Longtime Clean Air activist Bill Magavern joins us to chat, and brings some welcome good news: with the COVID-19 pandemic keeping people out of their cars, many areas of California have seen a decrease in air pollution.
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.
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.
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.
Kim Alexander at Capitol Weekly's Post-Mortem of the 2018 Election. Photo by Scott Duncan, Capitol WeeklyFollowing the harrowing scenes of voters braving long lines and exposure to the coronavirus during Wisconsin’s primary election last week, there is a renewed discussion of the importance of vote-by-mail options.
The state Capitol is on COVID-19 lockdown for at least another few weeks, with most legislators and staff working from home. So the Capitol Weekly Podcast tracked down longtime Senate staffer Kip Lipper, the environmental guru of the upper house.