Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
01/29/2015 3:36 PM
SAN FRANCISCO – Even as it was reported that state investigators seized computers and other items from Michael Peevey’s home, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday offered only praise for the former president of the California Public Utilities Commission.
By Lauren French
1/29/15 8:50 PM EST
PHILADELPHIA — President Barack Obama vowed to House Democrats on Thursday night that he would “happily” veto any legislation that would “compound” the country’s immigration problems — posing yet another challenge to Republican efforts to pass a Homeland Security spending bill by next month’s deadline.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015 – 05:30 p.m.
Tonight on The Lou Desmond & Company Show, Tom Del Beccaro, former Chairman of the California Republican Party and Georgine Trujillo, Lou’s favorite Democrat, join the program.
By Sean Sullivan
January 26, 2016 at 6:18 PM
**This post has been updated**
Senate Democrats stalled the Republican-led push to construct the Keystone XL Pipeline on Monday, dealing the first significant blow to the new Republican majority less than three weeks after being sworn in.
Juliet Williams | AP
January 25, 09:16 AM
Gov. Jerry Brown orchestrated the successful push for temporary sales and income taxes on Californians three years ago to help ease the state out of recession and close a multibillion-dollar budget gap.
Friday, January 23, 2015 – 05:00 p.m.
Tonight on The Lou Desmond & Company Show, Lou is joined by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) to discuss AB 150, which would amend Prop 47 to make the theft of a firearm under $950 a felony.
By Michael Finnegan
January 22, 2015
With billionaire Tom Steyer opting out of California’s U.S. Senate race on Thursday, the most likely major rival for Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris appears to be former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
01/22/2015 8:18 PM
For two weeks, ever since Sen. Barbara Boxer declared she would not run for a fifth term in 2016, hedge fund billionaire/environmental activist Tom Steyer had conducted a Hamlet-like soliloquy.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
01/22/2015 1:10 PM
Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer said Thursday he will not be a candidate to succeed U.S. Senate Barbara Boxer and instead will continue his focus on helping Democrats and working to reverse the effects of global climate change.
By Andrea Drusch
January 21, 2015
With only weeks gone but years left in California’s Senate race, national Democrats appear eager to anoint state Attorney General Kamala Harris as the 2016 successor to Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee weighed in lauding Harris’ candidacy after she announced her decision last week, and high-profile sitting senators including Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker also feted the new front-runner.
By Alex Isenstadt
1/21/15 – 8:03 PM EST
The procession of prominent Washington Democrats who lined up last week to sing the praises of California Attorney General Kamala Harris for Senate had the feel of an anointment. Sen. Cory Booker said he was “so excited” about her candidacy. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called Harris, a favorite of the Obama White House, “smart” and “tough.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told supporters she needed Harris “by my side.”
By Debra J. Saunders
Updated 5:41 pm, Wednesday, January 21, 2015
As President Obama delivered his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, I saw all of 2015 flash before my eyes. It was a smart speech that wisely stuck to “middle-class” values and was shrewdly short on details. I saw another year of the president not compromising. For Republicans, it was Ground Hog Day — an endless loop of the president talking up bipartisanship without practicing it.
By Julie Pace, AP White House Correspondent
Posted: 01/20/15, 7:28 PM PST | Updated: 28 secs ago
WASHINGTON >> Refusing to bend to the new Republican Congress, President Barack Obama unveiled Tuesday night an ambitious State of the Union agenda steeped in Democratic priorities, including tax increases on the wealthy, education and child care help for the middle class and a torrent of veto threats for the GOP’s own plans.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015 – 10:00 a.m.
Some, not all ears, will be tuned to Tuesday night’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
01/19/2015 7:39 PM
Legislative leaders occasionally proclaim that they want to do more “oversight” – looking into how well state government agencies are serving the public interest.
At best, however, it has been spotty.
By Matier & Ross
Monday, January 19, 2015
Having jumped into the U.S. Senate race “feet first,” state Attorney General Kamala Harris will be hitting the phones to score as much money and as many endorsements possible — all in the hope of keeping rival Democrats from jumping in as well.
