The Census Citizenship Question: Tempest in a Teapot

Why is it that the Trump Administration is so adverse to telling the truth?  In their handling of a fairly simple decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 US Census they have lied to a federal court, stonewalled Congress, and may well sully the carefully crafted image of the US Supreme Court as […]

Why the Democrats won’t impeach Trump

Impeachment is in the air.  Perhaps House Democrats will be forced to pull this trigger before 2019 is out.  But one thing that is holding them back is what it might do to the 40 new Democrats elected to congress in 2018 by taking formerly Republican seats.  How much would voting to impeach President Trump […]

Presidential Elections Likely Will be Decided by “Reconquista”

“Reconquista” is a Spanish word for the reconquest of Spain from the Moors by Spanish Christians in 1492, the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It also describes what has happened over the past 50 years in the American southwest, once part of Spain and now being reconquored by the descendants of the first […]

The End of The Warren Court

The confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court culminates a 50-year struggle by conservatives to gain control of the court and end 80 years of liberal judicial activism. This confirmation also brings to an end the Warren Court, named for former California governor Earl Warren, that stretched from his appointment in 1953 until […]

A Republican Wipeout in the GOP Heartland?

Harry R. Sheppard and Edward Izac are forgotten names today, but these two Democratic congressmen, elected in 1936, mark the last time Orange and San Diego counties had no Republican representation in Congress.  Now, 82 years later, it is possible that once again no Republican will represent these two once solidly Republican counties. The year […]

A Fine Mess in San Diego – And A Democratic Socialist Congressman

After an investigation that seemed to take forever, a federal grand jury has now indicted San Diego Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret for illegally spending a quarter million dollars of campaign funds for personal use and lying about it. The indictment reveals a long history of misusing campaign funds, and includes such […]

The Congressional Races — We have Winners

​Thanks to Tuesday’s primary, the outlook for California’s congressional races is now much clearer.  Democrats have targeted up to 10 Republican-held House seats.  But the primary suggests that four GOP seats are in real danger of flipping to the Democrats, while the incumbents look stronger than expected in the other contests. ​Two seats were always long shots:  Rep. Tom […]

What’s Missing In This Election? Bread and Circuses

The Romans got it right: if you want to keep the people happy, you give them bread and circuses.  But California politicians forgot that rule; and consequently we are about to have a primary with possibly an historic low turnout of voters.  The lowest primary turnout ever was June 2014; June 2018 could match it. […]

The 2018 Primary – First Look at Voter Turnout

What if they gave a revolution and nobody came? That seems to be the case in this first election of the Trump era in California. For all the supposed anti-Trump energy in this state, the voters are showing no sign of rushing to the polls to register their opposition; in fact, this is turning out […]

The Changed Political Map; and the 2018 Election  

The battle for Congress this year will test whether Republicans can hold onto the old heartland of the Democratic Party that elected Donald Trump president, or whether Democrats will win by sweeping onetime bastions of Reagan Republicanism like Orange County. In 2016, Trump won the presidency by carrying parts of the country that once gave […]