Opinion

Remember when our grade school crossing guards used to say, “The lines are your friends”? Well, that could also apply to members of the Legislature and the California congressional delegation. After every decennial census, the Legislature is required to redraw the boundaries of all legislative and congressional districts to take population growth and shifts…

In the current campaign, much has been made of some eerie comparisons between George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, president of the United States, and his (partly) eponymous offspring, George W. Bush, the 43rd. Each launched a war against Iraq and each considers himself liberator of a Middle Eastern…

Remember how we all used to snicker when Politburo elections in the old Soviet Union regularly returned margins of 99.9 percent for the victors? Well, now have a laugh at our own expense: The current elections for the Legislature and Congress in California are barely more competitive. In 2001, the Legislature adopted and the…

President Bush recently created a furor by using images of 9/11 victims being removed from the World Trade Center in his first flight of reelection campaign commercials. Perhaps understandably and predictably, many survivors and relatives of those killed called it an inappropriate expropriation of tragedy for political purposes. Although I respect the strongly held…

Appearing recently on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger boldly predicted that President George W. Bush will carry California in November. If he truly believes that, he must be smoking more than just his trademark stogies. First, there is the little matter of Bush’s sorry showing in 2000. He and his GOP apparatus…

This just in: Despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election, the California Republican Party remains a Good Ol’ Boys’ Club. And Arnold himself has joined the fraternity. Recently, the new governor endorsed his first statewide candidate — former Secretary of State Bill Jones for the GOP nomination to face Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. In doing…

At first, you may think it presumptuous of me to offer advice on your upcoming State of the State address. But I have helped governors in two states with their annual reports to the people, and had a ringside seat during the term of your Democratic predecessor, who learned a few hard lessons along…

In a particularly inauspicious moment early in his first year in office, Gov. Gray Davis let loose at an editorial board meeting with the notion that the Democratically controlled Legislature’s “job” was to “implement my vision.” This unfortunate remark set off a predictable orgy of opprobrium — some of it involving obvious questions about…

In looking high and low for credible candidates for public office, California Republicans lately have been conducting their own version of “Star Search.” Not that one can blame them. Last year, the GOP lost all statewide offices for the first time since 1882. Until the recall, they hadn’t won a top- of-the-ticket race since…

Shortly before the 1990 gubernatorial election in Minnesota, the biggest newspaper in the state disclosed allegations of sexual misconduct by the Republican candidate, who was running against an unpopular Democratic governor. The explosive revelations rattled the race and became the defining moment of the campaign. The beleaguered subject of the accusations denied the charges…