There seems to be some denial going on out there. I've encountered a couple of people today who still don't believe that the Santa Rosa school board would really eliminate all spring sports including baseball, softball, track, swimming, badminton, boys' golf and boys' tennis. But believe it. It's done. The [...]
The state Fair Political Practices Commission released a Top 10 list of sorts today, listing the 10 people who donated the most money to state candidates and campaigns over the past 10 years. The numbers are, well, prodigious. 1. Steve Bing, Southern California businessman, $58 million. 2. Steve Poizner, state [...]
For the first time, more than one in five California voters doesn’t belong to a political party. A new state registration report says 20.2 percent of voters are registered declined to state. The actual number is probably a little higher as many political scientists agree that some voters who check [...]
The more things change, the more things stay the same. Exactly 50 years ago, there was a big political battle in Santa Rosa over a plan to move the Sonoma County courthouse out of downtown. Now there may be a battle over moving it back. As noted in today’s story [...]
Tom Campbell clearly was the most qualified candidate for governor, so I was disappointed when he opted to run instead of the U.S. Senate. But if he hadn't switched, we never would have met ... The Demon Sheep. The red-eyed ovine stars in an Internet ad posted by Carly Fiorina's [...]
Political pros call campaign fund-raising the money primary, and some early returns arrived this week with year-end campaign finance reports for 2009. News reports note that the three leading candidates for governor banked nearly $60 million, with much of it coming from the deep pockets of Republicans Meg Whitman and [...]
If you’ve been around California politics for a while, there’s something familiar about Steve Poizner’s complaint to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that Meg Whitman is trying to strong arm him from the contest for the Republican nomination for governor. In 1986, former Los Angeles Police Chief Ed [...]
A 10-year contract extension for Santa Rosa’s trash hauler seems to be, ahem, in the bag. North Bay Corp. keeps the franchise without bidding. For recycling its long-time system of renewing trash contracts without bids, the city gets an extra $1.8 million a year. And the ratepayers? Well, they get [...]
Our latest online survey of Press Democrat letter writers and other readers shows surprisingly strong support for many of the major ideas the president expressed in his State of the Union address on Wednesday – even the development of new “safe, clean nuclear power plants.” The president’s discussion about “opening new offshore [...]
No, this speech won’t be remembered for any great policy initiatives. But I was struck by the president’s tone, particularly his feistiness. He did not sound like a president who got his hat handed to him in Massachusetts last week. He took his “share of the blame” for not communicating [...]
Paul Gullixson
Jim Sweeney
This blog is written by Press Democrat editorial writers Paul Gullixson and Jim Sweeney.