Putting California in Play in Presidential Elections
Ted Costa is at it again trying to shake up California politics. Costa, head of People’s Advocate, filed the recall petition against Governor Gray Davis that lead to the successful campaign to remove Davis from office replaced by soon-to-retire Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Now, Costa wants to change the landscape for presidential politics in California by requiring that electors in the Electoral College vote for the candidate who wins each congressional district. Costa filed an initiative this week as the first step to change the law.
California has a winner-take-all Electoral College system. As the most populous state, the current whopping total of 55 electoral votes puts the winner of the California election a huge step closer to the White House. Since the 1992 election, the winner has always been a Democrat.
With California almost a sure thing in presidential politics, candidates from the two major parties, for the most part, ignore the state and it millions of people during the campaign. The candidates spend much more time in smaller states that may carry only a handful of Electoral College votes. However, those few votes in contested states may be crucial to a victory.
Californians keep moving out of state
Californians continue to flee the state.
That’s the message to be drawn from data on the
state’s population growth, newly released by the state Department of Finance.
The state
overall saw a net increase of about 350,000 residents over 2009, reaching an
estimated population of 38.8 million residents this year. But in a continuation
of a recent trend, more Californians left the Golden State for elsewhere in the
country than moved here from other states. Since 1991, the net loss of
Californians has totaled nearly 1.3 million.
High Speed Rail, the Central Valley and the Growth of a Region’s Economy
The California High Speed Rail Authority this past week approved moving forward on the first segment of final design and construction, a $4.15 billion 65 mile segment from the Central Valley town of Corcoran to Madera, with stations to be built in Fresno and Hanford.
Despite the criticisms of building a Train to Nowhere, this was the only segment that made sense in terms of the requirements accompanying the federal funds and in terms of the community support and community investment in the Central Valley. Further, there is no question that the Valley should be focus of the next funds: completing the Merced to Fresno segment and Fresno to Bakersfield segment.
California Still on List of Judicial Hellholes
Earlier this week, the American Tort Reform Association released its 2010-11 Judicial Hellholes Report – and it was no surprise that several California cities once again have the dubious honor of being listed among America’s worst areas for civil litigation. From lawsuits claiming that extra virgin olive oil was “extra virgin enough” to one litigant filing more than 1,000 Americans with Disabilities (ADA) access lawsuits since 2003, California continues to be a haven for those who want to take advantage of the system to make a quick buck.
Lawsuit abuse hurts California’s economy and burdens consumers. The threat of abusive lawsuits increases the cost of doing business and raises prices across the state. California small businesses are preyed upon more frequently than other businesses for the simple reason that they do not have the resources to fight these types of lawsuits. When surveyed in 2008, three quarters of NFIB member small businesses felt threatened by frivolous lawsuits and, if sued, would consider closing their doors forever.