Back in my college debate team days, Mother Jones was a reliable source of quasi-outlandish quotes to brandish against your opponents. In intellectual exchanges where sounding like Michael Moore sometimes carried the day, you had to have your nuclear options! Need a quote that says corporations are killing the innocent–turn to Mother Jones. Or a quote that says the war on poverty has failed–check.

Still, despite my political and professional inclinations I have regularly bought and read the mag over the years.

So it came as only mild surprise recently when the publication ran a relatively positive profile of San Diego County Republican Congressman Darrel Issa.

Here’s what they said:

"Today’s House Republicans are even more conservative than their predecessors; should the GOP ever get back control of the House, it’ll be Issa—not some pantywaist Republican-in-Name-Only from Connecticut—who will be in charge of the oversight committee, ready to rain subpoenas down on the Obama administration. And Issa has indicated that he doesn’t plan to wait until Republicans have the majority to start… Read More

Disclosure: I don’t work for any of the candidates. I know Campbell and Poizner, and have met with Whitman, but my only current involvement is that I want the GOP to win because I think a Democrat Governor will mean crushing taxes and a radical agenda that will damage California for decades.

Currently there are three (3) candidates working to secure the GOP nomination – all from Northern California and all more moderate than much of the base of the Republican Party.

Many – myself included – have talked about the likelihood that a more conservative, Southern California Republican could enter the race. But the window is rapidly closing for a new entry.

Here’s a run down of the current line-up:

Tom Campbell is the candidate of ideas. He is easily the smartest, most articulate person in the race – the… Read More

Over the past week or so Meg Whitman has been announcing various interest-group coalitions from around California supporting her campaign for Governor. Just yesterday she announced statewide law enforcement leaders.

Later this morning she will roll out her Agriculture Coaltion Leadership Team. But we have a "sneak peak" here for FlashReport readers… Agriculture Coalition Co-Chairs Jesse Alderete, President, California Farm Labor Contractors’ Alliance Mark Borba, Owner, Borba Farms… Read More

FlashReport Reader:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Western Conservative Political Action Conference (Western CPAC), I am pleased to announce that we have just confirmed that Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, and BigGovernment.com has confirmed that he will be giving opening comments on a star-studded political technology panel that I will be hosting this Saturday. "This Saturday," you ask??!! YES, WESTERN CPAC WILL BE TAKING PLACE THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY RIGHT IN THE HEART OF ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA. If you haven’t already, you should check out our website here which is chock-full of information on the event.… Read More

After launching a first attack piece on his primary rival Linda Ackerman, Supervisor Chris Norby over the weekend sent the attached positive piece out to AD 72 voters.… Read More

Over the weekend voters in the 72nd Assembly District were treated to positive mail pieces from both Linda Ackerman and Chris Norby.

Attached to this post is a letter that went out from Linda Ackerman as well as a brochure.

Expect to see a lot of positive mail from Ackerman’s campaign as, based on the only survey to which we are privy, she has a lot of establishing herself to do with voters — where Norby, as a current elected official has a lead.

There are lots of rumors of independent expenditures in the works on Ackerman’s behalf. If true, look for those to do the "dirty work" of going negative on her main opponent, Chris Norby.

The next post will have a piece of mail from Norby that dropped over the weekend.… Read More

I just got off of the phone with Tim Whitacre, the Campaign Manager of the Anthony Adams Recall. FR readers will recall that in February Adams was one of six Republican legislators who crossed party lines and voted with every Democrat in the legislature to smack Californian’s with well over $16 BILLION in higher sales, income and car taxes, as well as a cutting the child tax credit.

Shortly after that vote, an effort was started to try and gather enough signatures to force one of these legislators to a recall vote — that legislator is Adams. Although it requires just under 36,000 signatures to force Adams into a recall election, Whitacre told me that with turn-ins today at the Registrar of Voters offices in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, the advocates for recalling Adams collected and have turned in a staggering 61,593 signatures.

Political veterans know that a percentage of those signatures will be invalid. But since the campaign was checking signatures gathered against the voter registration rolls, Whitacre assured me that there is a 100% likelihood that this recall will qualify with many, many thousands of signatures over the… Read More

Back in July, when we at FR broke the news that Brian Bilbray’s Chief of Staff Steve Danon had confirmed he was running for SD County Supervisor in 2012, as well as indicating he was "100 percent in" even if it meant taking on the incumbent, the folks at Supervisor Pam Slater-Price’s office were not the only ones raising eyebrows about how early it was to start a campaign.

Early-schmirlie. In what may clearly be the earliest (that word again) endorsement ever by the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of San Diego County in a race of such magnitude, today the organization announced it’s support for Danon. In 2012, just so we’re clear.

Keep in mind the DSA hasn’t made many (or any) endorsements for 2010 yet, as far as I can tell.… Read More