What incumbent candidates conveniently leave out of campaign ads
Humorist Will Rogers observed, “This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.” If Rogers were a Californian today, he would say the same...
View ArticleHearings dissect Prop. 46 on medical malpractice
This article was originally published on CalWatchdog.com California’s state and local governments could be hit with an increase of tens of millions to several hundred million dollars in annual health...
View ArticleA Republican in Santa Monica: Is Top Two an Antidote to “Rational Ignorance”?
This article was originally published on Fox & Hounds Daily: My good friend, Joe Mathews, has thrown a couple gauntlets at my feet (here and here) regarding my support of the Top Two. In one piece,...
View ArticleEmbattled Democrats Silent On ‘Executive Action’ And AG
Four Senate Democrats facing tough reelection races recently voted against President Obama’s plan to take executive action on immigration. But would they vote against an attorney general nominee who...
View ArticleProp. 46 Will Increase Abusive Medical Lawsuits
Lawsuit abuse penetrates every level of society, perhaps nowhere more so than in the medical profession. The upcoming November election in California presents voters with a clear choice if they want to...
View ArticleMurder victims’ relatives debate Prop. 47
At 11 p.m. on July 25, 2005 San Leandro police officer Nels “Dan” Niemi was called to the scene of a disturbance on Doolittle Drive. Niemi stopped Irving Ramirez, of Newark, who had spent the day...
View ArticleThree Ballot Initiatives, Not Quite As Awful As Usual
You gotta take your good news where you can get it when it comes to California’s dangerously inflexible system of initiative and referendum. So this year’s three ballot initiative – Propositions 45,...
View ArticleKashkari draws a media crowd
Neel Kashkari, Gov. Jerry Brown’s Republican challenger, has been playing a long game. That hasn’t been immediately evident from the frenetic activity surrounding his final month of campaigning. Using...
View ArticleRep. Tom McClintock, Art Moore get personal in lone debate
As reported by the Sacramento Bee: Rep. Tom McClintock and challenger Art Moore sparred in an early morning debate Wednesday marked by fierce character attacks that generated audience groans but put...
View ArticleKashkari’s Attention-Getting Ad has a Point
Neel Kashkari’s campaign for governor sought to gain attention with its first statewide television commercial and succeeded. The ad titled Betrayal depicts a boy drowning before being pulled to safety...
View ArticleProp. 47 — CA no longer tough on crime?
Thanks to a new ballot measure, Proposition 47, voters in California could soon eliminate the last vestiges of the state’s tough-on-crime reputation. In a sea change from the 1990s, when high-profile,...
View ArticleProp. 1 Roots Go Back to Water Bonds that Built California
You might say that Proposition 1, the water bond, carries the DNA of bonds that promoted a growing and prosperous California. Water bonds helped build the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the early 1900s to...
View ArticleCovered CA caught in Prop. 45 crossfire
On Proposition 45, some Democrats are feeling as if they got a transfusion of the wrong blood type. The initiative would give the state insurance commissioner the power to approve changes in...
View ArticleAstounding number of tax increases on November ballots
When voters go to the polls November 4, they will decide the fate of a large number of school bonds, parcel taxes, sales taxes, utility users’ taxes and other measures that will impact their family...
View ArticleMichelle Steel’s Chance
After the 2012 presidential election, politicians, pundits and pollsters were obsessing over the staggering 71 percent of the Hispanic vote that President Obama received. What many ignored was the fact...
View ArticleElection Nears, Republicans Go Soft On Social Security
With the Senate potentially within the Republicans’ grasp, some GOP candidates are flip-flopping on how they view Social Security, the Washington Examiner reports. The ads, run by Crossroads GPS, have...
View ArticleAre benefits of Prop. 1 being oversold?
Proposition 1 — a $7.1 billion state bond to pay for a variety of water projects — was billed as a huge improvement over bloated past proposed water bonds when it emerged from the Legislature this...
View ArticleCould the High Speed Rail Ruling Imperil the Water Bond?
Proposition 1, the $7 billion water bond, has broad support from both Democrats and Republicans. Unlike the previous version of the bond – which had an $11 billion cost – the updated version has less...
View ArticleCA’s $12.3 Billion in Proposed School Bonds: Borrowing vs. Reform
“As the result of California Courts refusing to uphold the language of the High Speed Rail bonds, the opponents of any bond proposal, at either the state or local level, need only point to High-Speed...
View ArticleEditorial: As state superintendent race tightens, Tuck the best choice
In this editorial, the Orange County Register reaffirms it’s endorsement of Marshall Tuck for state superintendent of schools: Let’s not bury the lede: California’s school superintendent race has drawn...
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