Posts Tagged: Kevin de Leon

Podcast

A Cataclysmic Election for Los Angeles

Los Angeles, photo from Wikimedia commons

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: While most political junkies have their eyes on DC in the wake of Donald Trump’s successful bid to return to the White House, we’re looking south, where Los Angeles voters delivered a seismic shift to the region’s politics, passing Measure G, which expands the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from five members to nine, and Charter Amendment DD, which creates an independent redistricting commission for the city.

Opinion

Ready or not, the next generation of California politicians has arrived

Dr. Flojaune Cofer, photo via YouTube

OPINION – Dr. Flojaune Cofer shocked the Sacramento political establishment by defeating three well known politicians in the Sacramento mayoral primary – a race widely heralded as the most closely watched in the state due to its razor-thin vote margins in the early count. She represents a rising wave of unapologetically progressive Millennial women using grassroots organizing to win races throughout the state.

News

Karen Bass brings star power to crowded L.A. mayoral race

Rep. Karen Bass at a Culver City political rally in September. (Photo: Max Elram, via Shutterstock)

Former California Assembly Speaker and current U.S. Rep. Karen Bass wasn’t the first person to get into the L.A. mayoral race, nor the last. But with approximately seven months still to go before the June 7 primary, her candidacy has put a charge into the crowded competition to lead the nation’s second largest city.  

Podcast

Capitol Weekly Podcast: Redistricting Commission’s representation problem

Detail of an antique California Bear Flag handerkerchief with detailed Grizzly Bear. Photo by the Bear Flag Museum

California’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission is generally regarded as a model of its kind, achieving balance and representation through a carefully constructed mix of quotas, political gamesmanship and random selection. How then, did the first round of new commissioners selected on July 2 (eight of a total of 14) fail to include a single Latino, the state’s largest ethnic group?

Podcast

Capitol Weekly Podcast: Senatorial Speculation

Senator Kamala Harris looms large on Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s list of potential VP picks – he has said that he will pick a woman as running mate, and Harris is leading the ‘pundit polls’ as the most likely choice. If Harris is selected, and the Biden/Harris ticket goes on to win the November election, who would Governor Gavin Newsom appoint as her successor?

News

Net neutrality repeal a political battleground

Ethernet cables tangled over a digital device. (Photo illustration: Ivan Marc)

The latest skirmish in California-vs.-the-Trump-Administration is developing around the repeal of “net neutrality,” in which purveyors of internet access treat all data equally. The Federal Communications Commission, chaired by former Verizon executive Ajit Pai, repealed net neutrality in a Dec. 14 ruling on a party-line 3-2 vote, with the Republican commissioners in the majority.

News

Secrecy looms over sexual misconduct claims

Lobbyist Pamela Lopez testifies before an Assembly committee about sexual harassment in the Capitol. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

Leaders in the California Senate and Assembly have promised transparency as they combat sexual harassment in the Capitol, but so far most information from misconduct investigations remains hidden from public view. The Senate announced a contract with lawyers from two independent firms to investigate sexual harassment complaints, but attorney-client privilege could shield the investigations from public disclosure.

News

De León’s uphill journey toward a U.S. Senate seat

State Senate Leader Kevin de León at a conference last year in Mexico City. (Photo: Fernando Ramirez, El Universal, via AP)

The contrast between Kevin de León and his political opponent Dianne Feinstein is stark. De León, the leader of the state Senate, grew up in the San Diego barrio of Logan Heights.  His mother cleaned houses and did odd jobs to support the family. Feinstein grew up in a wealthy family in a posh section of San Francisco, the daughter of a prominent surgeon and a beautiful mother.

Opinion

Big Oil should read the fine print

As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)

OPINION: The oil company partisans and their legislative allies apparently failed to read past the first five pages of the bill. Buried in the back pages of SB 350 is a full codification of the 2030 and 2050 climate targets that the industry thought it defeated, along with a powerful new set of directives to state energy agencies to meet those targets.

News

Changes loom for Covered California board

Three seats on the powerful board that governs California’s multibillion-dollar health insurance exchange are up for grabs, giving the Brown administration – whose allies already comprise a majority on the five-member board — an opportunity to name two new directors. Two seats held by appointees of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expired last week. A third became vacant following the resignation last month of Robert Ross, the president of the nonprofit California Endowment.

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