Photo from Allan Zaremberg's Facebook page.Allan Zaremberg, who died early Saturday, shaped California’s policy and politics for the better part of four decades on issues ranging from the nation’s first assault weapons ban to who should become Supreme Court chief justice.
Allen Zaremberg, president and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, on Monday announced his retirement. (Photo: Cal Chamber file)Allan Zaremberg, the top executive at the California Chamber of Commerce for more than two decades, announced Monday he was stepping down. He is expected to stay in place through the end of the year.
Republicans show support for Donald Trump at a rally at the Anaheim Convention Center. (Photo: mikeledray, via Shutterstock)Not long ago, California Republicans slugged it out with Democrats in competitive statewide campaigns and threw considerable weight into legislative policy debates. But today, after a quarter-century slide into irrelevancy and dogma, it’s reasonable to consider if the state party still has a pulse and if its future includes a revival.
With California voters turning increasingly to the mail box to cast their ballots, five counties have set up an expanded vote-by-mail system for this year’s elections. Sacramento, Madera, Napa, Nevada and San Mateo are swapping out more than 500 neighborhood polling places and replacing them with nearly 80 high-tech “vote centers.”
Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, during an August 2016 floor session. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli) Chad Mayes, the affable leader of Assembly Republicans, says he wakes up every morning thinking about the low state of his party in California. Mayes has plenty to ponder. Republicans have no statewide officeholders, a paltry 26 percent of registered voters (just a bit higher than the 24 percent who decline to state a party affiliation) and Mayes himself has to deal with a 25-55 Democratic supermajority in his Assembly.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, Gov. Brown's pick for state attorney general. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP)Congressman Xavier Becerra, the Democrats’ highest-ranking Latino in the House and a 24-year veteran of Congress, was appointed Thursday by Gov. Brown to replace state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who was elected to the U.S. Senate on Nov. 8. Becerra, 58, who will be the first Latino to serve as California’s top law enforcement officer, will formally take over the attorney general’s office next month, when Harris leaves for Washington, D.C.
Malcolm Lucas, the former chief justice of the California Supreme Court who led the high court during one its most turbulent political periods, has died at the age of 89, his family announced.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer at a political rally in San Diego. (Photo: AP/Lenny Ignelzi)California Republicans don’t have a deep statewide bench. But they may have a rising star in San Diego — Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “He would be a very compelling candidate for statewide office if he ever chose to run,” said state GOP Chairman Jim Brulte, who led Republicans in both houses of the Legislature. Faulconer, who came to power in the wake of the scandal-plagued administration of Democrat Bob Filner, has ruled out running for governor in 2018.