Fox&Hounds - California Politics and Business

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A Fox, A Hound, and a Friendship

If political differences are destined to leave us divided and friendless, how do you explain the life of Joel Fox?

Fox died on January 10 after more than a decade of living with cancer. He was California’s most prominent taxpayer advocate since Howard Jarvis, for whom he worked, and whose anti-tax organization he led from 1986 to 1998. Fox, a Republican, advanced conservative ideas on TV and op-ed pages. He advised the campaigns of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mayor Richard Riordan, and U.S. Sen. John McCain.

That profile, in our polarized times, might make you think Fox was one of those political ideologues who are driving the country apart. But the opposite is true.

Fox, more than any person in California politics, built deep relationships with people across the political spectrum. And he did not do this through consensus or compromise. Instead, Fox built friendships on disagreement itself—a warm, open, and curious style of disagreement.

Joe Mathews January 22, 2026

Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye

With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008,

Joel Fox December 18, 2020

Farewell to a California Treasure

I’ll miss Joel Fox, who died Jan. 10 after a long battle with cancer. But California and its nearly 40

John Wildermuth January 26, 2026

Trump’s Campaign is a Testament to the Strength of Democracy.

The 2016 presidential race has gone from improbable to inevitable to tragic to plain ludicrous. It has turned from a contest about who will be

Richard Rubin October 19, 2016

Would Two-Thirds Democratic Control of the Legislature Even Matter Now?

Once again, we’re confronted with the possibility of Democrats grabbing two-thirds control of both houses of the California Legislature. As with the U.S. Senate at

John Seiler October 18, 2016

“No Organized Opposition” Is A Bad Argument for a Ballot Initiative

Prop 52’s TV ads push the fact that there’s no organized opposition to the measure (which locks in a hospital fee and Medi-Cal funding) as

Joe Mathews October 18, 2016

Prop 54: Too Good to be True?

Too good to be true? Probably is. Proposition 54 is another example of the adage. Pledging to bring more transparency to the legislative process, this

Eric C. Bauman October 18, 2016

California, Focus on What Matters: Legislative Races

With 17 initiatives on the cluttered November ballot and so much attention on the Presidential race, California Republicans cannot forget about the consequential elections for

Jessica Patterson October 18, 2016

Clinton Follows CA Bad Plan for Business

Do more people find Hillary Clinton unreliable, calculating, deceiving, morally bankrupt and lacking in core beliefs or Donald Trump immature, petulant, unqualified, temperamental and egocentric?

Joseph Vranich October 18, 2016

Reading Ballot Initiatives—Fixing Errors

Perhaps the worst of the many bad things about the California method of direct democracy is that inflexibility is the default. We’re the only place

Joe Mathews October 17, 2016

Handle Your Presidential Debates With Care

(Editor’s Note: This essay is part of U.S. Presidential Elections Have Always Been Crazy, an Inquiry produced for What It Means to Be American, a partnership of the

Joel Fox October 17, 2016

Correctional Reforms Report is Encouraging

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) report,“California’s Historic Corrections Reforms,” reveals that recent historic correctional reforms have reduced incarceration levels of low-level offenders without broadly

B. Wayne Hughes Jr. October 17, 2016