Analysis
While both Gov. Gavin Newsom and his political nemesis President Donald Trump heavily use social media and podcasts to speak directly to voters, their communications teams also produce an avalanche of traditional press releases, advisories and briefings for the news media, an average of nearly seven pieces of written material every day of the year through Nov. 15 from the pair, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis.
Analysis
The race to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in Congress, once the nation’s most powerful political woman, has scrambled the future of a proposal to create a $23 billion California version of the National Institutes of Health. However, the situation may augur well for the $12 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), whose fate will also be tied to the Golden State’s ballot box a few years down the road.
Analysis
Special interests, AKA “lobbyist employers” as the California Secretary of State calls them, paid lobbying firms more than $91 million to lobby state government in the third quarter of 2025, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports.
Analysis
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting push – and the similar action in Texas that begat California’s effort – illustrates that in American politics today none of the old rules seem to apply. How else would you explain a savvy career politician with a genuine shot at the White House openly advocating to disenfranchise the registered voters of a rival party?
Analysis
This weekend Democrats are meeting at their annual convention in Orange County. With just over a year before the 2026 Primary, and short of 18 months before the General Election, we wanted to take the temperature of California Democrats.
Analysis
If we have learned anything over the past several years, it’s that controversy brings eyeballs. And that may have been the plan all along with the This is Gavin Newsom podcast.
Analysis
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new podcast has sent shockwaves through California’s political world. But is there more to Newsom’s efforts than meets the eye?
Analysis
By the time you read this you might have already found a new Capitol Weekly feature in either your text messages or email inbox: the Capitol Weekly Insiders Survey.
Analysis
Special interest groups paid contract lobbying firms more than $81.397 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, the third highest quarter during California’s 2023-24 legislative cycle, according to a Capitol Weekly analysis of lobbying firm reports.
Analysis
In spite of some gains, if the expectation from the Democratic Convention was that it was going to swing any Trump voters toward the Harris campaign, or give her a dramatically widening lead in the race, this has not been met, at least according to the California data.
Photo by AP.
