“Believe in Something Bigger”

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Friday, May 17th, 2013

Finally, a major California institution has offered Californians the kind of advertising campaign we need to hear: “Believe in Something Bigger,” it asks us, and we should. Instead of the stale, small debate about California’s future, evidenced again this month with the release of the revised budget, we should be thinking about a bigger, better [...]

But Can Our Governor Handle a Mule?

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Last week, I watched a Zócalo/KCRW debate between Los Angeles mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel, and a clear winner emerged: Warren Olney, the moderator. I’m not saying that Olney’s fine grilling made the experience worthwhile, though, because nothing could. The California political debate is dead. When was the last time you heard one [...]

Needed: a Lilith Fair for the California Punditocracy

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Monday, May 13th, 2013

The brilliant Jennifer Fearing and a number of California’s best known political thinkers and operators have been making an undeniable point for quite a while: big public events about California, particularly those around Sacramento, often include few or no women. This isn’t news, and it isn’t defensible. But it persists. (And women aren’t the only [...]

I Hope the Kochs Buy the LA Times

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Friday, May 10th, 2013

As you read this, I am surely reading e-mails from my former Los Angeles Times colleagues angry about the following sentence: I’m rooting for the Koch brothers to buy the L.A. Times. For the record, I am no fan of Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who own various polluting companies and have spent [...]

Brown Is Vulnerable

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

Gov. Jerry Brown looks like a shoo-in for re-election. But when you look at California and its political fundamentals, the reason for Brown’s standing has less to do with Brown than the lack of alternatives. The governor is a tree standing in the desert. The Republican Party seems incapable of producing a winning candidate. And [...]

Who Needs a Rainy Day Fund Where It Never Rains

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

The LA Times just reported, again, on the demise of the idea of a rainy day fund. Yes, we have a reserve fund (actually multiple reserve funds) on the books, but they never have any real money in them. The Times story offers a detailed accounting of the reasons we don’t have a fund, including [...]

The Most Important Statewide Political Candidacy of 2014

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

It’s still the first half of 2013, and we already have a pretty good idea who the most important political candidate of next year’s California statewide elections will be. It’s not Governor Brown. Or any of the other bigger names on down-ballot races running for re-election. Indeed, it’s a pretty safe bet that the most [...]

An Education Funding Fight Over Crumbs

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Monday, April 29th, 2013

After more than two years of this governorship, there’s a clear pattern with Jerry Brown: he likes to pick big fights about small things. His latest big-over-small fight is the battle over his proposal to change how school funding dollars are allocated. Brown has puffed this up big time – as a “civil rights” issue, [...]

Should California Recruit more Military Veterans to Move Here?

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Friday, April 26th, 2013

If that question seems ridiculous, it’s only because we have some mistaken ideas about both California and veterans. The first common but incorrect belief is that California is the national capital of veterans. Yes, the state is home to 1.9 million veterans— more than any other state. And yes, California has been known as a [...]

The Weakness of the Democrats

By Joe Mathews

Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

The collapse of the California Republican Party has obscured just how weak the California Democratic Party is. That weakness was evident from news reports about the party’s state convention, and efforts by party leaders and elected officials to freeze out those with contrary views on key issues, particularly on education. The news focused attention on [...]

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