Redevelopment Money Leaves, But Problems Remain
There really is no such thing as a free lunch, as California continues to prove. When Gov. Jerry Brown won his battle to shut down California’s 400-plus local redevelopment agencies last year, it was hailed – most by the governor – as a glorious victory for the state, local governments and, not least, California schools. […]
Union Woes Can Be Good News for Brown
Paying attention to July polls for November ballot propositions is a bit like betting on pre-season NFL games: just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Having said that, though, an online poll by the California Business Roundtable and Pepperdine University School of Public Policy has some mighty welcome news for Gov. Jerry Brown. Sure, […]
Legislators Make the Right Vote for High-Speed Rail
If legislators are paid to make the hard decisions, they earned their money last Friday. At a time when most politicians’ long-term view extends no farther than the next election, the Democrats in the Legislature looked to California’s future by approving construction of the first 130-mile segment of the state’s long-planned high-speed rail system. It […]
If Politics is Local, Pete Stark’s in Trouble
If Tip O’Neill’s old adage that “All politics is local” holds up in November, Fremont Rep. Pete Stark could find himself abruptly retired after 40 years in Washington, D.C. For Stark, who has lived in Maryland for years, the last thing he wants is a battle over who can best present the concerns of Castro […]
Jerry Brown: The Last GOP Legislator?
Sometimes it seems like Jerry Brown is the only Republican legislator left in Sacramento. Sure, there are still plenty of Republicans. You can tell by looking at the office listings in the capitol building or reading the whining press releases this week about all the terrible things the Democrats are doing with the budget and […]
The Supreme Court and Me
There it is, right in the middle of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s just-released opinion in Knox et al v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1000: A quote from a newspaper story and then the citation (alright, footnote): “Marinucci & Wildermuth, Schwarzenegger Adds Prop. 75 to His Agenda, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 18, 2005, p. […]
Primary Election Shows Reform is on the Move
You know, I kinda liked “John Carter.” And if we’re handing out grades for Tuesday’s election, I’d give it at worst a gentleman’s “C.” Joe Mathews, my compadre here at Fox and Hounds had a piece here the other day comparing the last week’s primary – and the redistricting and voting reforms that surrounded it […]
Mail Ballots Are Shortening Election Nights
Thanks to the rapidly rising number of vote-by-mail ballots, California’s political animals will be getting to bed a lot earlier on election nights. That doesn’t mean things will change for supporters and opponents of tightly fought measures like the Prop. 29 cigarette tax, which is losing by 50,000 votes with hundreds of thousands of last-minute […]
Prop. 28 Only a Band-Aid for Term Limit Woes
When Prop. 140, the original term limits initiative, passed in 1990, supporters vowed that it would create more competitive elections, banish career politicians from Sacramento and “remove the grip that vested interests have on the Legislature.” How’s that worked out so far? Prop. 28 on Tuesday’s ballot makes some commonsense changes to the 22-year-old term […]
Prop. 29 Foes Won’t Say the Word “Tobacco”
It’s bad enough that political types think that voters are stupid. It’s worse that they depend upon it. Take that omnipresent TV spot opposing Prop. 29, which would add a buck to the cost of a pack of cigarettes and use the money for cancer research and stop-smoking programs. That’s the one where the guy […]