Reporter's Notebook
Kevin McCarthy: the Benjamin Button of California politics
Kevin McCarthy is the Benjamin Button of California politics. Began his career as an adult. Ended it as a baby.
Kevin McCarthy is the Benjamin Button of California politics. Began his career as an adult. Ended it as a baby.
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Facing the first deficit in a decade, legislators finished hammering out a Budget deal with the governor this week. Our guest today is Chris Hoene, Executive Director of the California Budget & Policy Center. Hoene has been a Budget-watcher for decades, and helps us dig into the new Budget Deal.
OPINION: There is nothing more frightening for a parent than not having the resources to care for a child. Yet, this is the reality for far too many Californians who have children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
There are five people alive today who each served more than a quarter-century in the California State Legislature. Four of the five served as the leader of a house during their time in Sacramento. The last member of the quarter-century club is 97-year-old Wadie Deddeh, who moved to the United States in his late 20s, rose to power as chair of the Revenue and Taxation committee, and retired from the Legislature in 1993.
In the end, it all comes down to following the money – about $568 million and counting. Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House and former speaker, is no stranger to criticism and this year is no different. But this time, the attacks are coming from fellow Democrats who are calling for the longtime House leader, who turned 77 in March and is a California political icon, to step down. So far, she’s not budging.
A move to oust the executive director of the California Coastal Commission is under way, an effort that marks the most significant attempt against the commission’s ranking administrator in two decades. Commission Chair Steve Kinsey wrote a letter to Executive Director Charles Lester, saying the 12-member panel “will consider whether to dismiss you” at the commission’s February meeting.
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.
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.
Kevin McCarthy, whose meteoric rise in the California Assembly’s GOP ranks was matched only by his rise in Congress, halted his upward trajectory by abruptly withdrawing from the race for House speaker — a stunning move that threw his GOP colleagues into disarray.
California’s Kevin McCarthy is on track to become the next speaker of the House. If it happens, the affable Republican will achieve one of the fastest ascents in House history — or California political history, for that matter. He would be the second House speaker from California. The other is San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi.