Posts Tagged: competitive

Early balloting for state candidates, props

Voters at a political rally in Santa Monica during the 2016 election campaign. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 11.05.2018

A Capitol Weekly survey of California’s early vote-by-mail balloting shows Democrats Gavin Newsom and Dianne Feinstein ahead by double-digit margins in their races for governor and U.S. Senate, respectively. Regarding three of California’s most controversial ballot propositions, the most closely divided was Proposition 6, which would repeal the state’s newly imposed fuel tax: 42 percent opposed the repeal, 38 percent favored it.

California’s boldest pension reform, five years in

Photo illustration of a nest egg. (Photo: Hidesy, via Shutterstock)

by ED MENDEL posted 06.19.2017

If you don’t give city employees a pension, what happens? San Diegans voted five years ago this month to switch all new city hires, except police, from pensions to 401(k)-style individual investment plans, becoming one of the first big cities to take the plunge.

Nov. 8: The Democrats’ quest for a supermajority

The state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Feoktistoff, via Shutterstock)

by CHUCK MCFADDEN posted 10.31.2016

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.

Personnel Profile: George Steffes, the octogenarian golf guru

Retired lobbyist George Steffes, prepared for his favorite activity. (Photo: Rich Ehisen)

by RICH EHISEN posted 01.28.2015

If you want to play better golf, longtime Capitol lobbyist-turned-golf-instructor George Steffes has some advice: learn how to throw a club. Now Steffes – who once upon a time was Gov. Ronald Reagan’s Legislative Director – is not encouraging duffers to pitch a hissy fit when things go wrong on the course. Throwing a club – or more accurately, tossing a club at a specific target – is just one of many drills he uses to help folks work out their swing.

Calpensions: A federal judge, who earlier ruled CalPERS pension contracts can be overturned in bankruptcy, yesterday outlined the difficulty of cutting pensions while approving Stockton’s plan to exit bankruptcy with pensions intact.

Low turnout waits in the wings

Ventura County voters go to the polls in a California general election. (Photo: Spirit of America)

by BOB MULHOLLAND posted 07.30.2014

OPINION: I now believe the turnout this November will be closer to 45% than 50%. In the previous 8 governor primaries (1982-2010) the average turnout was 39.2% and in those eight General Elections the average turnout was 59.0%, thus, on average an increase of 19.8% from the Primary to the General.

Following the city charter, a reluctant San Bernardino city council last week approved a police pay raise costing about $1 million, the second $1 million police salary increase since the city filed for bankruptcy last year. The four council members who voted for the 3 percent pay hike all criticized a city charter provision linking San Bernardino to the average police pay in 10 other cities, most much wealthier with higher per-capita income.