Is Tom McClintock In Trouble?
Change the rules and you will change election outcomes. In 2012, California’s senior congressman, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont), was challenged by another Democrat. He won more votes in the primary election, but it did not matter because he faced a fellow Democrat in the “top two” runoff that fall. And in November he lost. Now […]
Make Me Join a Party
Independent-minded political reform in California is exactly backwards. Reformers rail against the evils of partisanship. But then they pursue reforms like redistricting reform and the top two that weaken political parties. Those parties, with fewer powers and thus fewer members, become smaller. And smaller parties are more dominated by true believers – which is to […]
State Convention: Democrat Betty Yee Calls Out Hypocrisy Within Her Own Party
Betty Yee, who has developed a reputation as an honest and effective numbers-cruncher at the state tax board, delivered a stinging critique of her party Sunday at its annual convention. She said California Democrats have become disconnected from the party’s core principles and allowed money to influence its values. “Democrats, we are just as guilty […]
Future of California Elections Depends on Us
Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman, wrote two volumes of “Democracy in America” after a visit that was initially commissioned in 1831 as a study of America’s prison system. Yet Tocqueville and his companion Gustave de Beaumont wound up focusing their visit on America’s version of representative democracy instead because they were enamored with how it […]