Jon Fleischman – Agent of Charles Munger?

 Dave Gilliard, Jon Fleischman  Comments Off on Jon Fleischman – Agent of Charles Munger?
Jul 312012
 

The Placer GOP is doing an endorsing convention for local races. This mimics what the San Diego Republican Party has done since their process was started by Ron Nehring over 10 years ago. The San Diego GOP is relevant as a political force in San Diego County as a result.

Jon Fleischman is someone that the media sometimes goes to for quotes on things Republican.

He decided to trash the idea of our local elected endorsing convention. Jon Fleischman is a former CRA President who apparently lost a lot of influence when the Contract with the CRA won the CRA officer elections in April of 2011.

And what’s worse for Jon Fleischman, is that he is no longer able to control outcomes of CRA endorsements in Orange County.

Jon Fleischman is also an acolyte of David Stafford Gilliard – the campaign manager of Beth Gaines and Doug LaMalfa. Neither Gaines nor LaMalfa like the Placer CRA-led Placer GOP Central Committee that much.

Many party insiders have told me off the record that Jon Fleischman routinely sells his blog to Dave Gilliard and his interests – one recent piece of evidence is a post he put up highlighting Beth Gaines’ first hit piece against Andy Pugno. This was done despite Pugno’s work on Prop 8 (which Fleischman publicly and actively supported) and despite a long-standing relationship between himself and Pugno. Apparently, money talks.

Which leads me to an apparent nexus for Fleischman to trash our endorsing convention coming up.

The Bee quoted Fleischman as saying: “It stands to reason that the 27 members of the county committee will each bring 10 people that are in agreement with them on how to vote on local endorsements, and so outcomes are unlikely to change with a larger group,”

And of course, no cheap shot would be complete without the requisite: “When you multiply the $25 registration fee times 270 participants, that’s a tidy little fundraiser for the Placer County GOP,” he said.

Leave it to the Placer County Dem Party Chairman to understand the stupidity of Jon Fleischman and the CRP leadership – he gets it and understands why an endorsing convention is a good idea:”It sort of surprises me that the Placer Republican Party would do this. I wouldn’t guess they would want a larger caucus-style process,” said Washman, chairman of the Placer County Democratic Central Committee. “If it were suggested we do something like that, I would not fight it.”

It was a backhanded compliment but a clear signal that the Dem Chairman gets it.But, not Jon Fleischman – he joined with the Munger-backed Liberals, RINO’s and the coalition of the angry to trash the idea of the endorsing convention.

Was Jon Fleischman an agent of Charles Munger in this story – or was he simply the latest illustration of the gross stupidity that exists within California Republican Leadership – or was he both?

Click here for the Bee article

P.S. – Please note that the CRP is broke as in 450k in the hole. Now a former CRP Vice President is quoted criticizing a County Central Committee for raising money, bringing new people in and assuming a mantle of leadership. Amazing.

Political Extortion 101 – Jon Fleischman and the “No New Taxes Pledge”

 Jon Fleischman, Les Baugh  Comments Off on Political Extortion 101 – Jon Fleischman and the “No New Taxes Pledge”
Jun 032012
 

Pledges. They are worthless – witness Howard Jarvis Taxpayers endorsements in recent years. They have endorsed several marginal Republican Candidates  that have made a mockery of their good name. (How dare I point that out) Remember Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Witness all the people who have signed the ATR “No New Taxes Pledge” who have wiped their behinds with it.

So-Called taxpayer groups sprout up like weeds – including the taxpayer group that is supporting Frank Bigelow against Rico Oller.

Jon Fleischman has appointed himself one of the guardians of virtue in the Republican Party with his website and his boorish tactics to coerce Republican candidates in to signing the ATR Pledge or to make some sort of public statement that they won’t raise taxes, ever.

What he does – is to threaten people, he’s done it for years and I believe that I am the first to ever expose this publicly. I have also been told that he engages in similar tactics to sell ad space on his blog.

