Posts Tagged: political

Assemblyman Henry Perea, a power among the Legislature’s business-friendly Democrats, will resign his seat effective Dec. 31, a year before he will be forced from office by term limits.

Follow the money: Shining a light on political nonprofits

A blind-folded Ben Franklin on the $100 bill. (Photo: Ricardo Reitmeyer, Shutterstock)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 11.11.2015

Spawned by a midnight burglary, California’s campaign ethics law propelled a young politician to the governorship and tapped into voters’ desire to rid political campaigns of secret cash. That voter-approved law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, has been largely untouchable for more than 40 years. But now it may get a rewrite.

A country boy’s odyssey: Nelsen takes over Sacramento State

Robert Nelsen, the new president of California State University, Sacramento. (Photo: Sacramento State)

by JESSICA HICE posted 08.18.2015

As a boy growing up impoverished on a Montana ranch, Robert Nelsen did not expect to go to college. Years later, he is the eighth president of California State University, Sacramento. Nelsen, 63, former president of the University of Texas-Pan American, officially took over as the chief executive officer of the 30,000-student campus in July.

Tax debate must get beyond politics

The California state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Shutterstock)

by JUSTIN EWERS posted 07.28.2015

OPINION: With more than a dozen major tax measures moving through the Legislature or toward the November 2016 ballot, California’s perennial debate about taxes is set to begin anew — with millions of dollars in political campaigns preparing to shape how the state will raise billions of dollars in revenue, and provide public services, for years to come.

High Court upholds redistricting panel

Congressional districts in the Inland Empire, approved by California's redistricting commission in 2011. (Map: Ballotpedia)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 06.29.2015

That whooshing sound you hear is the sigh of relief from California political reformers. The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected an attempt by the Arizona Legislature to dismantle that state’s voter-approved, independent commission that draws the political boundaries for legislative and congressional districts. Arizona lawmakers had argued that the commission – which California used as a model for its own redistricting commission — was unconstitutional because it cut them out of the map-drawing process.

Everyone knows about the pharmaceutical companies, defense contractors and other financial interests that dominate political spending in Washington, D.C. Because federal spending provides a big share of those businesses’ revenues, it’s not surprising they spend heavily for a Congress sympathetic to their interests. But fewer know about the financial interests that dominate political spending in Sacramento.