Draper’s Fateful Anti-Democratic Error
I still like the idea of hijacking Tim Draper’s ballot initiative campaign for 6 Californias (since it has not chance of winning) and using it to have a conversation about the importance of devolving government power from Sacramento the regions. I argued that previously here. But re-reading the initiative after signatures were turned in made […]
California Needs a New Vision of Its Apocalypse
What explains the success of California? Fear of the apocalypse. Fear of a publishing apocalypse, to be precise. Most of us never would have heard about Edan Lepucki’s debut novel, California, about a post-apocalyptic Golden State, except for a battle between Amazon and book publishers. Here’s a short version of a long story: California’s publisher, […]
All California’s Problems Lead to the San Joaquin Valley
It’s not clear if Governor Jerry Brown and his challenger Neel Kashkari will debate each other this fall. But if they do, there should be no doubt about the proper location for any and all debates: the San Joaquin Valley. In this very quiet California election year, it’s fitting that our state’s most overlooked region […]
Dear Dan: It’s Not You. Really.
Dear Dan, I am starting to worry about you. I had hoped that your race for Secretary of State would have gotten the whole non-partisan candidate thing out of your system. But there you were last week on KQED, talking about your hopes for another such campaign in the future. When you were pressed to […]
There’s an App for Signature Gathering
A few days ago, Fox & Hounds Daily published my piece on the underwhelming SB 1253, a bill that offers small changes to the initiative process, and the troubling defense of it by good government groups. I sent it off to colleagues in our global direct democracy network, and I got back this news from […]
How Fireworks Divide California
If you venture out to Fourth of July weekend events around California, you’ll probably hear high talk about how Independence Day is a celebration of the things we Americans supposedly have in common: the same rights and freedoms and equality under the same laws. Yeah, right—and I’m Thomas Jefferson. If you want to know what […]
Why Controller Matters
State controller – like most of the down-ticket executive offices in California – should be an appointed position, not an elected position. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. It’s an important position. The duties include being the state’s chief fiscal officer, maintaining control on all receipts, payments and balances in state funds; monitoring bonded […]
A Troubling Response on Initiative Bill
I was trying to be positive about SB 1253 when I wrote in this space that its provisions represented some very small, but noteworthy progress, in addressing a totally broke initiative process. But in writing the post, I was worried – specifically that the good government groups backing SB 1253 would short-circuit real initiative reform […]
‘Sharing’ Companies Promise to Transform Everything but They Could Turn California Into a Battleground
I have learned the hard way, as father to three small boys, that sharing causes conflict. Ask humans to play with the same toy at the same time, and it won’t take long for a fight to break out. The smart move is to find duplicates of that toy or, if that’s impossible, to urge […]
Teaching Is Not A Right
This post was going to be about making fun of the over-the-top triumphalism among conservatives and education “reformers” about the Vergara decision on teacher tenure and seniority rules. It was going to be about the self-aggrandizing judge who cites Brown v. Board in a weakly argued 16-page decision. This post was going to be about […]