Politics and Elections
Back to homepageSen. Ted Lieu’s vehicle tax plan: Let’s hope it gets on ballot
Nov. 16, 2012 By Chris Reed State Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach, is launching a push for a 2014 constitutional amendment that would more than triple the vehicle license fee, also known as the car tax. Here’s hoping it makes
Read MoreThe 2 simple reasons why Republicans lost the presidency
Nov. 14, 2012 By John Seiler An enjoyable part of the entertainment politicians give us is the barrage of explanations of why someone lost an election. We’re still getting that. Tony Quinn blames it on Republicans playing the “race card.”
Read MoreCalifornia election stirs up a tempest
Nov. 12, 2012 By Joseph Perkins As I watched the election returns this past Tuesday night (and into the wee hours of Wednesday morning), I was reminded of a line from “The Tempest,” one of the Bard’s greatest hits: “Hell
Read MoreFour years later, media still spreading the AB 32 Kool-Aid
Nov. 12 By Chris Reed In the Bush 43 era, some pundits on the left took to decrying the media practice of treating quotes from the White House with the same respect as quotes from its critics. They said this
Read MoreBankruptcy Series: What are the alternatives to bankruptcy?
Editor’s Note: This is the Ninth in a CalWatchDog.com Special Series of in-depth articles on municipal bankruptcy. Nov. 12, 2012 By Tori Richards It was 1975 and New York City was running out of cash. Its excessive spending and lack of financial
Read MoreRepublican leader wins despite election losses
Nov. 11, 2012 Katy Grimes: Despite losing two important Republican Assembly seats in the election and handing state Democrats a supermajority, California’s Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway, a Republican, was surprisingly and handily reelected to her leadership position Thursday. “It
Read MoreRegistration edge no longer guarantees GOP victory
Nov. 11, 2012 By Chris Reed Republican strategists for years have looked contentedly on the fast-growing Inland Empire as a future source of GOP strength, seeing all the suburban bedroom communities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties as a bulwark
Read MoreNational microtargeting drove youth vote, not Prop. 30
Nov. 10, 2012 By Chris Reed I have interviewed Tony Quinn for my old radio shows several times and acknowledge he knows way more about California politics than I do. But he is flatly, simply wrong when he writes the
Read MoreGreenmail lives in San Diego, making PLA ban irrelevant
Nov. 9, 2012 By Chris Reed In June, San Diego voters overwhelmingly approved a ban on project labor agreements. But they can’t do anything about greenmail, so guess what: CEQA threats have persuaded Mayor Jerry Sanders to give in to
Read MoreProp. 31 would have ended California’s republic
Nov. 9, 2012 By Wayne Lusvardi How could all of the following so-called impartial ballot guides miss a key controversial component of Proposition 31 that would have ended the original republican form of local government in California? * The California
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