As Gov. Brown travels the nation and world posing grandly as the Anti-Trump and the ultimate champion of the battle against climate change, he’s plainly very conscious of the legacy he will leave behind when he’s termed out for good after next year. An email controversy that has dogged him for almost two years remains and it may sully the … Read More
Trump Chasing Revenge?
President Trump
Is it political vengeance or merely a Republican President trying to make budget cuts on everything that’s not military? That’s the real question about President Trump’s first budget as it moves through congressional committees en route to becoming reality. It’s a question that reverberates especially on the West Coast, where not just California, but Oregon and Washington, too, voted heavily … Read More
Test for Big Labor
Mr. Elias
There’s a good chance that using union dues for politics will become harder within a year or two. One thing for sure: Big labor will not easily accept that kind of new reality. Three times in the past 15 years, ballot initiative campaigns led by conservative Republicans tried unsuccessfully to truncate the power and influence of California’s labor unions, both … Read More
Resistance Is Right This Time
Mr. Padilla
Hand over all the information you have on every voter in your state, went the demand from President Trump’s newly appointed Advisory Commission on Electoral Integrity. That included a list of all registered voters’ names, birth dates, party identification and voting histories, plus the last four digits of all voters’ Social Security numbers. So much for the old-fashioned secret ballot. … Read More
Newsome Fading Already?
Mr. Newsom
For a long time, it seemed Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s unspoken (at least publicly) agreement with Sen. Kamala Harris would bear the fruit he intended – inauguration about 17 months from now as governor of California. \The early-2015 understanding between the two San Francisco Democrats, both with campaigns managed by the same San Francisco political consulting firm, was this: To … Read More
Look, a Proposition That Worked
Mr. Rosenfield
The 1988 Prop. 103 has saved California consumers more than $100 billion in excessive auto insurance premiums since voters passed it by a slim 51-49 percent margin, probably the reason for an unrelenting legal onslaught by the insurance industry. No one has calculated the accompanying savings in prices for homeowners insurance and other property coverage, but they also have been … Read More
Tuck Returns, Not Torlakson
Mr. Tuck
Anyone guessing which of 2018’s campaigns for statewide office will be the hardest-fought would be wise to bet on state Superintendent of Public Instruction. That’s the lesson from the springtime runoff elections for two local school board seats little noted outside Los Angeles. But inside Los Angeles, these contests between candidates backed by LAUSD’s main teachers union and those funded … Read More
Going Soft on Crime?
Gov. Brown favored giving prisoners a break
Words matter, we often hear in these days of a President notorious for loose verbiage. They also matter in the California Penal Code, where the label “violent” is not applied to many crimes most people with common sense would unquestionably define as violent. Some examples: assault with a deadly weapon, soliciting murder, elder and child abuse, arson, human trafficking, plus … Read More
Bauman Victory Is Not Complicated
Eric Bauman, right, was endorsed by Equality California for state Democratic party chair
In case anyone wonders what the real issue was in the very close race between Eric Bauman and Kimberly Ellis over who would become the next chairperson of the California Democratic Party, it was money. Not salary or other personal emoluments, although Mr. Bauman – the party’s longtime Los Angeles County leader – has received his share of payments from … Read More
Sadly, This Was Inevitable
Mr. Elias
The bleats have been long and loud in California since President Trump’s administration released its first proposed budget, one that won’t be finalized for several months. This budget can be read many ways, including As an initial negotiating position from the author of “The Art of the Deal.” As revenge for California depriving the president of the popular vote victory … Read More