Tom Campbell admitted it quite frankly the morning he dropped out of the run for governor and into a crowded race for the Republican nomination to challenge three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer next fall: “Pragmatism told me I could no longer continue in (the governor’s) race,” Campbell soberly said. “I never had the opportunity to make a lot of … Read More

It’s always music to the ears of Californians when their governors gripe about the obvious inequity between what citizens of this state pay to the federal government and what they get back. The likes of Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis all argued that California should get more. In recent years, the state has … Read More

When it comes to describing the true source of California’s current troubles, one of the late, great cartoonist Walt Kelly’s swamp-dwelling characters may have said it best: “We have met the enemy, and he is us,” declared Pogo in 1971.

California will soon be hearing a new cry of alarm from its movie tough-guy governor, whose upcoming state of the state speech will be unable to gloss over the reality that this year’s budget shortfall is even worse than last year’s.

Memo to California voters: If you’re tired of dysfunctional government where ideology trumps good public policy, vote yes on the “Elections: Open Primary” proposition this June.

It’s the holiday season, so optimism is in the air, not least among California Republicans. As they head into next year’s election, they sound like they have before one major election after another since 1992. Trouble is, little of that earlier happy talk ever materialized.

Jerry Brown was in the conference room of a large law firm talking to about 30 of the well-heeled supporters who have provided him enough money to drive off all early competition on the Democratic side of the 2010 run for governor – even before he officially becomes a candidate.

The University of California now says it will ask state legislators for $913 million more next year than it received in this year's budget. The California State University system will ask for an increase of $884 billion.

Read the polls and you’d think the end was near for this, America’s largest state. One recent survey published by the state’s largest newspaper and repeated on every major radio and television outlet in California reported that 79 percent of the state’s residents believe their state’s best days are behind it.

Just as they have in her two previous reelection campaigns, once again this year Republicans and so-called experts list Barbara Boxer as one of the most vulnerable U.S. Senate Democrats running in next year’s mid-term election.