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Local cities gang up against Proposition 16

The Santa Rosa City Council on Tuesday is expected to join the parade of California cities opposing Proposition 16, the PG&E-funded ballot measure that would severely limit competition from municipal power companies. The Healdsburg City Council came out against the ballot measure on March 15. Healdsburg operates its own power utility and gets [...]

By | March 29th, 2010|1 Comment

What should be the nation’s focus now? Take our survey

Now that health care reform has been approved, what reform effort would you most like to see Congress and the president undertake next? Immigration reform? Banking reform? Or should the nation's primary focus be on bringing down the federal deficit? These are some of the questions we ask in our latest [...]

By | March 28th, 2010|11 Comments

Wasem responds to Rialto editorial

Got a call today from a frustrated Larry Wasem, business partner of Dan Tocchini Jr, who is taking over the lease of the Rialto Cinemas Lakeside. Let’s just say that Wasem did not agree with our editorial “Save the Rialto,” which encouraged  local government officials to lend a hand in helping the [...]

By | March 24th, 2010|52 Comments

Paging Congressman XX

I’ve written before about robo-letters, the pre-packaged letters to the editor pumped out by groups like moveon.org and Organizing for America.  We try to screen them out, and they’re usually pretty obvious.  But I love the one that started showing up this morning. It asked the ersatz authors to take [...]

By | March 24th, 2010|1 Comment

A substantive debate

Jill Ravitch and Stephan Passalacqua, the candidates for Sonoma County district attorney, started adding some details to their claims in their debate Monday in Santa Rosa. Ravitch said the “loss of confidence” in local enforcement stems from Passalacqua’s handling of officer-involved fatality investigations. She said the reports are taking up [...]

By | March 23rd, 2010|2 Comments

Spineless campaigns

Here’s some free advice for Stephan Passalacqua and Jill Ravitch: “Trust me” isn’t a winning campaign slogan in 2010. It probably never was. Politicians, used car salesmen, alas, journalists. None of us are on top of the polls when the question involves credibility. Yet the two candidates for Sonoma County [...]

By | March 22nd, 2010|3 Comments

How will health care vote be received by the public?

In the end, it came down to do a margin of just seven votes - as close a finish as any March Madness game. After a raucous and theatrical day of debate, the House voted tonight 219 to 212 to approve a long-awaited health care reform package, handing President Barack Obama the biggest victory of [...]

By | March 21st, 2010|6 Comments

New roles for local pols

Santa Rosa Assemblywoman Noreen Evans is out as Budget Committee chairwoman but joins the Democratic leadership as majority whip under assignments announced today by the new speaker, John Pérez. The move serves several purposes. Evans, who is term-limited and running for the state Senate, won't have as many conflicts between [...]

By | March 18th, 2010|1 Comment

SR gets tax measure advice from unlikely pair

Given Santa Rosa’s dire financial situation, why isn’t the city going for a tax measure on the June 8 ballot? Here’s one explanation: Two of the area’s most respected political consultants told city officials last month that they didn’t stand a chance of success. We’ve recently learned that Mayor Susan Gorin invited [...]

By | March 17th, 2010|2 Comments

Abstinence?

My colleague Brett Wilkison reported today that Santa Rosa Councilwoman Veronica Jacobi abstained on a vote to cut $5.9 million from the city budget because she objected to some of the particulars. That sparked a sharp response from former councilman Mike Martini. Here’s an excerpt from his letter to the [...]

By | March 17th, 2010|3 Comments