The New Republican Cause: Attacking Birthright Citizenship
If any evidence is needed that California Republicans remain brain dead about their problems with the growing non-white vote in this state, there is the move by far right GOPers to repeal the 14th Amendment and deny citizenship to American-born children of illegal immigrants.
Republicans have now lost all statewide offices, with the apparent defeat of attorney general nominee Steve Cooley, for only the second time since 1882. The exit polls also show that 2010 Latino turnout exceeded 2008 turnout by at least four points, and that Latinos voted Democratic by 65 to 85 percent, depending upon which exit poll you believe.
Republicans now have virtually no chance to ever elect anyone to statewide office again in California but they have not hit bottom yet. That will come in 2012 when the new Citizens Redistricting Commission redraws legislative and congressional district lines. Many of the safe, gerrymandered lily white districts Republicans drew for themselves in the 2001 redistricting will go, and in their place with be districts filled with newly enfranchised middle class Latino voters. Look for GOP legislative seats to flip to the Democrats in northern Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire where the Latino vote is growing rapidly.
Who Made The $6 Billion Hole in the Budget? Me
I’d like to apologize for the $6 billion hole that’s already opened up in this year’s state budget.
I made the hole.
But I didn’t do it alone. I had help from a few friends. You may know them as the voters of California.
We made this hole together last year. Remember it? The hole was created back in May 2009, so long ago that Meg Whitman and Nicky Diaz Santillan were still family.
That month, the voters of California faced six ballot measures as part of a special election. The election had to be called to bless five pieces of a February 2009 budget deal that involved either constitutional changes or changes to programs like the lottery that were established by ballot initiative. (In California, when you change a voter-approved measure, you gotta ask the voters permission). Those pieces involved tweaks worth $6 billion in budget savings.
Ending Homelessness in Los Angeles for Good
Every night more than 48,000 people in Los Angeles County sleep on the streets because they do not have a place to call home. Los Angeles has the unfortunate distinction of being the epicenter of the nation’s homelessness crisis. That’s why the Chamber partnered with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and last week launched Home For Good – a five-year strategic plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness in Los Angeles.
Home For Good is aimed at the 12,000 chronically homeless Angelenos who have been homeless for more than a year and have serious mental or physical health problems. This includes approximately 1,400 veterans – an increasing number of whom are soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. By implementing a new strategy, we can provide life-saving opportunities for the chronically homeless and at the same time free up resources for those in need of transitional services.
California’s Gold and California’s Governance
There’s always a bit of a hangover
after an election. You never get exactly
the results you want, but culminating events like elections also beget
introspection and reflection. As the
sound and fury of campaign season dies down, we have the opportunity to look at
the broader historical context that has led to California’s dysfunctional
government and what this election really means.
We need to remember that California
is more than a state. It is a state of
mind defined by possibility. California
took America’s Dream of a better life and imbued it with the sense that not
just material opportunity – a good home, a good job, and the ability to provide
a better life for your kids – but really anything was possible on California’s
Golden shore.