From: Scott Loenhorst <redacted>
Date: May 14, 2012 11:49:14 PM PDT
To: voteforles@sbcglobal.net
Subject: RE: You have NOT signed the ATR Pledge – so you are willing to raise taxes?
Dear Les,
My name is Scott Loenhorst and I am writing on behalf of Jon Fleischman, Publisher of the widely-read FlashReport Website on California Politics (www.flashreport.org).

We are writing you because you are a candidate for partisan office and according to our records, you have not signed the Americans for Tax Reform’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge.” We wanted to make sure that you have the pledge available and we would like you to sign it right away. It is our request that you sign and return this form within 24 hours. Let us know if you have any questions.

 


We believe that it is very important that fiscally conservative candidates present a united front against the onslaught from special interests, who put tremendous pressure on GOP legislators to vote for a tax increase.

The form is attached. Please note that it needs a witness. If you need more information about the pledge itself, you can find more information on the ATR website: http://www.atr.org/taxpayer-protection-pledge
We believe that one of the reasons why Democrats have not raised taxes in Sacramento, is because virtually every Republican legislator in Sacramento has signed this pledge. It might interest you to know that every Republican member of Congress from California has signed.
If we do not hear back from you in this email, we will follow up with a phone call.

 


Thank you for your prompt attention to completing the attached form.  In addition to faxing it to ATR to the number on the form, we ask that you also email it back to us, or fax it to us at 1-928-223-8068.

Scott
PS – Please get back to me as soon as possible, as Jon is getting ready to write a story about Republican candidates who have not signed the pledge, which will be read by local conservative grassroots leaders and GOP donors in your area, and will likely be picked up by the media in your area.

 


 

Scott Loenhorst
The FlashReport
Senior Associate
xxx-xxx-xxxx-Mobile
Nice, huh? Sign the pledge or Jon Fleischman is going to “Out” you on his blog. Les Baugh – the client of mine that got threatened is a pastor of a Church in Anderson, CA and believes that there are only two pledges he should ever make in his life – to God and his wife.
Les pushed back against Mr. Flesichman and Jon in correspondence doubled down on the threat.
This pattern of high-minded arrogance is rampant in California Republican Party leadership.
As an aside – please note that the Flashreport receives roughly 500-700 hits on a normal day. You can look that up on competition intelligence websites… future Republican candidates should laugh off the above threat and run their campaigns.
The only thing that is a bigger joke right now than these tax pledges is the California Republican Party itself.
Apr 192012
 

In politics, self-righteous pompous arrogance has consequences – as does hypocrisy.

There is a story that involves me that pops up occasionally about when I was thrown off of the Red County Blog for being paid to blog for Steve Poizner. The part that is seldom-told is that Red County was told by me about my relationship with Poizner’s campaign and two that 4 days before I was expelled, they had taken the first $20,000 of what ended up being $110,000 from Meg Whitman’s Governor Campaign. (They claim for advertising – I’d love to get 1/10th of that from a campaign – any takers?)

I also remind people that it was Meg Whitman that attempted to hire me – I got the gig with Poizner because I refused to betray him without warning him. He decided to match the offer I had from Whitman – before I was thrown under the bus because of the negative press.

Now the issue is causing the FPPC to attempt to regulate blogging. The obvious issue is that violates the first amendment and the second is that the regulation is unenforceable.

I was called by a Sacramento Bee reporter relating to a newly proposed regulation requiring public disclosure by bloggers if they are being paid by campaigns.

I am Les Baugh’s general consultant – he is not paying me to blog. So, would I have to disclose that?

As an example, what would happen if Steve Frank called me up and asked me to do some more independent contracting on behalf of some of his clients? No campaign is paying me – do I have to disclose? What do I have to disclose?

What if I wrote a blog lighting up a candidate who is a nimrod, then the opponent called me and bought an ad on the blog? What about my ads that I put up that aren’t paid for? What about my right to kick the crap out of candidates I disdain? People could get really really confused and I could be turned in to a criminal by the FPPC for exercising my right to free speech.

