Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
By Joe Garofoli
Saturday, February 21, 2015 – Published 4:40 pm
Politicians don’t get much more conservative than Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. He was Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter, an inspiration behind California’s anti-immigration Proposition 187, a Cold War hardliner, and a man who self-deprecatingly calls himself a “Neanderthal Republican.”
By David Lightman
McClatchy Washington Bureau
02/21/2015 12:22 PM
WASHINGTON — Democrats have become a confused political party with a muddled message and an inability to turn out enough of its loyal voters, a party task force charged with how to revive the embattled party said Saturday.
Saturday, February 2015 – 09:30 a.m.
It just keeps getting worse for Democrats nationally. The Obamacare steamroller was operating at full speed this week.
Where do I start?
By Neil Nisperos, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Posted: 02/18/15, 8:30 PM PST
RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Rancho Cucamonga, held a roundtable discussion with the area’s business community on Wednesday at a job center where they shared issues relating to regulatory difficulties, and the need to train young people for important sectors of the Inland Empire economy, among other concerns.
By Matt Fuller
Posted at 5:49 p.m. on Feb. 18
Two days after a Texas judge halted President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, nothing seems to have changed in the congressional showdown over funding the Department of Homeland Security.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 – 03:00 p.m.
Looks like two losses isn’t enough for the county’s preeminent wannabe elected official.
Monday, February 16, 2015 – 11:00 a.m.
It looks as if Congressional Democrats have figured out what we’ve been saying here for over a year.
By Michael A. Memoli and Lisa Mascaro
February 15, 2015
After six weeks in session and 139 roll call votes in a House and Senate that feature some of the largest Republican majorities in generations, one of the most telling statistics from the new Congress is this: President Obama’s veto threats outnumber the bills Congress has been able to send him.
By Jean Merl
February 13, 2015
Getting an early start on shoring up at-risk members, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Thursday released a list of 14 it deems most vulnerable in next year’s elections.
By Paul Kane
February 13, 2015 at 3:00 AM
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, less than six weeks into unified GOP rule on Capitol Hill, is on the verge of seeing his most adamant pledge go up in smoke.
Published: Feb. 11, 2015 – Updated: 9:40 a.m.
Republican Paul Chabot believes a lack of money and GOP support hampered his campaign for an Inland congressional seat. He might have a point, at least on the money part.
To read post by Jeff Horseman in The PE Political Empire Blog, click here.
By Elana Schor
2/11/15 – 5:39 PM EST – Updated 2/11/15 – 9:14 PM EST
The House easily passed a bill on Wednesday that would allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, setting up President Barack Obama to issue the third veto of his presidency.
By Manu Raju and Jake Sherman
2/11/15 – 8:14 PM EST – Updated 2/12/15 8:17 AM EST
A faction of House and Senate conservatives is pushing Republican leaders to take the battle over the Homeland Security Department to the brink, arguing the party would win the public relations war with Democrats if a standoff over immigration led to a shutdown of the agency.
Monday, February 9, 2015 – 09:00 a.m.
First it was the “If you like your plan you can keep it” debacle.
Now everyone is just starting to get the second dose of Obamacare.
By Sean Sullivan
February 3, 2015 at 8:28 PM
Congressional Republicans on Tuesday continued their assault on President Obama’s signature accomplishments and his ambitious budget proposal. But they faced stiff resistance from Democrats.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
02/02/2015 12:01 AM
When politicians tinker with the laws governing their own elections, one should view their proposals with a guilty-until-proven-innocent attitude.
Saturday, January 31, 2015 – 01:00 p.m.
We’ve said it here many times.
If there’s one group who can routinely shoot itself in the head, it’s the GOP.
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.
Monday, January 26, 2015 – 09:00 a.m.
You gotta hand it to the GOP.
If there’s one concept the Republican Party has really developed a fine skill for, it’s committing political suicide.
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 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.
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 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 Seung Min Kim
1/7/15 8:14 PM EST
House Republicans are ready to fire the opening salvo in the war over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
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.
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.
Boehner, McConnell have big plans and big obstacles.
By Jake Sherman and Burgess Everett
1/4/15 5:28 PM EST
Updated 1/4/15 5:34 PM EST
Republican leaders think 2015 is their year.
They just won control of the Senate and have a historic majority in the House. The presidential election hasn’t yet begun. President Barack Obama says he wants to engage with Capitol Hill. For the first time in a while, there seems to be a genuine thirst for getting something done.
By Brian Faler
1/2/15 – 4:01 PM EST
The question of who will be Congress’ next chief number-cruncher has suddenly gotten a lot more important.
