Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
Election Surprise – What It Means for Prop 13 Bills in Legislature
Republican Susan Shelley has come within a whisper of pulling a major upset in the Special Election for Assembly District 45. With final absentee and provisional votes yet to be verified, as of early this morning, Shelley is just 173 votes behind Democrat Matt Dababneh out of more than 26,000 votes cast. As I pointed out in my Monday column, Shelley built her campaign around defending Proposition 13.
Proposition 13’s electoral power showed its muscle in this election. Even if Dababneh holds on to win, consider what Shelley was up against. If I may quote from my Monday piece, The district is heavily Democratic, with voter registration favoring Democrats by two to one. From the beginning of the year, Dababneh has outraised Shelley in campaign cash by more than ten to one, and in cash-on-hand as of the latest reporting, Dababneh held a 100-1 advantage. The California Target Book’s summary of the race concluded: “A safe Democratic district, Dababneh has to be tagged as a heavy favorite to win the November 19 runoff election.”
Problem: The Prop 30 Taxes Have No Cliff
Those of us who complain that the Prop 30 revenues are temporary are often told two things. First, that temporary taxes make the most political sense. Second, that the revenues will be made permanent, perhaps in 2016.
But the structure of the Prop 30 taxes has a little-discussed political problem that will make it harder to make them permanent – or replace them with something that produces the additional billions California needs.
That problem? The Prop 30 temporary taxes have no cliff.
California’s Dystopian Job Future?
This Friday, the Employment Development Department will be releasing the employment numbers for September and October. Most likely, they will follow the pattern we’ve seen for the past nearly three years of steady job gains and slowly reducing unemployment.
Since February 2010, the state has gained over 826,000 payroll jobs, an average of roughly 27,000 payroll jobs per month (29,100 payroll jobs gained in the latest month of August 2013). The official unemployment rate has declined steadily from over 12.5% in 2010 to 8.7% in July and slightly up to 8.9% in August. The post Great Recession in California at least on the surface has been a period of gradual employment improvements.
Revolutionizing California’s Schools
California has embarked on a bold experiment in education. Policy shifts like the new Common Core State Standards and the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula make local school districts dramatically more autonomous.
Such changes provide a golden opportunity to transform education’s much derided one-size-fits-all factory model into something, frankly, more human. So how might your local school district take advantage of that flexibility to embody the principles of creativity and adaptability brilliantly articulated by renowned education and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson? You can view a video about his ideas here. Stag Hunt Enterprises is sponsoring a contest with a $1,000 award for the best action plan to change education paradigms in a local school district.
Nathan Fletcher’s Next 5 Acts
“Ralph Waldo Emerson had a famous saying, ‘Life is a journey, not a destination.’” – Nathan Fletcher on Facebook.
MARCH 2012: San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher left the Republican party, declaring that he felt more at home as an independent. The change was gradual, coming nearly three weeks after he sought a GOP political endorsement by bragging that he had voted against welfare. “That’s why today I’m leaving partisan politics,” he said. “I’m leaving an environment that thrives on playing the game. I’m leaving behind a system that is completely dysfunctional. I’m embracing an independence to focus solely on solutions on working with people if their ideas are good and focus solely on advancing the interest of our city, not a political party.”
Schwarzenegger Institute Discussion: Making Government Work
According to noted California historian Kevin Starr, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s greatest achievement as governor was political reform. The theme of a USC Schwarzenegger Institute event last week featuring the former governor, MSNBC political commentator Chris Mathews and Starr was fixing dysfunctional government – whether in Washington or Sacramento.
Starr suggested that Schwarzenegger had important accomplishments as governor including setting a course to deal with greenhouse gases and overseeing the fight against a number of devastating fires but he gave his greatest praise for the electoral and redistricting reforms Schwarzenegger championed. “You should take great pride in that,” Starr said.