By Justin Sink – 01/19/15 08:45 AM EST
President Obama will head into Tuesday’s State of the Union with his highest job approval numbers in 18 months, according to a new poll released Monday by The Washington Post and ABC News.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
01/18/2015 4:50 PM
Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate change activist weighing a run for U.S. Senate, is telling potential supporters he would commit to serving only one term if he can’t reach goals dealing with the environment, economy and education within six years.
They fare much better than Christie and Perry in a survey of would-be contenders.
By David Cohen
1/18/15 6:48 PM EST
Updated 1/18/15 11:02 PM EST
Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney are the would-be candidates that Americans most want to run for president in 2016, while solid pluralities would prefer that Chris Christie and Rick Perry sit this election out, according to a new CBS News Poll released Sunday.
By Mark Gutgkueck
Posted on January 17, 2015
(January 14) — In local Democratic Party circles there is already peripheral discussion of the need to mount a challenge of Marc Steinorth in the 40th Assembly District in 2016.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
01/17/2015 11:12 PM
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa planned to use the year to, as he put it recently, continue on a journey of reflection.
By DAVID SCOTT and STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press
01/18/2015 9:27 AM
CORONADO, Calif.
Not yet in the presidential race, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mitt Romney already are previewing the likely focus of the 2016 campaign, a competition over who’s better able to boost paychecks for working Americans.
Published: Jan. 16, 2015 – Updated: 9:26 a.m.
The newest members of the Inland House of Representatives delegation now have committee assignments.
To read post by Jeff Horseman in The PE Political Empire Blog, click here.
By Josh Richman
Thursday, January 15th, 2015 at 12:13 am
Hedge fund billionaire and environmental activist Tom Steyer said Tuesday he’s considering whether to run for California’s U.S. Senate seat in 2016, but apparently he’s been mulling this for a while: A polling memo shows he commissioned a survey on his chances in mid-December.
George Skelton, Los Angeles Times
January 15, 2015
george.skelton@latimes.com
@latimesskelton
Who will be California’s next U.S. senator, replacing the retiring Democrat Barbara Boxer?
It’ll be another Democrat, bet on that.
Or the way Republicans could find themselves shut out of the general election altogether.
By Scott Bland
January 13, 2015
Democrats are far-and-away favored to keep Sen. Barbara Boxer’s California Senate seat when she retires in 2016. They may even be able to shut Republicans out of the general election altogether. But, with both parties still feeling their way through recent and radical changes to the state’s rules for primary races, Democratic insiders see a nightmare scenario in which they fumble away the seat before the general election even begins.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015 – 03:00 p.m.
To answer a question from several readers.
In the event California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) takes the seat being vacated by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D), Governor Jerry Brown (D), not voters, will pick her successor.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
01/12/2015 11:29 PM
Barbara Boxer’s decision to retire from the U.S. Senate dissipates some of the fog that has been obscuring California’s political landscape.
Monday, January 12, 2015 – 05:30 p.m.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer, who announced last week that she would not seek another term in 2016.
By Anthony York
January 11, 2015
During his press conference outlining his new $164.7 billion state spending plan, Gov. Jerry Brown made extensive remarks about Californians living in poverty, and the challenges the state faces in dealing with those who continue to struggle economically.
By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane
January 11, 2015 at 9:00 PM
Senior Democrats, dissatisfied with the party’s tepid prescriptions for combating income inequality, are drafting an “action plan” that calls for a massive transfer of wealth from the super-rich and Wall Street traders to the heart of the middle class.
By Dan Balz, Chief correspondent
January 10, 2015 at 8:10 PM
AURORA, Colo. — It’s been a good few weeks for Jeb Bush, who has been setting the pace among prospective 2016 presidential candidates — at least in the view of some in the elite world of political donors, strategists and commentators. But even before the news that Mitt Romney is thinking about a third campaign, a dissenting view on Bush was registered here Thursday night.
January 9th, 2015 – 9:35 am
The election is over. But the heat remains on Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, as he starts his second term.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has issued at least three news releases this month attacking Ruiz, who ousted GOP incumbent Mary Bono in 2012 and represents a district where Republicans hold a slight edge in voter registration.
