Here Is a Juicy Deal That Dems Love

Thomas D. EliasOP-ED

A time bomb that could bring major changes to California politics has been set in place and is likely to become explosive before the next presidential election.

Minor Political Parties _ They Just Get in the Way

Thomas D. EliasOP-ED

As the fall election season nears its welcome end, a few people and parties are missing, at least in California: The candidates of the Green, Libertarian, American Independent and Peace and Freedom parties.

How Important Is Wording in a Ballot Measure? Meaningless or Critical?

Thomas D. EliasOP-ED

The strangest of all this fall’s intense initiative battles may be the small-money one being waged over Prop. 31, whose innocuous title (“State Budget. State and Local Government. Initiative constitutional amendment and statute”) gives only a faint clue as to what it’s about.

Prop. 36 Could Free 3,000 Tame (?) Convicts. But Which 3,000?

Thomas D. EliasOP-ED

On the surface, Prop. 36 on the fall ballot seems as if it should be an absolute slam-dunk. That’s the initiative seeking to change California’s landmark Three-Strikes-and-You’re-Out law, the 1994 measure imposing an automatic 25-to-life sentence on most three-time felons.