Image by Racide. OPINION – We know that as the nation’s most populous and diverse state, what happens here doesn’t stay here — it ripples outward, influencing national conversations, elections, and policy. That’s why recent trends in our state should be both a point of pride and a wake-up call.
Jose Caballero, candidate in the primary for the 53rd Congressional District in San Diego. (Photo: Joaquin Romero)As California’s 2020 primary election nears, congressional districts across the state face major changes. One of the most significant is the 53rd Congressional District in San Diego. For the past 19 years, the seat has been held by Democratic Rep. Susan Davis, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Administration.
Rusty Hicks, new chair of the California Democratic Party, at the party's June convention in San Francisco. (Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press)California’s Democratic Party is enjoying unprecedented prosperity, with command of the Legislature, all statewide offices, most of the state’s congressional delegation and a heavy registration advantage. And the party’s new leader wants to spread the wealth. “California will play an ever more important role nationally because of our early primary,” said newly elected Chairman Rusty Hicks.
A correctional facility in Salinas operated by The GEO Group. ((Photo: GEO Group website)So you think privately run prisons are a Republican thing? Perhaps in Texas and Tennessee. But in deep blue California, it is the Democrats who take in the most contributions from for-profit correctional corporations, primarily Florida’s The GEO Group and the Tennessee-based CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America.
Big Chico Creek in the town of Chico. (Photo: Bill Brimm, via Shutterstock)The conventional wisdom in Sacramento is that high-dollar borrowing has a better chance of winning voter approval if the economy is strong. That thinking will be tested Tuesday. Proposition 68 would provide $4.1 billion for natural resources, state parks and water projects. It is backed by Democrats and their allies, and opposed by anti-tax groups.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont addresses a May 2016 rally in Ventura. (Photo: Joseph Sohm) For California’s “Berniecrats,” the fire’s not out yet. Nearly a year after propelling Sen. Bernie Sanders to a close second finish against Hillary Clinton in California’s presidential primary, some of his most ardent supporters are still organizing – this time within the state Democratic Party itself.
Pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators clash at a May 27 rally in San Diego. (Photo: Chad Zuber)Any hope that California would soon settle into some sort of accommodation with a Trump Administration is fading rapidly. During the past two weeks, this happened: President-elect Donald Trump named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his choice to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal enforcer of rules governing clean air, clean water, toxics cleanup and other chores. The choice of Pruitt, an energy industry supporter who is skeptical of the impacts of climate change and has sued the EPA over the years, sparked outrage from environmentalists across the country, especially in California.
An inmate gestures through the bars of his prison cell. (Photo: Sakhorn, Shutterstock)Gov. Jerry Brown has a lot riding on the November ballot. Voters will decide on his Proposition 57, which Brown says would let nonviolent inmates become eligible for parole sooner, create “good behavior” credits for state prisoners and let judges decide whether to try a juvenile as an adult. With California’s prisons crowded and facing a court-imposed population cap, and thousands of inmates housed outside the state, Brown says his measure makes sense.