Opponents of Mandatory Vaccination Bill Continue the Fight
Opponents of SB 277, the vaccinations bill, received the green light to begin collecting signatures to ask voters to recall State Senator Richard Pan. Backers need 35,926 signatures by December 31, which is 20% of the votes cast in the election of Pan in 2014. The last successful recall effort was that of Gray Davis in 2003, and the last […]
Retention Elections for US Supreme Court Justices? No!
Following the SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage, presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz is calling on retention elections for Supreme Court justices. I’m pretty certain that Cruz knows that it has zero chance of approval be 2/3 of the states, making it an easy bullet point to add to the platform. Cruz knows a bit about the Supreme […]
CA Could Lose Congressional Seats if Supreme Court Changes Law to ‘One Citizen-One Vote’
While the immediate reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court taking up the “one-person, one vote case” has been liberals and minority groups saying “Oh, S***” and conservatives getting excited, the case is much more complicated than that. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of plaintiffs, it would affect two distinct (and often confused) processes. Most articles I’ve […]
The Supermajorities – Senate
The most frequent question I get is about whether Democrats will hold supermajorities in the Assembly and State Senate. For the Assembly, that means 54 Democrats and for the State Senate it means 27. Going into this cycle’s elections, Dems start with 27 seats in the Senate and 55 in the Assembly. I’ve provided detailed […]
The Turnout Conundrum
Probably the most frequent question I am getting right now is what my estimates of turnout will be. Of course, people just want me to repeat my idiocy from June, in which I projected a pessimistic 33.5% turnout. Of course, the fine voters of the Golden State one-upped me, and only 25.17% of registered voters turned […]
Races to Watch with a Two Weeks to Go
Here are the ten June races right now that I’m finding most interesting. 10. AD73 (Dana Point): While the national story is the fight for the future of the Republican Party is between Donnelly and Kashkari, it’s playing out in several other districts as well, including this safe Republican seat. Bryson is carrying the moderate flag, while some […]
Cut UCs a Bigger Check in the New State Budget
California fared well in the first attempt to run data on higher education value, in a system proposed by President Obama and the US Department of Education. Time magazine ran the numbers, and look who fell in the top ten on a balanced approach: #1: UC Riverside #2: UC San Diego #4: UC Irvine #7: UC Davis #14: CSU […]
Peterson Leads in Sec of State Race, but Best Chance for Reps May be Elsewhere
SECRETARY OF STATE RACE (Field Poll – likely voters) Pete Peterson (R): 30% Alex Padilla (D): 17% David Curtis (G): 5% Dan Schnur (NPP): 4% Derek Cressman (D): 3% Other: < 0.5% Undecided: 41% In the polling before Leland Yee dropped out, he was receiving 8% support. Pete Peterson picked up 3% without Yee and […]
Top-Two Changes the Game for Write-In Candidates
While we wait for the carrier pigeons from 58 counties to carry nomination papers to the Secretary of State today for the assembling of an official list by March 27, we know that several legislative and congressional candidates are running unopposed on June 3. This appears to include the entire Assembly delegation in San Diego […]
The State’s Rising Dough
The Legislative Analyst’s Office released its look at February revenues yesterday, and found quite a bit more in the piggy-bank than expected. “In total, the preliminary tax agency data indicates that overall PIT collections for February 2014 (all funds) were $2.07 billion, orabout $700 million (52 percent) above the administration’s projections. For the 2013-14 fiscal year to date, […]