Experts Expound

Experts Expound: What now for Katie Porter?

Photo by Sheila Fitzgerald

U.S. Rep. Katie Porter’s (D-CA), once considered a rising national star for the Democratic Party, finished a distant third in her bid for the Senate seat once held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).  With that in mind, we posed the following question to our panel of esteemed experts: With her campaign for U.S. Senate over and her time in the House coming to a close, where does Katie Porter go from here? 

Experts Expound

Experts Expound: Making the Capitol work better

Image by Robert Schlie

We’re down to just a few days left in 2023, which makes it a good time for a bit of reflection…and one final question for the year for our stable of Capitol experts: If you were king for a day, what would you change about the Capitol to make it work more effectively?

Experts Expound

Experts Expound: The impact of the budget shortfall

Image by zimmytws

It is shaping up to be a very tough budget year in Sacramento, with the Legislative Analyst’s Office predicting the Golden State could be facing a $68 billion budget shortfall. With that in mind, we posed the following question to our panel of experts and let them expound.

Experts Expound

Experts Expound: Halloween Edition

Image by Stock-Asso

Halloween is upon us, so with that in mind we reached out to our esteemed panel of Capitol insiders with the following question: What is the scariest thing for you in the political world right now? 

Experts Expound

Rating Newsom’s U.S. Senate picks

U.S. Senators Laphonza Butler and Alex Padilla, image via Associated Press

EXPERTS EXPOUND: With the selection of Laphonza Butler, Gov. Gavin Newsom has now appointed both of California’s sitting U.S. Senators. It has hardly been a process without controversy, and so we asked our panel of experts this simple question:  On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best, 1 the worst) rate how the governor has handled making these picks. 

Experts Expound

Experts Expound: The impact of crime rates on future elections

Crime rate symbol, image by Dmitry Demidovich

From fentanyl to smash-and-grabs, crime has been a big issue around the California Capitol this year. But will rising crime – or even the perception of rising crime rates – cause Democrats political pain? We asked our experts to weigh in.

Experts Expound

Experts Expound: The power of Legislative caucuses

Capitol caucuses, image by Andrii Yalanskyi

Both the Senate and Assembly have several caucuses beyond the main party caucuses: Rural Caucus, Latino Caucus, Jewish Caucus, Black Caucus, LGBTQ Caucus, etc. But which wields the most power behind the scenes? We asked our experts to weigh in.

Experts Expound

Experts Expound: The race to replace DiFi

Reps. Barbara Lee, Adam Schiff, Katie Porter. Photo courtesy of the U.S. House of Representatives

Dianne Feinstein’s announcement she will not seek another term has sparked a furious three-way battle for the Democratic nomination to replace her. But is there a Republican dark horse in the mix? Or maybe even California Gov. Gavin Newsom? We asked our experts to weigh in.

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