Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting for Top Two to Work
Recently, I debated Dan Schnur at the Sacramento Press Club over whether the new California election regime – with redistricting and the top two – represented an improvement on the previous system. Dan, arguing in favor of the promise of the new system, was terrific and funny. But one of his arguments didn’t make sense […]
The Opportunity in Democrats’ Push for Pensions for Private Sector Pensions
Not content to lose their minds about public pensions, California’s conservatives have something new to freak out about – public pensions for private sector works. Joel Fox and Steve Greenhut have already thundered against legislation to open up a state pension plan for California’s private workers. Conservatives need to cool it – and see the […]
OBITUARY: Referendum Dies at 101
The Referendum, the once promising third child of California’s direct democracy who spent much of her life in the shadow of her brother Initiative, died in late June on the floor of the Capitol. She was 101. No autopsy was ordered, despite signs of foul play. But family members said she was effectively killed by […]
Is It Too Late for the Arnold Audit?
The news about extra money in some of the state’s special funds has reminded me of one of those stories of the early Schwarzenegger era in California politics: the audit. When he was running for governor, Schwarzenegger promised a “line by line audit” of the state’s books. He said he would bring in an independent […]
Your Sacramento Decoder Ring
Every time I visit Sacramento – and I’ll be there again next week to debate election reform with Dan Schnur at the press club – I feel like I’m visiting a foreign land. The trouble is that, after a few conversations with people around the Capitol, I realize that we don’t speak the same English […]
Modest Proposal: The Younger You Are, The More Your Vote Counts
Supposedly, America holds to the principle of one-person, one vote. But we don’t live that principle in California. Here, some people effectively get more votes. Old people who have been here a long time. Indeed, dead people are still voting, with more power than us Gen Xers and those pesky millenials. That’s because of the […]
The Reformers Concede Nothing. Will They Concede At Least This?
California’s good-government reformers experience nothing but victories. Just ask them. And so this spring’s record-low-turnout elections have occasioned not humble concession but – in a fit of Kardashian-level chutzpah – declarations of victory, albeit with a caveat that it may take years for the reforms to work fully. Whatever the heck that means. I’m probably […]
The View From the Top of the Ballot
In war, it’s good to have the high ground. And with his perch on top of the ballot, Jerry Brown has that it. But is the high ground such a blessing in ballot initiative politics? The answer, as Brown is already discovering, is no. When you have the high ground, everyone can see you. You […]
Alec Guinness Is Jerry Brown In…
The Bridge Over the River Kwai is an oldie but a goodie – a film in which the late Alec Guinness (better known to the world as Obi-Wan Kenobi), as a British officer turned prisoner of war, puts everything he has into building a bridge that will aid his Japanese captors. Spoiler alert – he […]
Is Civility Overrated?
Sacramento is a remarkably civil place (at least by the standards of this Angeleno). The community of staffers and consultants and journalists and others who work in and around the Capitol treat each other pretty well. For all the politics, there are countless deep friendships and conversations across party lines. Incivility is so rare when […]