Politics and Elections
Back to homepageElection musings of a cigar-smoking political writer
A few thoughts as we approach Tuesday’s plebescite. Anyone. California is proving true the old egalitarian adage that, “Any billionaire or member of the Brown clan can become governor or senator.” Women candidates: We have a record number of women
Read MoreMeg's trip
An empty private jet arrived at LAX for a campaign rally, and when the door was opened, Meg Whitman got out. — John Seiler . . . . . . (Yes, that’s an update of a crack by Churchill.)
Read MoreThe many faces of Arnold
Anthony Pignataro: Unlike his last three predecessors, Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a fascinating subject for a biography after he leaves the governor’s office next year. The former actor and body builder’s politics fall somewhere between “scattered” and “all over the
Read MoreCosta: McClintock for prez
Steven Greenhut: Here is an interesting idea from longtime conservative activist Ted Costa: When Paul Gann and I worked to pass Prop 13 here in California back in 1978 we had no idea what a major tax revolt it would
Read MoreDuvall nearly out of money
JUNE 4, 2010 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO Former Assemblyman Michael D. Duvall of Yorba Linda, who left office suddenly in September 2009 following revelations that he talked freely of alleged sexual conquests in a legislative hearing chamber, has given away just
Read More'No on 17' funding questioned
JUNE 4, 2010 By LAURA SUCHESKI Both proponents and opponents of controversial Proposition 17 are spending the eleventh hour before the June 8 primary lobbing accusations at each other from the trenches. Prop. 17 would modify a previous law enacted
Read MoreElection pre-mortem
JUNE3, 2010 By JOHN SEILER What a mess departing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is leaving for his successor. Endemic deficits. A bond rating the lowest of any state, inching toward junk-bond status. School performance vying with Louisiana for America’s worst. The
Read MoreWhitman: banal and unconvincing
JUNE 1, 2010 Steven Greenhut: I have rarely seen a political candidate who avoided taking tough stances during the election campaign suddenly get some courage and embrace a firm reform platform once in office. Unfortunately, the Republican Party’s best hope
Read MoreSacramento Bee helping with Brown campaign
MAY 31, 2010 Katy Grimes: The Sacramento Bee has been very critical of the Poizner/Whitman Republican primary gubernatorial race. That’s expected, but now it appears that The Bee editorial board is not only falling all over themselves to write about Jerry
Read MoreArnold goes home
MAY 27, 2010 It’s nice to see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger get back to his true constituency now and then. That constituency is, of course, Hollywood, that wonderful factory of dreams and fantasies that turned an Austrian body-builder who could barely
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