To read post by Jeff Horseman in The PE Political Empire Blog, click here.
By Joe Garofoli
January 8, 2015 – 12:51 PM
Nothing like a political power vacuum to elicit the quality present in all politicians: the innate ability to suck up.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
01/08/2015 11:32 PM
Feeding frenzy. Musical chairs. Horse race. Free-for-all.
Thursday, January 8, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) has announced she will retire at the end of her current term, which ends in December 2016.
By Grace Wong, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Posted: 01/07/15, 8:54 PM PST |
RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Despite the giant plaque with former Rep. Gary Miller’s name on it, a staff member of newly sworn-in Rep. Pete Aguilar greeted visitors with a large smile.
By Joel Fox
Editor of Fox & Hounds and President of the Small Business Action Committee
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
Jerry Brown, the adroit political juggler, was on full display during his Inaugural Address/State of the State Speech yesterday keeping in the air at the same time the notion of more spending while also tossing about the importance of fiscal responsibility.
President opposes first legislative move by GOP-controlled Congress.
By Edward-Isaac Dovere and Burgess Everett
1/6/15 8:51 PM EST
President Barack Obama’s Keystone veto threat Tuesday was the opening gambit in his fight with the new Republican majorities in Congress looking to derail his post-midterm momentum.
By Sandra Emerson, Redlands Daily Facts
Posted: 01/05/15, 9:50 PM PST | Updated: 1 min ago
The Inland Empire’s newest members of the U.S. House of Representatives will be sworn in today as members of the 114th U.S. Congress.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
01/05/2015 7:58 PM
Jerry Brown was just 44 years old in 1982 but had already served two terms as governor of California, run for president twice and seen his bid for a U.S. Senate seat resoundingly rejected.
Published: Jan. 4, 2015 – Updated: 6:39 p.m.
The Inland Southern California congressional delegation arrives in Washington this week with an overall lack of seniority and a number of members in a diminished minority party following historic Republican victories in November.
To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
01/04/2015 12:01 AM
It’s a new year and the Capitol’s Democrats should be singing Franklin Roosevelt’s old campaign song, “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
Published: Jan. 1, 2015
Updated: Jan. 2, 2015 – 8:26 a.m.
Before November, “super” described the Democratic advantage in Sacramento.
Democrats still have a firm grasp on California state government, controlling 52 of 80 Assembly seats and 25 of 40 Senate seats along with the governorship and other statewide offices. But Republican victories in several key races ended the Democratic supermajorities in the new Legislature, which convenes Monday.
To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.
By Jim Puzzanghera
December 31, 2014
The economy boomed through most of last year, a time when the nation’s capital was devoid of major budget fights and threats of government shutdown.
By James Oliphant
December 30, 2014
You can make a compelling case that 2014 was the worst year for President Obama since, well, the year before. And, in fact, the president spent much of this year trying to recover from some body blows he took in the final months of 2013, when, in short order, Congress rebuffed him on Syria and the federal health care exchange imploded.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
12/29/2014 12:01 AM
This year was the second cycle of California’s experiment with the “top-two” primary election system, under which all candidates appear on the same ballot and the No. 1 and No. 2 vote-getters, regardless of party, face each other in the November election.
By JULIE PACE and NANCY BENAC Associated Press
12/24/2014 11:41 AM
WASHINGTON–
It was supposed to be a joke. “Are you still president?” comedian Stephen Colbert asked Barack Obama earlier this month.
By John Wildermuth
Thursday, December 25, 2014
In politics, money matters, and plenty of out-of-work politicians want to hang on to their campaign cash for as long as they can.
By Nancy Benac
Associated Press
12/26/2014 8:11 AM
WASHINGTON–
Again? Really?
There are more than 300 million people in America, yet the same two families keep popping up when it comes to picking a president.
Politics
Operation Revenge
By GLENN THRUSH
December 19, 2014
Two senior White House staffers stumbled out of the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago into the boozy, early-morning aftermath of President Obama’s Nov. 6, 2012, reelection victory and ran smack into a sober reporter. “It’s over,” one of the wobbly, relieved aides said. “He never has to do this again.”
