Letters
‘When you have the votes, take the vote’
Editor: Going way back to the 1960’s and 70’s, it was common practice for Assembly Speakers to anticipate and prepare for mid-session plots by disgruntled members of their own caucus to oust them.
Posts Tagged: caucus
Analysis
The art of influencing legislation
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: N.F. Photography) ANALYSIS: Influencing legislation is a complicated business. There is no high-tech computer model that can predict whether a bill introduced in the California Legislature will become a law and, if so, the form it will take. However, there are many, knowable influences that regularly shape state legislation in California.
News
Inside a Capitol fight over housing
Crowded housing on a San Francisco hillside. (Photo: Radislav Leyck)The housing crisis — “debacle” might be a better way of putting it — has no quick or easy solution. For decades, housing production has not kept up with population growth in California, leaving Californians to struggle with soaring bills, longer commutes and more people living under one roof.
Analysis
‘New Democrats’ flexing muscle
A Democratic gathering listens to presidential contender Bernie Sanders at a March 2016 rally at the Wiltem Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)ANALYSIS: Moderate Democrats are nothing new — they have been around for decades. In the 1980’s a group of moderate Democrats called the “Gang of Five” unsuccessfully tried to unseat Speaker Willie Brown. Today, they are more organized and go by the name, “New Democrats.” Generally, a New Democrat is one who, like Republicans, is business-friendly on some key issues, such as taxes and regulation, and skeptical of some environmental controls that curtail economic growth.
News
From global warming to redistricting: Is Arnold back?
Former Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, followed by French officials, at a 2014 meeting in Paris targeting climate change. (Photo: Frederic Legrand, COMEO, via Shutterstock)It was ‘way back in 1984 when Arnold Schwarzenegger first uttered the movie catchwords “I’ll be back” in The Terminator. Today, Arnold is back. Sort of. Now, through his Terminate Gerrymandering Crowdpac, Schwarzenegger has committed to match donations to a fund that will help Common Cause participate in a case before the Supreme Court challenging maps drawn by Wisconsin Republicans. He’s into other things, as well.
News
An LGBT ‘caucus’ for Capitol staff
A gathering of gay rights activists at the state Capitol. (Photo: Karin Hildebrand Lau)Bish Paul descended into Empress Tavern’s basement downtown and was greeted with a surprise. Over 50 capitol staffers mingled beneath the brick arches a block from the state Capitol. LGBT aides and allies drank and chatted, discussing Sacramento’s LGBT community and shared Capitol connections.
News
Nov. 8: The Democrats’ quest for a supermajority
The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Feoktistoff, via Shutterstock)Asked about the prospect of a Democratic supermajority in the California Legislature after Nov. 8, leaders of both parties are being, well, supercautious. With a Democratic supermajority, which means majorities of two-thirds or greater in each house, Republicans could go from marginalized to irrelevant.
News
Is Rep. Xavier Becerra on Clinton’s VP list?
Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton at a May 5 East Los Angeles College rally, Monterey Park. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)As speculation grows about Hillary Clinton’s choice for a VP running mate, one name keeps popping up, at least in California – Congressman Xavier Becerra, 58, who was born and raised in Sacramento.
News
McCarthy: Hard right takes its toll
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, foreground, with House Speaker John Boehner. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)He had texted them birthday greetings; he had gone into their districts to campaign for them and raise money; he probably would have washed the dishes. But in the end, it wasn’t enough as the affable and handsome Kevin McCarthy ended his once seemingly inevitable march toward becoming speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
News
Will California’s GOP presidential primary really count?
A campaign stop in Oxnard during a presidential contest. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)Republicans have created a political mosh pit featuring 36 declared candidates and filled with no shortage of pointed invective. Of the 36 Republicans, 17 are considered serious contenders. As usual, those contenders have descended on early primary and caucus states, chumming through New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina in search of support and generating plenty of news along the way. At the moment, in California, they are only chumming for money.