Impeach the Supreme Court!
Looks like the American left will have a conniption if the US Supreme Court exercises judicial review powers it has had for more than 200 years and overturns heath care reform. The Court is “run by hacks dressed up in black robes” the ever thoughtful New York Times columnist Maureen Doud informs us. Television talking […]
Does Brown’s Compromise Guarantee its Defeat?
Five million dollars and three months from now, Democratic leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown may wake up and realize they’ve bought themselves a pig in a poke in their newest scheme to raise taxes. In January, Brown proposed a tax initiative to raise sales taxes and high end income taxes over three years to help […]
Rick Santorum’s Failure to Appreciate America’s Religious History
Last week, Rick Santorum said John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech to Baptist ministers justifying his candidacy for President as a Roman Catholic made him want to “throw up.” Santorum’s candidacy would make the voters of California throw up, and were he somehow the GOP nominee for president, the electoral results for Republicans in California […]
The Not So Civil War Between the Legislature and the California Supreme Court
It has never happened before. The Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Tani Cantil Sakauye, accusing the Speaker of the California Assembly John Perez of lying while a prominent Assembly member compares the chief justice to a rookie legislator who does not understand the process. A bitter conflict between dissident judges and the leaders […]
Super PACs – A California Specialty Goes National
California has come to Iowa, and maybe the nation. The most striking result in Iowa was the collapse of Newt Gingrich. As recently as December 6, he led the field for the Iowa GOP caucuses by 13 points; he was ahead in every national poll from November 13 until December 19 – and then it […]
We Need a Part Time Legislature but Grove and Costa Get It Wrong
The issue of the part time legislature is back in the news. Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) and People’s Advocate head Ted Costa have introduced a constitutional amendment to do away with California’s full time legislature and substitute a 90-day legislature instead. The two houses would convene in January for 30 days, then recess for two […]
California’s Presidential Race May Decide Who Controls House of Representatives
December’s Field Poll on the 2012 presidential contest, which shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by 10 points and Newt Gingrich by 20 points, also gives us a few clues about the outcome of next year’s congressional races. The survey suggests that if Romney heads the GOP ticket, Republicans might do all right in the […]
Does the Defeat of a Bully Change the Politics of Immigration?
An unlikely couple doomed the Republican campaigns in 2010. One was Gloria Allred. You knew Meg Whitman might as well take her $150 million dollars and light a bonfire with them after Allred produced the weeping illegal housekeeper that Whitman had fired. The GOP campaign was all over then, what was less clear is that […]
Don’t ask for something, You may get it
This piece originally appeared in the Capitol Morning Report. Democratic legislators, at the request of their union allies, have passed SB 202, shifting all ballot measures qualified after July 1 from the June 2012 election to November 2012. This is because the pro labor forces expect to see an initiative on the ballot next year […]
A Two-Thirds Democratic State Senate
The Redistricting Commission is now history. It has certified its final maps and all that’s left is the counting: who gets how many seats under the new maps.
In the Assembly, the consensus is that there is not much change. Few seats will be in play next year; most incumbents are reasonably safe. The two party breakdown in the Assembly is not likely to change very much.
The State Senate is a much different story. Here the consensus is that the commission handed the Democrats a two thirds majority in the Senate. That will lead to dramatic changes in how California is governed. Certainly Gov. Brown will not need to go hat in hand to Republicans looking for votes to raise taxes; a two thirds Senate will be able to raise taxes pretty much at will, and there is every reason to assume that future budgets will be balanced with tax increases rather than additional cuts.