By Maggie Haberman
12/18/14 3:51 PM EST
For months, Hillary Clinton’s allies viewed one Republican as posing a bigger threat to her in a 2016 presidential general election matchup than any other: Jeb Bush. But they believed Bush wouldn’t ultimately take the plunge.
By David Knowles
Dec 21, 2014 – 3:50 PM PST
If not for President Obama signing 61 bills into law late last week, a new heir to the title of “Do-Nothing Congress” would have been named.
By Debra J. Saunders
Updated 10:11 am, Saturday, December 20, 2014
The needle already was in the haystack. That essentially is the message embedded in the Democrats’ Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on CIA interrogations and detentions, approved without a single Republican vote and released by committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
By Patrick McGreevy
December 18, 2014
In yet another shakeup in the state Senate, new President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) has removed the top staff from a Senate committee that last session blocked one of his priority bills.
San Diego lawmaker also ordered to complete alcohol education program
By Chris Nichols
Dec. 18, 2014 – Updated2:44 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — Sen. Ben Hueso was sentenced Thursday to three years probation and ordered to complete an alcohol education program stemming from his August arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol near the Capitol.
By Ed O’Keefe and Sean Sullivan
December 16, 2014 at 10:51 PM
The least-productive Congress in modern history drew to an abrupt close late Tuesday as the U.S. Senate extended dozens of expired tax breaks but failed to renew a federally backed terrorism insurance program supported by big businesses and major sports leagues.
BY MARTIN WISCKOL
COLUMNIST
STAFF COLUMNIST
Published: Dec. 14, 2014 Updated: Dec. 15, 2014 12:19 p.m.
Speculation is growing that Sen. Barbara Boxer, 74, may not seek re-election in 2016, prompting Time magazine to list potential candidates for the job.
Missing from the list is Rep. Loretta Sanchez, but don’t count out the Santa Ana Democrat.
By David Nakamura
December 15, 2014 at 3:58 PM
President Obama is bracing for a political and legal battle with Republicans next year over his executive actions on immigration, but as he seeks to rally support against the anticipated assault, a lingering frustration among some Latinos could mean renewed pressure on him to do even more to protect illegal immigrants.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
12/15/2014 12:08 AM
More than a half-dozen of California’s Democratic congressional members had a scare in last month’s election, barely winning re-election against unexpectedly strong Republican challenges.
Four days in December hint at deeper divides to come.
By DAVID ROGERS
December 14, 2014
Rep. Tom Cole may have said it best when he joked during a meeting of the House Rules Committee on Wednesday that “it’s been great to listen to this debate over the soul of the Democratic Party.”
By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com
12/12/2014 11:26 PM
California Senate leader Kevin de León has eliminated a legislative staff unit that focused on government oversight, a creation of his predecessor, former Sen. Darrell Steinberg.
By Melanie Mason
December 11, 2014
A nonprofit charitable group backed by conservative mega-donors David and Charles Koch has sued Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris for seeking the names and addresses of the group’s donors.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
12/11/2014 7:19 PM
As the most severe winter storm in at least a half-decade bore down on California on Tuesday, 3,000 miles away in Washington, the House voted, largely along party lines, for a California drought relief bill.
By Evan Halper
December 11, 2014
More than 1 million Americans who were promised secure, predictable retirement income probably will see part of their monthly benefit checks evaporate as Congress moves to stabilize some private pension systems veering toward insolvency.
Published: Dec. 9, 2014 Updated: Dec. 10, 2014 8:55 a.m.
Current and former faculty of San Bernardino Valley College have raised concerns about the qualifications of the school’s newly named president, Gloria Fisher.
To read story by Mark Muckenfuss in The Press-Enterprse, click here.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
12/09/2014 8:15 PM
Santa Claus isn’t the only one making lists of who’s been naughty and nice this month.
Political junkies and pundits in California and Washington are drawing up lists of who might be nice – or at least voter-attractive – enough to become the state’s next U.S. senator two years hence.
By Ed O’Keefe
December 10, 2014 at 10:30 AM
{This item has been updated and revised.}
The $1.01 trillion spending bill unveiled late Tuesday will keep most of the federal government funded through next September — and it’s packed with hundreds of policy instructions, known on Capitol Hill as “riders,” that will upset or excite Democrats, Republicans and various special interest groups.
