Paul Mitchell primes the Primary; Plus, what’s next for EDD

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Everyone’s favorite California politics data guru Paul Mitchell joins us to talk about California’s March 5 Primary. With the Presidential primaries all but wrapped, what was expected to be a high-stakes, high profile March election appears to generating yawns from CA voters. Based on the pace of returned ballots, experts are predicting a historically low turnout: What does that mean for the four main candidates vying to make it into the Top Two for California’s open US Senate seat?

Next, we welcome Ron Hughes, Deputy Director of EDD’s newest organizational branch, the EDDNext Modernization and Innovation Branch. Ron brings a wealth of experience to bear as he heads up one of the largest IT projects in the state’s history. The agency faced deep criticism over fraud and other failures during the COVID emergency; Ron spoke with us about how EDDNext will improve the user experience for the public and add needed security to the system.

Plus, as always, we tell you who had the Worst Week in California Politics.

Show Notes:

1:01 What’s up with this Primary?

2:30 “What’s interesting about low turnout…”

3:34 Impact on the Senate race

6:54 Prop. 1

8:19 What else stands out?

9:24 The race to replace Kevin McCarthy

11:38 Ron Hughes: welcome

12:18 EDDNext

15:45 What is “Frictionless?”

16:33 California has not always had the best record with technology upgrades

18:53 How did this project land in your lap?

21:35 What is the public response?

24:38 You don’t think about EDD until you need it

28:43 WWCA – Another social media fail