There will be plenty of ballot proposition battles in California this fall that look like food fights, with figurative rotten tomatoes slung via all manner of media over issues from the death penalty to taxes and car insurance, but only one initiative fight revolves around actual food.

Back in years like 1936 and 1972 when California was in the midst of serious recessions, no Republican Presidential candidate or surrogate would have dared bash California the way Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Peggy Noonan and others lately have.

You’ve heard of the October Surprise, where candidates hold onto something negative about their opponent, then spring it at the last moment so the opponent won’t have time to respond much before Election Day?

It became clear early last spring that the trustees of the 23-campus California State University system just don’t get it. Shuffling administrators from school to school and bringing in the occasional outsider, they began giving new college presidents salaries far higher than what predecessors had received.

The barrage of Republican television advertising aimed at both registered Latino voters and potential Hispanic voters who have not yet registered began early this summer.

If there is a sure thing in politics, it is this: If the water plan announced late last month by Gov. Brown ever passes the state Legislature, it will surely become the object of a statewide referendum much like the 1982 vote that defeated a somewhat similar plan endorsed by Brown.

The Field Poll rarely is wrong in gauging public sentiment. Its final reading prior to a major election almost never deviates more than 4 percent or 5 percent from the final vote.

California voters can be excused if they get a sense of déjà vu when taking their first look at the ballot initiative pamphlets for the fall election..

A combination of computerized tracking and public pressure has joined to make reporting of school dropouts in California the best in America, but those reports are still not good enough.

Much has been made – and rightly so – of the budget-trailer bill passed swiftly and without public hearings this summer that allows virtually complete secrecy to the new semi-governmental corporation that will administer California’s upcoming cap-and-trade program for reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases.