Supreme Court Precedent May Guide Judges in New Gun Lawsuit
In the Los Angeles Times, Patrick McGreevy reports that gun rights groups have filed suit in the Southern District of California to challenge California’s law barring the sale of long guns to persons under age 21. Last year, the Legislature expanded the existing ban of the sale of handguns to persons under 21 to also […]
What Happens Now with SB 50?
What’s important to note is that, like the gas tax for road repair, SB 50 (Wiener) to override local zoning laws to encourage more housing density near transit and job-dense corridors can be done legislatively. Then, if there is enough opposition, there can be a referendum or a statutory initiative to change it. Only that way can you […]
Ripple Effects from Gov. Newsom’s Death Penalty Decision
People have gone to their instinctive corners on Gavin Newsom’s death penalty moratorium. The only legal clarification is that Newsom made no changes to the law that prescribes the death penalty. He gave reprieves under Article V, Section 8 of the California Constitution. Most electeds who responded in opposition to his action acknowledged that, but there […]
What’s Next for Kevin de León?
While there were a couple of rough spots, like when he criticized Dianne Feinstein’s handling of the Kavanaugh accusations, most observers judge State Senator Kevin de León’s performance in the U.S. Senate campaign positively. He didn’t have much money or opportunity for free media via debates, but right now has 4,860,859 (45.7%) votes, nearly 300,000 more […]
Dissecting the Methodology Behind New Gubernatorial Polls
The John Cox for Governor campaign and its supporters are excited about a new poll from Thomas Partners Strategies/Optimus. The poll, conducted for iHeartMedia, KFI-AM and KNBC finds Gavin Newsom at 45.2% and John Cox (R) at 41.1% among likely voters. It further has Cox with a lead among 35.2%-48.3% among likely No Party Preference […]
Milken Institute Takes a look at CA Issues
Yesterday, elected, business, education and policy leaders gathered for the first California Policy Summit sponsored by Milken Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank funded by investor Michael Milken. It was a thorough day on pressing issues facing the Golden State on issues such as the housing crisis, higher education degree access and completion to meet the […]
Why a Trailer Bill Calling for No Taxes on Groceries?
I wrote last week about the proposal to prohibit the marketing, including menu display, of children’s meals that include beverages other than water, sparkling water, flavored water, or milk. I noted that the large beverage companies and their trade association, the American Beverage Association were neutral on the bill. Now, we have an interesting budget […]
Healthier Kids or State Gone Wild?
SB 1192 (Monning) would require restaurants marketing meals to children to make the default beverage either water or milk, essentially prohibiting soda, juice, and chocolate milk. This is only in the marketing or menu listing, and doesn’t prohibit the sale of other beverages to the children. In Assembly Health, a broad coalition supported the bill, including […]
A Surprise Entry into the Governor’s Race
Yesterday, Amanda Renteria filed to run as a Democrat for governor. If the name sounds familiar, she was the Democratic nominee against David Valadao in the Democrats’ perennial target district of CA21 (Valadao). Following her loss to Valadao, she served as national political director of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Last year, the Stanford and Harvard […]
Scramble for Ed Royce’s Congressional Seat
Thirteen-term congressman Ed Royce will retire at the end of this term, opening up a wide-open race in a competitive district, reports Martin Wisckol in the Register. While several “insiders” repeatedly promised that he would not retire, there were hints that he would. Like Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) on Judiciary, Royce hits the GOP’s term limits on the House Committee on […]