Blog
Back to homepageRail board chair Dan Richard responds to critical post
Dan Richard, the chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, sent this to Cal Watchdog in response to my Monday morning post: “In his campaign to stop California from building the nation’s first high-speed rail system, Chris Reed (calwatchdog.com, June 9, 2014)
Read More
State’s Bay Bridge follies will have bullet train encore
When the first stories came out about the problems with the $6.5 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge construction project, there was a faintly surprised tone to some of the coverage. They can’t get stuff like welds right? Really? But I
Read More
Light-rail love affair: CA pols, media stuck in 1980s
Californians with a green streak are in love with mass transit — at least when it involves rail. Buses are far better at helping people, especially poor people, to and from work. But there’s something about rail and how it
Read More
Changing CA politics: What’s the biggest potential shift?
The open-primary success of relatively moderate GOP candidates in statewide races has prompted lots of thumbsucker punditry lately. For example, Dan Walters sees Tuesday’s results as suggesting a mild GOP comeback. There’s also the evidence that the Legislature isn’t as
Read More
Fewer statewide offices would help
How embarrassing. State Sen. Leland Yee, D-Sacramento, came in third in the race for controller, with almost 300,000 votes, even though earlier this year he was indicted on federal corruption charges and dropped out of the race. In the L.A.
Read More
Why did Brown take high road and pass on fixing GOP race?
In the summer of 2001, Gov. Gray Davis was in trouble for a trillion reasons, only starting with his feckless response to the winter 2000-01 rolling blackouts and energy crisis. He was facing a formidable 2002 re-election challenge from Los
Read More
Can Kashkari win?
No question Neel Kashkari has a tough road ahead in his battle to defeat Gov. Jerry Brown in the November gubernatorial election. Brown is running what I have called his “Morning in California” campaign. It emphasize how he ended the
Read More
Why Swearengin’s finish in controller’s race is deceptive
The fact that Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin finished first in the state controller’s primary and that another Republican — David Evans — was running a strong third surprised just about all California GOPers and may lead them to unrealistic confidence
Read More
CA Dems may finally have CTA vs. Latino showdown
As I’ve written many times over the years — here’s one example — the stability and durability of the California Democratic coalition is downright peculiar. Why? Because the interests of its richest, most powerful faction — the California Teachers Association
Read More
Aftermath: Kashkari faces tough battle with Brown
Now is the hard part for Neel Kashkari: Facing the formidable Gov. Jerry Brown. The Republican Kashkari finished second in yesterday’s Top Two primary, at 19 percent, well behind Brown’s 55 percent. The first problem is that Brown currently is highly
Read More