Governor’s Cancer is a Political Wake-Up Call
Although no one will ever admit it, this week’s announcement that Gov. Jerry Brown is being treated for prostate cancer puts California’s top job very much in play. Sure, that’s a terrible thing to say, especially when the governor’s doctor is saying the cancer was caught early and that the chances of a full recovery […]
Democrats Gear Up for Ballot Battles
The Democratic supermajority in the Legislature has California Republicans playing “Can you top this?” when they talk about what can happen next. Pay hikes for state workers? Single-payer health insurance? Labor studies programs in every state college and university? A total end to hunting, including a ban on mousetraps? Nancy Pelosi replacing Minerva on the […]
Cost-cutting Won’t Come Easy to UC
California voters may have backed his Prop. 30 tax hike, but get used to hearing Gov. Jerry Brown talk about the need to still keep trimming state expenses. Whether anyone will be listening is another question. On Tuesday, for example, the governor made a rare appearance at a UC Regents meeting and voted against paying […]
California Election Count Keeps Getting Longer
If you haven’t noticed, California’s election isn’t over yet. Two weeks after election day, Secretary of State Debra Bowen is reporting that there are still about 1 million ballots still to be counted. Since about 12.2 million ballots were cast this November, that’s about 8 percent of vote that’s still out there. Now local government […]
Money Fight Just Beginning for Governor Brown
When Fullerton Mayor Sharon Quirk-Silva finally declared victory over Republican Assemblyman Chris Norby Thursday, it gave the Democrats a two-thirds supermajority in both houses of the Legislature for the first time since 1883. But even as those final votes were being counted in Orange County, it’s not hard to imagine Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown rooting […]
Brown Again Shows His Political Savvy
After his years of success in California politics, maybe it’s time for California politicians and pundits to admit that just maybe Gov. Jerry Brown knows what he’s doing. In the past couple of weeks there have been plenty of stories –- including mine — about how Brown’s Prop. 30 tax measure was tanking. For pols […]
The Easy Voters Guide to the State Props
Here’s a chance to vote like the pros do. During the 2011-12 session, the Legislature passed 996 bills. Does anyone truly believe legislators actually read them all? Nah. In many cases, what legislators do is see what the bill does, who wrote it and who’s supporting it and vote from that. Now you can do […]
Time to Talk Straight to Voters, Governor
When you send the family pooch out on the political hustings, it’s a pretty good sign that things are either going really well or really poorly with the campaign. So when Sutter Brown, California’s first dog, was “unleashed” on the Prop. 30 initiative effort this week amid a blizzard of publicity, it left two choices […]
In California Politics, School Kids Trump Everything
There’s an old adage in Hollywood that the most important part of acting is sincerity, since once you learn to fake that, anything is possible. Welcome to the wonderful world of California politics, where it doesn’t matter what you say as long as you can somehow make the argument that it’s for school kids. That […]
Munger’s No Politician and That’s Too Bad
Too bad Molly Munger isn’t one of those Sacramento politicians she keeps ripping in her ads for Prop. 38. If she was, she might realize that something – anything, actually — is better than the deep budget cuts California schools will face is she manages to send both November tax measures to defeat. But like […]