The intent of this regulation is bad enough – but this would not be an issue had it not been for Chip Hanlon of Red County and his self-righteous hypocrisy.

Jon Fleischman gets paid by campaigns and he rarely, if ever discloses it. (Sources tell me) He gets paid frequently by Dave Gilliard (or Gilliard’s interests). The irony is that Mr. Gilliard may well have been behind the call from the Bee to my cell phone today as Mr. Gilliard has a proven affinity for floating stories to local media outlets. Gilliard’s nexus would be that several of his clients are frequent victims of this blog.

Almost every “major” blogger I know gets paid one way or another. Here is a story that the Bee reporter I spoke with wrote. (A portion of this came in to people’s email boxes as a Capitol Alert this evening)

I love the quotes that the reporter gave me in the story:

“A lot of people out there that pilloried me and talked about what I dirtbag I was, they’ve all been on the take for years,” Park said.

Park said he opposes “government telling anybody to do anything, but if these idiots would start being ethical about what they’re doing there would be no reason for government to be stepping in with more regulations.”
So, there you have it folks. The hypocritical ranting of a man (Chip Hanlon) who is now in serious legal trouble with the SEC for fraud and selling securities with an expired license has caused the FPPC to attempt to extend the heavy had of government in to blogging.
Sometimes a failure to have personal ethics does indeed hurt others – in ways you never intended when you think you are serving yourself.
Feb 212010
 

Recently, the Flashreport lit up Robert Stryk who is running for Mayor of Yountville. Yountville… say it rapidly, then look for it on a map.

Think Napa County – where all the wine is. Jon Fleischman writes that his second passion in life after politics is Wine, therefore, he is interested in Yountville.

Robert Stryk is a newcomer to elections – but is registered as a lobbyist in Washington D.C. He is a legal arms dealer and has to deal with members of Congress frequently. Stryk worked for J.D. Hayworth and Jim Colby – both former Republican Congressmen from Arizona.

Recently, Conservative ICON Lynn Westmoreland nominated Stryk for an appointment to DETAG. DETAG is one of those alphabet-soup committees in D.C. that deals with National Security issues.

As a result of the fraudulent transparency rules of Obama, everyone that talks to Congressman about “business” has to register as a lobbyist. This is an easy shot to take until you look further-

In his hit piece against Robert Stryk – he features information about a lawsuit ten years ago between Stryk and John Greene a former business partner.

Greene is a former Senate Leader in Arizona, who settled the Lawsuit and remains a mentor and close friend to this day of Mr. Stryk – yet Fleischman fails to mention this even though 2/3 of his post about Stryk focuses on the lawsuit.

Stryk is 34 and looking to settle down – this is what he told me when I spoke to him. Fair enough. He wants to run for Mayor of Yountville because he sees some issues.

Why does a town of 3,000 have 30 public employees? Why are a significant number of those employees related to members of the city council? Why is there an 11-member parks and recreation department staff?

Why does a town of 3,000 see fit to drop $52 million on a visitor center?

Why is the vice-mayor (Stryk’s Opponent) getting a pass for being a “Republican” who is a Mike Thompson Donor and Mike Thompson Endorser?

Obviously, someone other than Jon Fleischman is concerned about Mr. Stryk. Mike Thompson’s Pac hired a Private Investigator to dig into Robert Stryk. Jon stopped at using Lexus Nexus – but Stryk’s opponents, all of them liberals and Democrats… are pulling out all the stops.

Adding to the absurdity – the local “paper” that is attacking Robert Stryk is on the Secretary of State’s list of suspended Corporations. (For failure to pay taxes?) The Paper calls itself the Yountville Sun.

Yountville has issues – I am thinking that this “lobbyist” just might be the enema the good ‘ol Boy’s network in Yountville needs.

Man, I’m glad I don’t drink – I drive right through that area on my way to the coast…