Opinion

“It’s probably only a matter of time before some nativist, anti-immigrant GOP yahoo refers to it as the 'yellow peril.'" Much has been made, both before and after last November’s election, of the serious problems Republicans have with Latino voters. GOP nominee Mitt Romney received only a pathetic 29 percent of the Latino vote, compared…

It looks like the biggest traffic jam in California next year may well be the various tax increases being pushed for the November ballot. So far, at least five big tax measures are in play. Think Long Committee for California, a group of high-powered movers and shakers funded by billionaire Nick Berggruen, has proposed a…

It’s pretty amusing to listen to the catcalls and caterwauling by California Republicans over the redrawing of electoral district boundaries by the Citizens Redistricting Commission. To hear them tell it, it was all a dastardly, malevolent plot to put Republicans at a disadvantage. “Illegal” and “probably unconstitutional,” raged state GOP Chair Tom Del Beccaro, in…

Speculation is rampant that Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be getting ready to announce for president, and Perry himself avers that he may be “called” to run. (Oh my God, another Republican presidential candidate who talks directly to God?) All I can say is: Another Texan for president? You gotta be kidding! When a single…

Republicans in California are on life support. Will they pull the plug themselves? Last year, they lost all eight statewide offices for the second time in the last three general elections. While the GOP was cleaning up elsewhere in the country, they also lost a Republican Assembly seat, and failed to take out any Democrats…

This weekend, the estimable governor of the Great State of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, comes to California to speak to the (rapidly diminishing) species we call Republicanus Californicus at their state convention in Sacramento. Barbour will cause a buzz because he will be the biggest-name speaker the state GOP could draw to their gathering, keynoting the…

Back in October of 2008, I penned a piece for Politico predicting that Sarah Palin, despite all the hype and frothing over her selection as the first female on a Republican presidential ticket, would never get the Republican nomination for president in the future, let alone be elected president. I pointed out that during my…

OK, I admit it, folks, I was wrong about the elections in November. Very wrong. For years, I have been dinging and pinging the “other party” – the Republicans – in print, including in this publication, for their inability to win statewide elections in California.  In 2004, I penned a piece in the Sacramento Bee…

[caption id="attachment_248" align="alignleft" width="180"] Gov. Jerry Brown in 1981.[/caption] When Jerry Brown takes the oath of office as governor for the third time in January, he will have a Legislature – to be sworn in Monday – controlled overwhelmingly by his own party, just as he did 36 years ago. But that may be about…

Has the mainstream media gone flaccid — or MIA — in vetting candidates, particularly first-time candidates with no public record? There is perhaps no better example of today’s emaciated political press corps than the basically free ride Carly Fiorina, a corporate honcho who claims she worked wonders at her last company, Hewlett Packard, has been…