Results Are In! Voters Stayed Away.

The recently completed election in California was more than just a wave election.  It was a watershed in a trend that has been building for the past several decades; the exit of the informed and interested voter. Sure, there was a lot of political discussion.  Nonstop chatter on the cable news shows.  Tons of political […]

Neighborhood Legislature Initiative is a Game Changer for CA Politics

A change of politically seismic proportions is about to hit the California governmental landscape.  The Neighborhood Legislature Reform Act has received its title and summary and is now ready for signature collection.  Once enacted, Californians of all political views – and no political views – are going to find this to be the greatest transfer […]

Neighborhood Legislature Would Revolutionize CA Government

In the midst of the recent government shutdown, polls showed that a full 78% of the electorate wanted to vote out ALL incumbent members of Congress.  While California’s government wasn’t shut down – it is controlled by one party so this is not a realistic possibility – its legislature doesn’t fare much better in most […]

In Search of the Missing 9 Million

The election results are in, and the postmortem examination has been all over the Internet. Generally grim news for conservatives and Republicans in California.  Most of the analysis has focused on broadening appeals to minorities and women. That may well bear fruit but I wanted to focus on something else – the voters that didn’t […]

Symptoms and Diseases – Real Reform Needed in Sacramento

California’s business environment is sick.  Curing it will take strong medicine – not just treating symptoms but curing the originating disease. We read constantly the stories – businesses moving out, cities failing, schools threatened with closure, state universities raising tuition and cutting scholarships. Huge deficit spending, out of control pensions, entrenched bureaucracies and red tape […]

Think Long Council: Real Democracy is the Issue

The recent recommendation from the Think Long committee – a virtuous attempt to rectify California’s dysfunction – of an elite “Jedi” council (per Joe Mathews) really highlights the most glaring problem facing California – a lack of democracy. You thought the problem was runaway spending, regulation and taxes.  No.  Those are symptoms.  They’re not the […]

Citizen Legislators can End the California Crisis

The current political system has brought our wonderful Golden State to a point of crisis. Years of over-regulation, deficit spending, government debt and political gridlock have led to businesses fleeing, unemployment soaring, and quality of life declining.

The outcomes are depressingly familiar. But a new structural solution is emerging and finding favor.

The cause of the problem is our unrepresentative government. Special interests, lobbyists and campaign donors control our government, not the voting citizens..

California has 40 Senators and 80 Representatives in its Assembly, the same number as it had in 1879, when the state had under 1,000,000 residents. Back then, there were a little over 10,000 persons per representative. Today, California has over 37 million people and each member of the Assembly represents a district that ranges from several hundred thousand persons to over 1,000,000, larger than some states.