Image by Yuliya Hrelik via iStock.For the past 20-plus years, Californians John Koza and Barry Fadem have been on the seemingly quixotic quest of electing presidents based not solely on the Electoral College but rather on which candidate gets the most votes. After last Tuesday’s Democratic landslide, their idea suddenly was no longer pie-in-the-sky.
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"Blue Wave or Washout" a panel A Post-Mortem of the 2026 Election, November 5, 2026. L-R: Andre Levesque, Gilliard Blanning and Levesque, Lindsay Hopkins, SEIU California, Sean Clegg, Bearstar Strategies; Rusty Hicks, California Democratic Party, journalist and author Dan Morain. Photo by Joha Harrison, Capitol Weekly.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: This is a Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast, recorded live in Sacramento at A Post-Mortem of the 2026 ElectioN on Thursday, November 5, 2026.
This episode we present Panel 1, The Blue Wave. Republicans paid a historic price at the ballot box on Tuesday, losing both houses of congress by huge margins. Democrats now hold a majority of Governorships, and they expanded their margins in statehouses across the country, including California. What to make of this ‘Blue Tsunami’ – and what impact did Proposition 50 – which redrew California’s congressional districts – play?
Panelists: Sean Clegg, Bearstar Strategies; Rusty Hicks, California Democratic Party; Lindsay Hopkins, SEIU California; Andre Levesque, Gilliard Blanning and Levesque. The panel was moderated by journalist and Author Dan Morain.
San Quentin execution chamber. Photo by AP. Forty years ago, voters upended the California Supreme Court over capital punishment. On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a lifelong opponent of capital punishment, took a step that would have been unthinkable in 1986 by commuting the death sentences of California’s 548 condemned inmates, likely relegating them to life in prison without parole.
Lobbyist, author and McGeorge law professor Chris Micheli offers a quick look at what’s coming up this week under the Capitol Dome.
Image created by Capitol Weekly. OPINION – Governor Newsom just did something that most politicians spend their whole careers talking around: he took a historic step towards ending California’s harmful death penalty by commuting every death sentence to life without parole.
Mark DiCamillo of the Berkeley IGS Poll, Dr. Shakari Byerly of EVITARUS and Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc., speak at a panel on polling at A Post-Mortem of the 2026 Election, November 5, 2026. Photo by Joha Harrison, Capitol Weekly.Capitol Weekly’s much-anticipated Post-Mortem of the 2026 Election on Thursday was a singular look into the hows and whys of the candidates, propositions and polls that shaped the California election, in particular.
Rep. Mike Thompson. Photo by APIn a campaign no national pundit focused on, Congressman Mike Thompson is in danger of losing his Napa Valley seat to big-spending fellow Democrat Eric Jones, who until recently was a San Francisco venture capitalist. Improbably, the battle for California’s Congressional District 4 became one of the most costly House races in the nation.
Photo by Murika via iStock. Beginning in 2018, 17 states — including solidly red Missouri and Oklahoma — have banned the practice of adults to marry an underage person. Yet it wasn’t until the last day of September this year that California, a proud bastion of progressive politics that’s often touted as a national laboratory for forward thinking public policy, became the 18th state to outlaw child marriage.
Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón (L) and Dolores Huerta in the state capitol, January 5, 2026. Photo provided by Sen. Limón's office.CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: This week we welcome Senator Monique Limón (D- Santa Barbara), the Senate President pro Tempore. Limón is the first Latina, the first woman of color and the first mother to hold the position. She spoke with us about her tenure so far as leader of the legislature’s upper body, what she expects from the coming year, and about her friend and mentor, the late Dolores Huerta, who passed the day we recorded this interview.