Opinion

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…

In last week’s radio debate between Sen. Barbara Boxer and her opponent, deposed Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the latter went to great lengths to slap some rouge on her extremist position on a woman’s right to choose. As could be seen in the videotape of Fiorina in the Pasadena studio, she furrowed her brow, puckered…

Lately, there has been much gleeful hand rubbing among national Republicans about the prospect of knocking off U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and retaking a Golden State Senate seat, both of which have been held by Democrats since 1992. My advice to Republicans? Rub your hands all you want, but hand out your money to GOP…

This year, the party of (overwhelmingly white) elephants may just put up their most diverse statewide ticket ever. California GOP voters appeared poised to anoint their first-ever female candidate for governor, Meg Whitman – and perhaps their first-ever woman U.S. Senate nominee, too. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed state Sen. Abel Maldonado as lieutenant governor,…

Appointed statewide officials have a dismal record in California, something Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lieutenant governor-designate may want to remember. California can finally stop holding its collective breath: We have a lieutenant governor-designate. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on Monday’s “Jay Leno Show” that he was appointing state Sen. Abel Maldonado to the job vacated by now-U.S.…

So, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has decided she wants to trade on-line flea-market trading for the governor’s office of the largest state.  In one fell swoop, no less.  She’s never run for office before at any level. Truth to tell, I’ve never actually met Whitman.  I did, however, run the campaigns that beat the…

In “Twelfth Night,” Shakespeare reminds, “Youth’s a stuff will not endure.” But given what has been happening to the Republicans among the youngest voters, their resulting electoral problems could indeed endure for 20-30 years. On November 4, the youngest cohort of voters, 18-29, gave Barack Obama a blow-out 66-32 win. It was by far his…

Many of my down-in-the-mouth Republican friends, contemplating the ongoing implosion of John McCain’s campaign, are consoling themselves with the idea that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin represents the future of the party. She’s the new rock star in the firmament of the Grand Old Party, they’re convinced — and she certainly will be the presumed favorite…