By David Rogers
12/9/14 8:41 PM EST
Updated 12/10/14 8:51 AM EST
Capping weeks of backroom talks, House Republicans filed a $1.1 trillion year-end spending bill Tuesday night — a giant package that’s both a last marker for this Congress and first step toward GOP control in the next.
Greg Giroux
Dec 7, 2014 3:17 PM PST
Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy’s double-digit ousting of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu on Saturday was, in the words of the senator-elect, an “exclamation mark” on a 2014 election that saw the Republicans win control of the Senate. With Landrieu’s departure, only half of the Senators who voted to pass the Affordable Care Act will still be in office in 2015, when the new members are sworn in.
Sunday, December 7, 2014 – 09:25 a.m.
As expected, voters kicked U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) out of office on Saturday.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
12/05/2014 10:12 PM
When Democrats lost their legislative supermajorities last month, it doomed even the very faint chance that legislators would enact the hefty tax increases liberal groups yearn to impose.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
12/04/2014 11:00 PM
Kevin de León, president pro tem of the state Senate for just a few weeks, has already run up a remarkable string of political missteps and gaffes.
By Jim Miller
jmiller@sacbee.com
12/03/2014 10:14 p.m.
//The California Senate faces an estimated budget shortfall of $3 million to $4 million through June, a top Senate official said this week, offering the first detailed explanation of the fiscal problems behind last month’s layoffs of 39 Senate employees.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
12/01/2014 5:37 PM
The Legislature returned to Sacramento on Monday – or, as a dystopian might say, to the scene of its previous crimes.
By Billy House and Sarah Mimms
November 30, 2014
Lawmakers reconvene Monday for the final two weeks of the 113th Congress, with some Republicans clamoring to use the power of the purse to block President Obama’s executive action on immigration and Democrats warning that such a strategy could lead to another government shutdown.
Saturday, November 29, 2014 – 10:00 a.m.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos has formally established his campaign commitee and website for California Attorney General in 2018.
jmiller@sacbee.com
11/28/2014 5:13 PM
Tens of millions of state campaign dollars changed hands in the run-up to California’s Nov. 4 election, with a select group of donors generating many of the contributions, based on a tally of late contribution filings with the secretary of state’s office.
November 26th, 2014, 4:48 pm
The Nov. 4 election is officially certified in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which means it’s time to see where the winning and losing candidates got their votes.
To read post by Jeff Horseman in The P-E Political Empire Blog, click here.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
11/28/2014 12:01 AM
Going into the Nov. 4 election, Republicans appeared to have an excellent chance of recouping several congressional seats they’d lost in 2012, and their optimism was bolstered on election night.
By Danielle Paquette
November 23, 2014 at 4:48 PM
If the presidency were a car, Barack Obama would be a highway-worn Toyota Prius … or something.
Tribune News Service
David Lightman
November 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Obama legacy wasn’t supposed to unfold this way.
Barack Obama was changing the political map, pushing the Democratic Party into the South and the Mountain West. He was building a new social network that would endure long after an Obama presidency. And he was building a new Democratic coalition for a new age, with greater turnout from young and minority voters.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
11/20/2014 8:27 PM
The election is over, the Legislature will soon reconvene and interest groups are starting to beat their drums – signals that the Capitol will soon begin its annual spasm of Darwinian combat known as the state budget.
BY MARTIN WISCKOL AND KEEGAN KYLE / STAFF WRITERS
Published: Nov. 17, 2014 Updated: Nov. 18, 2014 6:55 a.m.
Orange County continued its trend toward an electorate that looks more like the rest of the Democratic state when it supported Proposition 47 – which reduces some non-violent felonies to misdemeanors – with 53 percent of the vote.
By John Bresnahan and Lauren French
Updated 11/18/14 10:50 AM EST
The discontent with Nancy Pelosi is breaking out in the open.
Democrats in the House have quietly grumbled about Pelosi since suffering devastating losses on Election Day, but there is a growing number of members willing to go public on their party leaders.