Opinion

With the expected blow-out win of Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose re-election was almost assured when he demolished the ill-advised recall attempt last year, pundits and political reporters – always spoiling for a good fight and a close race — now seem to be searching the other seven races for statewide office to find one that…

What is it with California and its homegrown Democratic presidential candidates? It has been the most populous state for 60 years, having displaced New York clear back in 1962. It has more people than Canada or Australia. There are more than 20 million registered voters in the state — more voters than there are people living in 47 of…

“Never strike a king unless you are sure you shall kill him,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1843. He couldn’t have foreseen the attempted recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom. But it is apropos:  The recall not only failed miserably to yank Newsom from office, but actually immeasurably strengthened his political position. The Newsom campaign, as…

Once the $276 million (in taxpayer funds) gubernatorial recall is mercifully over in September, the Democratically controlled Legislature needs to seriously address deficiencies in the recall process.In the 92 years since the provision was added to the state Constitution and 2003, there had never been a recall attempt against a sitting governor that qualified for the ballot, despite dozens…

Much of the speculation surrounding the impending recall vote on California Gov. Gavin Newsom has centered on whether another Arnold Schwarzenegger-type figure would enter the race and alter the dynamic, as happened in the 2003 recall that ripped Gov. Gray Davis from office. When Caitlyn Jenner announced her candidacy, some of the over-hyped coverage suggested she might be the Arnold of this…

Republican recall candidate John Cox, who Gavin Newsom demolished in the 2018 governor’s race, is so desperate he’s started campaigning with a 1,000-lb bear. But there’s a different animal stalking the campaign of Caitlyn Jenner. The elephant in the room — quite literally — with the Jenner candidacy is how willing Republican voters are to…

With a recall against Gov. Gavin Newsom looming later this year, there’s a fair bit of nonsense circulating about his strategy for beating the attempt to oust him from office – chiefly, people arguing that a prominent Democrat should jump into the race to replace him. A recall ballot consists of two questions: should the…

Here we go again, the second recall attempt mounted by Republicans against a sitting Democratic governor of California in 18 years. Why so much use of the recall here? Simply put, it’s because, all things being equal, Republicans can’t win in a fair-and-square regular election in California. Let’s recount the Republicans’ recent history of electoral…

For almost three decades, California Republicans have nurtured political fantasies about what I call their “great white hopes” — big-city Republican mayors that they believe would make peachy-keen candidates for statewide office. After all, they were elected and re-elected as chief executives of major, diverse cities. So, what could possibly go wrong if they try…

Gov. Gray Davis made history on Oct. 7, 2003, by becoming only the second governor in the lifetime of the U.S. to be recalled by voters. The only other was a governor of faraway North Dakota in 1921. With Gov. Gavin Newsom now under threat of recall himself, Democrats would do well to remember the…