Dear Tobacco Companies
Dear Big Tobacco, Congratulations. You beat back Prop 29 narrowly, a $1-a-pack cigarette increase! But you had to spend north of $45 million to do
Joe Mathews
June 26, 2012
Author: Joe Mathews
Connecting California Columnist and Editor, Zócalo Public Square, Fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (UC Press, 2010)
Jerry’s June 20 Miracle
It is not often that one witnesses an authentic miracle. It’s even rarer that a miracle takes place in the public sphere without people immediately
Joe Mathews
June 25, 2012
Broad: Tax Reform Would Follow Defeat of Brown’s Initiative
Crossposted on NBC LA Prop Zero Blog Eli Broad is off the reservation. The billionaire philanthropist told NBC LA’s Conan Nolan this weekend that he
Joe Mathews
June 22, 2012
Fox Is Right About Prop 25, Wrong About Spending Limit – For Same Reason
Joel Fox wrote here Monday that Prop 25 had failed to produce a better budget. And he was dead right. Passing a much-touted constitutional amendment
Joe Mathews
June 19, 2012
Top 10 Pavlovian Responses in California Politics
News item: Gov. Jerry Brown recently labeled Republicans’ automatic opposition to any talk of increased taxes a “Pavlovian” response. The reference was to the great
Joe Mathews
June 15, 2012
Department of Delays: Should Democrats Wait Until Month’s End on Budget?
With only $2 billion in differences between legislative Democrats and Gov. Brown, the budget fight is merely at stage play at this point. It looks
Joe Mathews
June 13, 2012
Free Deborah Tharp!
Last week, a woman named Deborah Tharp was arrested outside a grocery store in Costa Mesa for the crime of petitioning her government. As a
Joe Mathews
June 12, 2012
California’s Election Reform Flops
Crossposted at the Los Angles Times Hollywood produced “Ishtar” and, more recently, Disney’s “John Carter.” But it has never made a bomb quite like Tuesday’s
Joe Mathews
June 11, 2012
Does Death Penalty Repeal Have a Prop 29 Problem?
Prop 29, the cigarette-tax-for-cancer-research initiative, had trouble attracting some natural supporters (those who support cigarette taxes) because it locked up the money it raised outside
Joe Mathews
June 8, 2012