People jam a political rally during the 2008 presidential campaign. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)Millions of ballots are cast in a presidential election, but winning the White House comes down to just this: 270 votes.That’s the majority in the Electoral College, which picks the president. Sometimes the selection follows the national popular vote, sometimes not, and a candidate can become president by winning as little as 11 states.
The border barrier between the U.S. and Mexico in Nogales, Arizona. (Photo: Manuela Durson)As the Congressional battle heats up over President Trump’s efforts to build a border wall, a number of states — including California — already have joined the fight in court. California and 15 other states have challenged the president’s emergency declaration to spend billions of dollars for the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border
Smoke from the Camp Fire, as seen on Nov. 8 from Black Butte Lake. (Photo: Caminor, via Shutterstock)Sunrise, Nov. 8: Firefighters were dispatched to a small brush fire near Camp Creek Road in Butte County. Within 10 minutes, whipped by high winds, dry conditions and much fuel, the brush fire had exploded. By the end of the day, the fire had a name, the Camp Fire, and the town of Paradise was under an evacuation order.
Close-up of a vintage California Republican Party buttonIn the wake of declining registration numbers and a devastating election in November, California Republicans are searching for a path back to relevance. Many Latino Republicans have voiced strong opposition to the GOP’s current direction, decrying the nationalist-leaning “Trump Wing” of the Party that has embraced loaded racial rhetoric and calls for a wall between California and Mexico.
Sunrise in the Mojave Desert, CAstle Peaks. (Photo: sierralara, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The window of opportunity is rapidly closing for Senate Leader Toni Atkins and the California Legislature to save the Mojave Desert from Cadiz, Inc.’s reckless plan to suck the water out from under one of the Earth’s driest places and sell it to water golf courses and suburban lawns as far away as Orange County. Killed by Barack Obama and revived by Donald Trump, the water mining project would dramatically overdraw the aquifer below the desert and almost certainly stop the flow of water to the springs that preserve the Mojave’s fragile biodiversity.
Members of Indivisible at the Women's March in January 2017. (Photo: Melissa Bender) It began with a married pair of Democratic staffers in Congress, outraged at the success of the hard-right Tea Party. That vocal GOP off-shoot showed that a disciplined minority could leverage policy, woo voters and bend the party leadership. So Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, stunned by Donald Trump’s electoral victory, founded a group called Indivisible, which 17 months later has developed into a loose-knit national movement.
Road sign illustration by Rex Wholster, via ShutterstockLos Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar never imagined that the city’s action to exempt itself from California’s controversial sanctuary law would spark a movement. But that’s what has happened. Following a March vote by the city council, at least six counties and numerous other cities across the state — all with strong Republican registration — have announced opposition to Senate Bill 54, the California Values Act.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2016. (Photo: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)Rep. Ted Lieu says he’s surprised by how much reaction he’s gotten nationally for his anti-Trump and other pointed tweets. The Southern California Democrat, whose district includes Beverly Hills and Malibu, said he’s been tweeting since long before the president took office. “I decided when I was a state legislator that I was going to tell the truth,” he said.
Conor Lamb, a Democrat, campaigns in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District. (Photo: Conor Lamb's Facebook page)Political Data’s Paul Mitchell joins the podcast to chat with John Howard and Tim Foster about Democrat Conor Lamb’s surprise victory in the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District — a district that the GOP has carried for years and Trump won in 2016 by 20 points. The big question: What does this win mean — if anything — for California?
Pat Nolan addresses a 2014 meeting of CPAC <(Photo: Gage Skidmore)Pat Nolan has Southern California credentials that are about as solid as they come. The future Assembly Republican leader was born into a family that had been in the area for generations. One of his great-grandfathers had been an early settler of the area for whom two cities (Agoura and Agoura Hills) are named. Nolan also played a role in one of the Capitol’s darkest episodes – the FBI’s investigation of Capitol corruption, which included a dramatic nighttime raid on the building in the summer of 1988.