Out of One, Many
Two adjectives that best describe California politics these days: dull and non-pioneering.
Jerry Brown, at 76 the nation’s oldest governor, is more of a mechanic than an innovator. Other California institutions ...
California: Political Lagger, Not Leader
Writing in The New Republic, veteran California observer Peter Schrag claims that the Golden State is the future way of national politics. Really, it’s just the opposite. California — ATM ...
Three’s Better than None
California’s 53-seat delegation constitutes roughly one-eighth of the U.S. House of Representatives, so, logically, the Golden State’s contribution to the impending landslide should be a pick-up of six, seven, eight, ...
Can’t We All Just Get a Bong?
Every California election brings with it the question of the “Bradley Effect”.
That’s a reference to the late Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, who twice ran for governor in the 1980s. ...
The View from California
The California Senate race will be decided in Los Angeles County and not in my more liberal neck of the woods, but as someone who has a sort-of-front-seat view, I ...
Primary Pondering
There may be no second acts in American lives, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once suggested, but that doesn’t keep us from second-guessing politics, politicians, and the art of campaigning.
The 2008 ...
A Real Elimination Game
I already miss The Bachelorette. Wednesday nights just won’t be the same without Trista Rehn’s haunting eyes, or the haunted look on her face when she stepped into the squalor of ...
Gore More Years
In recent years, California has coped with fires and floods, earthquakes and landslides. But this past week, the state encountered a new kind of obstacle. Twice in three days, in ...