With more than 8,400 donors giving record amounts of money totaling more than half a billion dollars to campaigns for and against the 17 propositions on the state ballot, one thing has become very clear: As the Beatles came close to saying in their classic song, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” money alone can’t buy you votes for or against an … Read More
Can Brown Be Tied to Corruption?
Mr. Elias
Even in the midst of the heated presidential campaign, two news stories about alleged corruption in California government managed to draw significant headlines and public attention. One came when the state auditor issued a call for significant changes in procedures at the Public Utilities Commission, which sets rates for almost all electricity and natural gas used in California, routinely deciding … Read More
Quake Insurance? No, Thanks
Mr. Elias
Chuck Quackenbush is long gone from California after his scandal-ridden ouster from the state insurance commissioner’s office in 2000. He went on to live for awhile on the Big Island of Hawaii and subsequently has been a sheriff’s deputy in Lee County (Ft. Myers), Fla., where he shot and critically wounded a suspect in 2008 while the man allegedly resisted … Read More
May I Proposition You?
Mr. Elias
It is no secret that lies and half-truths are a central part of the ongoing presidential campaign. Entire websites are now devoted to the pursuit of fact-checking Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, with one saying well over half the statements of both are at least half false. There probably should be similar fact-checking for the campaigns around the … Read More
Will Mister Hand Off to Missus?
Mr. Elias
The rumor has persisted for almost two years, since state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris announced she was running for the U.S. Senate seat long held by retiring Democrat Barbara Boxer. That rumor – until after next month’s election, it can be no more – suggests Gov. Brown might appoint his wife of 11 years, lawyer Ann Gust Brown, to serve … Read More
Pity Us if Trump Wins
Mr. Elias
A year ago, as the presidential campaign swung into high gear, no one in either major political party – except Donald Trump – took seriously the possibility he might win the Republican nomination for president. Turns out Mr. Trump was right; everyone else was wrong. It didn’t matter how much he lied: The fact-checking service Politifact finds there’s significant untruth … Read More
To Yes or Not to Yes on 58
Mr. Elias
Most attention this fall properly has gone to the fierce presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Some voters have given substantial attention to many of the propositions on next month’s ballot, covering everything from plastic bags to condoms in pornography, from taxes to legalized marijuana. All these are important questions, but the proposition that could have the most … Read More
Replay That Tune with a Latin Beat
Mr. Elias
As California enters the heart of an election year where the Top Two primary system has saddled the state’s Republican Party with new problems at several political and governmental levels, the GOP still clings to one big pipe dream: Despite the anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican rhetoric of presidential nominee Donald Trump, the GOP persists in hoping to cut into the gigantic majorities … Read More
Should Pot Measure Pass?
Mr. Elias
A sense of certainty that recreational, random marijuana use will be legalized, regulated and taxed in California after November’s election lies behind the millions of dollars invested so far in Prop. 64. It would allow adults to grow, buy and possess pot. No more medical marijuana ruses. The sense of inevitability stems partly from the experiences of Colorado and Washington … Read More
Reform? What’s the Rush
Mr. Elias
Advocates of more openness and transparency from California’s ethically-challenged regulatory agencies are as stunned and frustrated today as they were in early September, when the year’s most important proposed government reforms died without so much as a state Senate vote. Led by three-term Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto of the San Fernando Valley, advocates of the proposed changes wanted to limit … Read More