Photo illustration of voter registration. Southern California voter registration outweighs signups in the north by big numbers, and some pundits are predicting that a surge of SoCal votes will boost Angelinos running for statewide office in 2018. That would leave Northern California candidates — such as gubernatorial contender Gavin Newsom — at a disadvantage. Not so fast, says Political Data whiz Paul Mitchell.
Bill Magavern of the Coalition for Clean Air. (Photo: Tim Foster)Welcome to 2018, which the Coalition for Clean Air’s Bill Magavern has dubbed “The Year of the Truck.” Magavern, a veteran environmental advocate, joins us for our first Capitol Weekly Podcast of 2018. There’s new legislation out there (SB 210 from state Sen. Connie Leyva) introducing clean air rules for big trucks, which — surprise! — do not have to undergo the same types of smog checks that have been required for passenger vehicles for many years.
iIllustration: "The Great Wave of Kanagawa," Katsushika Hokusai, circa 1829-1833Will California catch the wave? In fact, is there a wave at all? Political Data whiz Paul Mitchell joins the Capitol Weekly podcast to talk about last week’s results in Virginia and elsewhere and what they portend for California in 2018.
Judge Thelton Henderson and journalist Lowell Bergman chat during our oral history project. (Image: Screen capture)Journalist, educator and now, documentary filmmaker, Rob Gunnison joins the Capitol Weekly podcast to talk about the new Open California Oral History Project, which recently completed its first two installments — filmed interviews with retired U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson and long-time Sacramento loobbyist George Steffes.
A sea of Trump campaign signs.Political Data’s Paul Mitchell has put together an after-action report of the California voters who backed Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Are they happy with Trump’s performance? Would they support him again? What do they think about the Republican majority in Congress? What can we expect in 2018, not only in Congress but in our state elections, as well?
Author Tom Chorneau, left, and CW Editor John Howard in their formal wear. (Photo: Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly)Longtime journalist Tom Chorneau joins us to talk about his debut novel, Enterprise Reporting, which follows one of the state’s top political reporters and his lobbyist uncle as they game the system during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reign as California governor. Of course, it’s all fiction — wink, wink — but the characters are eerily familiar.
Rob Lapsley, president and CEO of the California Business Roundtable. (Photo: Tim Foster)Rob Lapsley, the president and CEO of the California Business Roundtable, joins Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster to discuss one of the biggest policy issues of the year — the extension of California’s cap-and-trade auction program.
Illustration by CBProject, via ShutterstockThe 2020 count by the U.S. Census could have a big impact on California’s political districts. The numbers mean everything.
For example, will California lose a Congressional seat if the count comes in lower than expected? Some political observers say yes. If we lose a seat, will it be at the expense of an African American incumbent? Will California gain a congressional seat, giving the state 54th seat in the House?
If so, where will it be? In the Inland Empire? Let’s find out. Let’s ask Paul Mitchell.
An increasingly rare device -- the dial telephone.A decade ago, better than nine out of 10 California households with telephones relied on land lines for their service — a scant 5 percent used cell phones for their home connection. This year, nearly half of all households rely on cell phones. So Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster dialed up our favorite numbers cruncher, Political Data analyst Paul Mitchell, to talk about the seismic shift from to cell phones to land lines and how that will play out in the 2018 election cycle.
Scott Lay, editor and founder of The Nooner, the widely read online information source that tracks campaign cash and offers political analyses. (Photo: John Howard)Recorded May 20, 2017: In the heat of the convention battle for the state Democratic Party leadership, The Nooner’s Scott Lay sat down with Capitol Weekly Editor John Howard to chat about the intense fight among the party delegates to pick a successor to John Burton, the party chair since 2009.