When Darrell Steinberg succeeded Don Perata as the state Senate's leader in 2008, many Capitol observers believed it would usher in a new era of political ethics. Now, as his time in the Senate draws to a close at the end of this year, Steinberg, 54, presides over a chamber in ethical ruins, with three
Senate Democrats' campaign arm is pushing back against data modeling whiz Nate Silver, who projects that Republicans are now favored to win the Senate majority. In a memo released Monday morning, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee executive director Guy Cecil pointed to red states where Democrats surpassed expectations in 2012 in a rebuttal to Silver. "Nate
Through California’s budget busts and rosier-than-expected revenues, in good times and bad, two things have held steady during Gov. Jerry Brown’s third term: the size and payroll of the state workforce. But while the overall bureaucracy remained unchanged, many departments added staff and others axed jobs. Economics, federal funding and court decisions triggered some of
Late in life, at age 75 and apparently done seeking higher office, Brown has reinvented himself again, this time as the anti-politician politician. He shuns most trappings of the office. There's no motorcade, no entourage. The governor showed up at the elections department with a lone campaign advisor and his wife, who snapped a photo
Corruption probes notwithstanding, the Capitol shifts into a higher, and perhaps more relevant, gear this week as the first of hundreds of bills introduced this year get initial committee airings. They will be, most likely, the least controversial of this year’s crop of bills, but at least they’ll finally get the ball rolling. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/24/6261643/dan-walters-legislature-shifts.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters
Capitol Weekly is part of the new Open California public policy nonprofit, and TGG is a partner. Recently, veteran Capitol Weekly Editor John Howard reports: It’s right out of Hollywood: The FBI affidavit detailing the far-flung undercover probe that snared state Sen. Leland Yee on gun-running and corruption charges has colorful characters, plots within plots,
"This guy is not shooting from the hip," Newsom said. "He's very intentional, very strategic - and he's not someone I am quick to dismiss." http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Democrats-on-Rand-Paul-rallies-Who-are-these-5336056.php
Policy-making, legislating and regulating in Sacramento has changed. Why and how? A couple of observations from veteran political columnist Dan Walters on the evolving nature of elected officials and the unfortunate proclivity for inside baseball. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/17/6242273/dan-walters-retiring-sen-wyland.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters
It will be months before the campaign arms of the major parties will decide which races to spend heavily on in their efforts to pick up House seats this fall. But both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, already are taking jabs at opponents in several California "swing" districts.
Hundreds of California Republicans who gathered for their party's state convention this weekend in Burlingame heard an astonishing range of strategies designed to bring their damaged party back from more than two decades of decline. From strengthening gun rights to pounding Democrats on pension reform, affirmative action and what they call Obamacare, GOP leaders pondered a