA Times political blogs, respectively.

Congratulations, Dan!

Oh yeah, no pressure – but Dan, this is your chance to show that all of that work you did for John McCain’s Presidential bid back in 2000 was because… Read More

Aquick rundown of the 59th Assembly District GOP Candidates fundraising

In first is former City Councilman Chris Lancaster. Lancaster who has run before has raised and contributed himself over 160K. He is clearly the money leader. He is also the leader in endorsements having secured Dick Mountjoy, and Bob Huff. He also has endorsements from both parts of this vast district Lancaster is also the candidate that seems to have broken through in Sacramento. He also has support of most the public safety unions that have endorsed. Lancaster has bought more slates than anyone else and mailed more as well, but has only 6K on hand. Consultant is Chris Jones.

In Second is Claremont Mayor and former legislative staffer Corey Calaycay. His totals are 93K raised and he has the most COH of 42K. Calaycay has some slates and has done some mail He has a lot of endorsements from the LA County side of the district and the endorsements of the San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Bulletin.

In third is Hesperia School Board member Anthony Riley. Riley raised over 67K and has almost 17K on hand. Riley has done mail with consultant Steve Presson. Riley endorsements are mostly… Read More

This morning the Poizner for Governor campaign will announce that their candidate has 72% support amongst conservative tea party activists around California.

To be specific, Marc Harris, one of the leaders of California’s tea party movement has released the results of an survey that he and other tea party leaders undertook — the straw poll was conducted by a combination of telephone (1,417 respondents), and emails forwarded within and among one hundred eighty seven (187) established, grassroots Tea Party groups.

The other twenty-eight percent (28%) broke down as follows: Undecided 18%; Meg Whitman 8%; Other Candidates 2%.

In a similar poll taken in the first week of March, 2010, (sample size: 814) the percentages were: Undecided 53%; Poizner 14%, Whitman 23%; Larry Naritelli 9%; Others 1%.

In conjunction with the release of this "straw poll" of tea party activists, Southern Cal Tea Party leader Harris also released an extensive memo on why he thinks that Poizner is the best… Read More

Sunday Political News Roundup….

http://sdrostra.com/?p=5065 … Read More

CAMPBELL FOR US SENATE “President Reagan”, WHITMAN FOR GOVERNOR “Flood of Debt”, COOLEY FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL “A Plan” this piece would probably be THE WINNER OF THE DAY, but the back panel has more text than a New Yorker article, YES ON PROPOSITION 6 very clear and to the point WINNER OF THE DAY, KENNEDY FOR SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “On the Issues” decent piece, SCHENIRER for SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “Traveling” this is one of a series of mailers I’d be interested to figure out if they look enough alike for voters to pitch them, or whether the sports foul theme gets some attention. I thought Schenirer was going to pull this off earlier in the race with this grassroots program, but Kennedy’s mail has been superior, SERNA FOR SACRAMENTO SUPERVISOR “Force” this has to be the worst mailer of the year, maybe of the decade… it is tabbed together in such a hostile way that I literally ended up with the mailer in shreds, SLATEMAILER “2010 Taxpayer Voting Guide”, SLATEMAILER “Republican Endorsements”.… Read More

Updated 5-29-10 When the race for the GOP nomination for Congressional District 19 began, I thought we had four pretty upstanding candidates in the race. I knew that Fresno Council Member Larry Westerlund was an unlikely contender, and that former Congressman Richard Pombo would have a tough time as a former incumbent, but the race started off strong on the issues, and has since degenerated into a mess.

Between State Senator Jeff Denham and former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson, it was easy to understand that Denham would have a massive money lead due to power of incumbency in fundraising. What I didn’t expect is that Denham would push the limits of campaign finance law to the brink – and perhaps violate those laws in the process.

With $700,000 in his non federal accounts to start this race, money he is prohibited from spending by law in his Congressional run, Denham and his advisors instead opted for a more "curious", and perhaps illegal way to get those soft dollars into his campaign.

As his… Read More

In the continuing battle in the 11th Congressional District (Full Disclosure: My client is Brad Goehring), the recent revelations of David Harmer taking his TARP golden parachute while making six figures (over $400K) and receiving unemployment benefits has rocked the campaign. The problem probably wouldn’t be so bad for him except for the fact that in recent debates, David Harmer whined incessantly that running for Congress was the most difficult decision he has ever had to make in his life and that he wished he could own a home instead of just renting. I guess when you’re a silver spoon politician’s kid life can be pretty tough.

True to form, David Harmer shows his mettle once again by sending out his wife to respond. The Elizabeth Emken campaign has mercilessly attacked Harmer on this issue and a recent Stockton Record story highlighted the Harmer hypocrisy for decrying bailouts while stuffing dollars in his pocket. The Harmer campaign earlier sent out Elayne Harmer to decry an attack on their faith after a mailer from Emken included excerpts of Harmer declaring in the… Read More

FR friend Seth Unger, who serves as Director of Communications for State Assembly Republicans hits it out of the park with his comments on this news story about the latest "Nanny State" measure passed by the liberal Democrats who control the state legislature (and apparently yearn to replace parents with government)…

… Read More