Brown’s Vetoes Are Check on Legislature
If there was ever any doubt that the governor’s veto power provides adult supervision for the Legislature, all you need to do is look at SB1480, the bat bill. That’s bats, as in furry nighttime flying things. Under Democratic state Sen. Ellen Corbett’s measure, you would need permission from the Department of Fish and Game […]
Death Shouldn’t Be About Dollars and Cents
It’s just plain wrong that the argument over a man’s life is reduced to a question of dollars and cents. But that’s what the battle over Proposition 34, which would end the death penalty in California, has come down to. Sure, supporters argue that Prop. 34 would guarantee that “we’ll never execute an innocent person […]
New Poll Is More Bad News for State GOP
Joel Fox, the boss of this blog, had a post Thursday that used new PPIC and Field Polls to suggest that California is looking at a November election where not much will change. While that may be right as far as individual ballot measures are concerned – although things can shift in a hurry as […]
State Hunters Face a Future of Restriction
Patience is a sadly unappreciated virtue in politics. Just ask the folks involved in the current slow-motion effort to restrict hunting in California. Not ban hunting, mind you, because there’s no way animal rights groups like PETA, the Humane Society of the United States and their allies can find the votes for that. But, like […]
Compromise Can Be Smart Politics
When Bill Clinton was talking about the virtues of political compromise at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, it would be nice to think someone in Sacramento was listening. I wouldn’t put a whole lot of money on that, though. There were plenty of legislators in the California delegation in Charlotte, so they might be […]
Sausage Gets Made Today in Sacramento
If the good government types behind Proposition 31 want to get their sweeping reform initiative passed in November; they need to take a camera into the Legislature today and start filming. With the two-year session coming to an end, legislators will be desperate to pass the flood of pending bills before the midnight deadline. Bills […]
Legislators Lose Chance to Slip One By
The hasty plan to revise the state’s long-standing environmental quality law died a quick death in Sacramento Thursday and that’s good news for California. Not that the California Environmental Quality Act might not be ripe for an update, or at least a public, no-holds-barred discussion of how the law is being used and whether it’s […]
California’s A Joke to the GOP
Bashing California is the game everyone can play, pundits included. But it’s apparently a lot more fun from the GOP side of the aisle. What could be better for a Republican like Mitt Romney than taking free shots at a dark-blue state like California, knowing that since he’s got absolutely no chance of winning the […]
California Reform Plans Can’t Ignore Politics
It’s a lot easier to run California if you don’t actually have to run California. Just ask any of the think tanks mavens, good government groups and special interest sorts who typically have all the answers to the state’s problems. Last month, for example, the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association, better known as […]
Brown Shows He’s Willing to Offend Everyone
If Jerry Brown is thinking about running for re-election in 2014, it’s a good thing the campaign didn’t start this summer. For weeks, the governor has been anxious to kick over every political hornets’ nest in the state, whether it’s high-speed rail, the peripheral canal or environmental regulation. In the process, he’s managed to anger […]