By Andrew Restuccia
1/2/15 – 2:48 PM EST
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to vote on legislation approving the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline on Thursday.
By Rebecca Shabad – 01/01/15 – 06:00 AM EST
The federal budget is almost certain to be the central battleground between President Obama and the new Republican Congress in 2015.
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 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.
Californians to Watch in 2015
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
12/26/2014 9:38 PM
Eight years ago, then-Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy was leading fellow Republicans in Sacramento, clawing for relevance in a Capitol dominated by Democrats.
Now McCarthy is the second most powerful member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Published: December 25, 201
Updated: December 26, 2014 – 10:49 a.m.
Buried in the $1.1 trillion, 1,603-page federal spending bill approved by Congress earlier this month is a little relief for medical marijuana advocates such as Jim Camper.
The spending package contains language forbidding federal agencies from using their resources to go after medical marijuana in states where it is legal.
To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.
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 Cheryl K. Chumley – The Washington Times
Monday, December 22, 2014
Republicans say they have the will to bring down Obamacare — and many are eyeing a little-known, little-used budget too called “reconciliation” to do so.
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 Evan Halper
December 16, 2014
‘The first time in decades that the federal government has curtailed its oppressive prohibition of marijuana’
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.
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 Dan Balz
December 13, 2014 at 2:06 PM
The November elections brought significant changes to Washington and to many states. What they did not produce was any greater sense of optimism on the part of the public about the state of American politics. If anything, they produced the opposite.
By Josh Richman
Friday, December 12th, 2014 at 11:57 am
A conservative super PAC is trashing House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, for helping pass the $1.1 trillion “CRomnibus” spending bill, which some say doesn’t do enough to roll back President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
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.
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.
By Matea Gold
December 9, 2014 at 9:59 PM
{This post has been updated.}
The end-of-year spending bill deal crafted by congressional leaders Tuesday would dramatically expand the amount of money that wealthy political donors could inject into the national parties, drastically undercutting the 2002 landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance overhaul.
By Beau Yarbrough, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Posted: 12/08/14, 8:23 PM PST | Updated: 11 hrs ago
On Nov. 6, Republican Paul Chabot lost his bid for the 31st Congressional District, ending up 3,460 votes behind Democrat Pete Aguilar, out of nearly 100,000 votes cast. But it didn’t have to be that way, Chabot writes in a report posted Monday afternoon on his website: Financial support from the national Republican Party could have made all the difference.
By Billy House
December 8, 2014
As lawmakers pressed Monday to finalize the legislative language of a must-pass omnibus spending bill, labor unions and retiree groups were mobilizing to defeat what they are characterizing as a lame-duck sneak attack on the pensions of some already-retired workers.
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 Michael A. Fletcher
December 3, 2014 at 9:38 PM
Congress could soon allow the benefits of current retirees to be cut as part of an agreement to address the fiscal distress confronting some of the nation’s 1,400 multi-employer pension plans.
By Jim Puzzanghera
December 3, 2014
The House overwhelmingly approved a one-year extension of $45 billion in tax breaks, mostly for businesses, after bipartisan efforts on a longer-term extension fell apart close to deadline.
By Lisa Mascaro, Michael A. Memoli and Joseph Tanfani
December 2, 2014
Hoping to prevent a government shutdown by opponents of President Obama’s immigration plan, House Speaker John A. Boehner floated a proposal Tuesday for funding most of the government — but not the immigration agencies — through the end of the 2015 fiscal year.
Votes on a year-end congressional deal hinge on Rep. Yoho.
By Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer
12/1/14 9:51 PM EST / Updated 12/2/14 10:09 AM EST
Top House Republicans agree on a two-part plan to keep the government from closing in nine days. Now comes the hard part: selling it.
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.
By Jim Puzzanghera
November 29, 2014
The incoming Republican majority in Congress is preparing to give number-crunching a controversial twist, and the new math could make it easier for the GOP to cut taxes.
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.
David Lawder
WASHINGTON
Wed Nov 26, 2014 – 7:11pm EST
(Reuters) – Congress can block President Barack Obama from using federal immigration fees to issue permits for millions of undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the United States, according to a congressional research memo released on Wednesday.
By Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan
11/24/14 7:29 PM EST
Updated 11/25/14 8:39 AM EST
House Republican leaders are beginning to coalesce around a strategy to avoid a government shutdown in less than a month.
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 Amanda Becker
WASHINGTON Fri Nov 21, 2014 11:27am EST
(Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday filed a long-anticipated lawsuit challenging the implementation of President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law over employer-based coverage and payments to insurers, according to court documents.
