Posts Tagged: 2014
Recent News
The latest chapter in a decades-long battle between physicians and lawyers is unfolding through compromise in Sacramento and so far, almost everyone involved has come aboard. The political battle revolves around California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) which limits the amount of money patients can receive if injured by a physician in connection with medical treatment.
News
Alex Padilla, California’s chief elections officer and a former state legislator, was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The appointment is historic: Padilla, 47, becomes California’s first Latino U.S. senator, representing a state in which about 38 percent of the population is Latino.
Opinion
OPINION: The California Legislature is currently considering several proposals to put a $4 billion bond measure on a 2020 ballot for safe drinking water, drought preparation, wildfire prevention, and climate resilience. An $8.9 billion bond initiative has also been filed by environmental advocates. Many Californians might ask, “Didn’t we already pay for that?”
News
California’s longest-serving governor will turn things over to incoming Gavin Newsom on Jan. 7, but during a recent public appearance Jerry Brown bathed in the upside of politics. “I like sparring with the press, I like raising money, I like attacking my opponents, I like being attacked by my opponents.”
News
Moves to make voting easier in California have caused yet another divide between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans say they are worried because the door to voter fraud might swing wide open. Democrats say California needs greater civic participation by groups who have historically shown lackluster voting turnouts, and automatic vote-by-mail and electronic registration will help.
News
The chatter online and in the media is all about the June 5 Primary Election. But, for those of us working in these races, the election has been ongoing for weeks. In fact, as of Memorial Day weekend, 1.25 million California voters have cast ballots, approximately 20% of the expected total turnout of by-mail and poll voters.
Podcast
The 2018 primary election is right around the corner. And with stories of higher turnout and a Democratic wave in states like Virginia and Alabama, many political consultants and observers are expecting to see some higher turnout in California this June, with a potentially strong Democratic and Latino surge.
Analysis
ANALYSIS: With five months to the 2018 gubernatorial primary election, there is a natural tendency to try and find the single major factor that will determine the outcome. Will it be Donald Trump, absentee voters, young people, the gas tax, racially polarized voting, the open primary, North versus South, the growing number of independent voters, the new registrants since President Trump was elected, or 25% of the electorate who registered to vote in 2016? The fact is, it will be all of these things.
News
Any sound voter analysis tries to identify prior events that hopefully serve to predict future voter behavior. For this we examine several past elections, including the gubernatorial elections we mentioned in Part I, and other recent presidential primaries. But each appears somewhat flawed as a predictor of what the 2018 primary will look like.
News
It hasn’t attracted as much attention as some of the gaudier ideas on the November ballot, such as mandatory condoms in X-rated movies, but Californians will have one measure to decide on the June 7 primary ballot. The lone proposal is Proposition 50, which would allow legislators to eliminate pay and benefits for fellow members arrested or convicted of a felony.