Politics often get ugly, and there is nothing uglier than Opposition Research: digging up dirt on your opponent — or sometimes your own candidate. No one knows Oppo better than Joe Rodota, who honed his dark art in the Reagan White House, the Schwarzenegger campaign and other high-profile races in California and across the country.
The Capitol Weekly Podcast welcomes Maeley Tom, a longtime legislative staffer and Democratic Party stalwart who played a pioneering role as one of the first Asian women in California’s capitol. Tom’s new memoir, “I’m Not Who You Think I Am,” has just been published.
Paula Treat, the grande dame of Sacramento contract lobbyists, has had a wide range of clients including Tesla, Uber, CCPOA, the California Medical Association, the California Lottery and several Indian tribes, over her four decade career.
Jim Wunderman, photo by Margo MoritzJim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council, joins the Capitol Weekly Podcast to talk about the impact of the coronavirus on his association’s members, and what to expect as California reopens. What you can’t expect is for things to be the same as they were before COVID-19.
Rose Kapolczynski, a veteran campaign and communications strategist with more than three decades of experience joins Tim Foster and John Howard on the Capitol Weekly Podcast to chat about politics and the pandemic. Rose is best known for running former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s campaigns, from Boxer’s initial upset victory in 1992 in the “Year of the Woman” to her final race against Carly Fiorina in 2010.
The race for CA25 was being called just as we taped this podcast — Rob weighs in on what Mike Garcia’s victory in a district that Hillary Clinton carried by six points in 2016 means for November and for the Republican Party in general.
Mike Madrid, longtime GOP consultant, former Political Director for the state Republican Party and board member of the Lincoln Project, joins us to talk about two of his recent skirmishes: a public battle with a squirrel family that occupied an eave of his house, and his even more public battle with the family that occupies the White House.
As California looks at loosening some restrictions on non-essential businesses, one business has been going about their work as best they can all along: the construction industry.
Political data expert Paul Mitchell joins John and Tim — remotely, of course — on the Capitol Weekly Podcast to talk about the mechanics of a vote-by-mail election in November, how COVID-19 is impacting the prospects for redistricting, the census and what he learned by turning 50 while on quarantine.
Protest at the state capitol, April 20, 2020. Photo by Karlos Rene AyalaThe California state capitol was the scene of two recent Lockdown protests, the first on Friday April 17, and a second, much larger, on the following Monday. Documentary filmmaker Karlos Rene Ayala covered both and made a short film about each of the events.