A Disaster for the Republican Right
It is not an overstatement to say that the "true conservative" right
wing of the Republican Party suffered a defeat Tuesday from which it
may never recover.
Shifting through the ashes, the wreckage is
everywhere.
Start with the long term: Proposition 14, the top two open primary.
This measure will have a bigger impact on Republican candidates,
because there is not a single district in California with a Republican
registration majority.
More on the Election Aftermath
So, why did Abel Maldonado easily win his primary for Lt. Governor while fellow legislator Mike Villines failed in his bid to secure the nomination for Insurance Commissioner?
Both men were pilloried for their votes to raise taxes in 2009. In addition, Maldonado demanded that the top-two primary be put on the ballot for his budget vote, which was adamantly opposed by party activists.
There are a number of theories. One argument points out that Maldonado had five opponents while Villines only had one so opponents of Villines knew whom to support.
What the Swiss Get Right and We Get Wrong on Initiatives
A couple weeks back, I moderated a couple different events comparing the initiative process in Switzerland (where it originated) and in California. What makes these two systems different? And why should it matter?
Here is the answer, in essence:
The Swiss have integrated their initiative process with their government – and kept their initiative process separate from their political and election systems. We Californians have done exactly the opposite. We integrated our initiative process with our politics and elections – but have kept it separate from our government.
Killing AB 32 Will Threaten California’s Leadership in Wind Energy
Just when California is about to start closing the gap with Texas and
Iowa in the amount of wind energy it produces, there’s a move afoot by
out-of-state oil companies to pull the rug out from under us and thwart
the development of these projects.
Located in more than 10 California counties and totaling 3,000 MW in
capacity (enough to power about a million homes, and much more in the
pipeline), these projects will more than double the current amount of wind energy in our state.
In addition, they will create more than 3,000 construction jobs and
hundreds of permanent operations jobs, in addition to indirect jobs.
For example, some of the turbine towers will be built at a
manufacturing plant in Fontana in San Bernardino County. Hundreds of
other jobs will also go into the development of needed transmission
infrastructure. These are quality, high-wage jobs, employing
Californians of all skill levels — from engineers to manufacturers,
laborers to biologists, real estate professionals to crane operators.