By Lauren French
11/21/14 7:24 PM EST
The House Intelligence Committee dismissed on Friday a number of the most persistent myths about the 2012 terrorist attacks at a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.
By Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer
11/18/14 – 1:08 PM EST
House and Senate Republican leaders have been privately discussing the potential of introducing targeted immigration reform bills in the coming months, according to multiple sources in both chambers.
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.
By Sandra Emerson, Redlands Daily Facts
Posted: 11/14/14, 9:29 PM PST | Updated: 1 min ago
Democrats Pete Aguilar and Norma Torres, the Inland Empire’s newly elected congressional members, will spend the next few days learning the ins and outs of Washington during the new member orientation.
November 14th, 201 – 9:25 am
Rep. Ken Calvert is headed back to Washington. And once again, he’s doing it as head of California’s Republican congressional delegation.
To read post by Jeff Horseman in The P-E Political Empire Blog, click here.
By Kevin Drawbaugh
Wed Nov 12, 2014 – 6:53pm EST
Washington–
(Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. Congress will soon move to kill a medical device tax imposed less than two years ago under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, congressional aides and analysts said on Wednesday.
By Sam Baker
November 12, 2014
Republicans’ pledge to “repeal and replace” Obamacare will never die, and yet it is not really alive. It is the undead—and it has risen again.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 – 11:00 a.m.
Over a year ago we correctly said the Affordable care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, would single-handedly undermine Democrat chances in the 2014 midterm elections. The pocketbook issue was raised by every Republican candidate in every contested U.S. Senate race, and it worked. Democrats were routed at the polls.
Now brace for round number two!
By Tony Romm
11/11/14 5:05 AM EST
A poor showing in the midterm elections taught the well-heeled tech moguls at Google, Facebook and Yahoo a lesson about 2016: There’s a limit to what their endless cash can buy.
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 11/6/14 5:01 AM EST
As Democrats take stock of their grievous losses in the 2014 elections, party leaders are confronting a challenge perhaps even more daunting than their defeats in the House and Senate: the virtual wipeout of the Democratic talent pool across the country.
By Peggy Noonan
Updated – Nov. 7, 2014 7:02 p.m. ET
The drubbin’, thumpin’, poundin’ was a two-part wave, a significant Republican rise in the U.S. Senate and a Democratic collapse in the governorships.
It was one of those nights neither party ever forgets.
By Ed O’Keefe
November 7, 2014 at 7:28 PM
President Obama firmly rejected advice from top congressional Republicans on Friday that he delay his promised executive action on immigration reform, dismissing calls from critics inside and outside his party to allow Congress to debate the issue next year.
By LAUREN FRENCH | 11/7/14 10:19 AM EST
Kevin McCarthy has announced his intention to seek his first full term as House majority leader.
By Beau Yarbrough, The Sun
Posted: 11/06/14, 5:48 PM PST |
Two days after the election and with an additional 15,834 votes counted, Republican Paul Chabot has conceded to his Democratic rival Pete Aguilar in the race for the 31st Congressional District.
Thursday, November 6, 2014 – 08:00 a.m.
Nothing is as descriptive of Tuesday’s midterm election results than the national map of the projected makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2015.
By Christi Parsons and David Lauter
November 6, 2014
President Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell talked of cooperation Wednesday in the aftermath of the huge GOP election victory, but the two sides prepared for renewed conflict on issues that have dominated the campaign and national debate for the last two years.
By Debra J. Saunders
Updated 5:03 pm, Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Tuesday was a beauteous night. Republicans won the Senate handily, picked up 14 House seats, and won governor’s races in Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois. Good times.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
Inland Empire voters returned Democrat and Republican incumbents to their respective congressional offices, and also elected a Democrat to a GOP-held seat on Tuesday.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 – 08:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, November 5, 2014 – 09:55 a.m.
It wasn’t just a wave. It was a tidal wave.
The country sent President Barack Obama and his Democrat Party a strong message on Tuesday.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
It’s finally here. Election day!
We’ll know by 5 p.m. (Pacific), whether or not it’s going to be a GOP wave.
Republicans are likely to gain control of the U.S. Senate and also increase their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
If a GOP wave materializes back east, it may suppress Democrat turnout on the West Coast, and in Alaska and Hawaii, which have late poll closings
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 – 08:30 a.m.
This is the final update of absentee ballot returns. The data shows voters, Democrats in particular, are disengaged.
Depending on Election Day turnout, Raul Ruiz (D) could be ousted by State Assemblyman Brian Nestande (R) in CD-36. In CD-31, the battle between Pete Aguilar (D) and Paul Chabot (R) is a toss-up. But the numbers currently don’t favor Aguilar. Read the rest of this entry »