Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
AP Top News
By Thomas Beaumont and Bill Barrow
Mar. 27, 2017
The Republican Party of “no” for Democrat Barack Obama’s eight years is having a hard time getting to “yes” in the early Donald Trump era.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago and Alexei Koseff
ccadelago@sacbee.com
January 24, 2017 – 10:44 AM
Gov. Jerry Brown, plunging into position as a Democratic bulwark against Donald Trump’s presidency, warned Tuesday of looming battles with Republican-controlled Washington, using his State of the State address to assuage fears that California would turn its back on progressive policies.
Sarah D. Wire
December 28, 2016
So far, none of California’s 55 senators and representatives have announced plans to retire ahead of the 2018 election. But after weeks at home with family during the holidays to talk about the future, such declarations could come soon.
Sarah D. Wire and Bettina Boxall
December 9, 2016
Over Sen. Barbara Boxer’s objections, the Senate voted 78 to 21 Friday evening to pass sweeping water infrastructure legislation that changes how much water is pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California.
Phil Willon
November 15, 2016
Newly elected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris said she’s already been in contact with her West Coast colleagues about banding together to implement Democratic priorities in the political era of President-elect Donald Trump.
Phil Willon
Oct. 17, 2016, 1:18 p.m.
A super PAC backing Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange) for U.S. Senate launched a radio ad targeting Republican voters and attacking her rival, California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, as “another Barbara Boxer — a Bay Area liberal backed by the Democratic Party establishment.”
James F. Peltz
September 19, 2016
When the Senate Banking Committee grills Wells Fargo & Co.’s chairman Tuesday about the banking giant’s sales scandal, look for the word “clawback” to come up more than once.
Jim Puzzanghera
September 12, 2016
The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next week on the aggressive sales tactics by Wells Fargo & Co. employees that led to a $185-million settlement package with federal and state regulators.
Phil Willon
July 27, 2016 – 9:00.P.M.
Half of California’s likely Republican voters and a third of independents said they wouldn’t vote for either candidate in the state’s U.S. Senate race this November, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Phil Willon, Jazmine Ulloa
July 22, 2016
Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez said in an interview with a Spanish-language television station that she believes President Obama may have endorsed rival Kamala Harris in California’s U.S. Senate race because they are both black, injecting a dose of racial politics into a historic contest that in November will elect the state’s first African American or Latino senator.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
June 22, 2016 – 2:20 PM
Democrat Loretta Sanchez’s gambit to attract dissident Republicans to her U.S. Senate campaign received a shot of encouragement Wednesday with the endorsement of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
June 18, 2016 – 2:00 PM
California has had its brief moment of semi-relevance in this year’s wild and woolly presidential contest and Hillary Clinton can now safely count on its 55 electoral votes.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
June 8, 2016 – 5:51 PM
State Attorney General Kamala Harris carried at least 50 of 58 California counties in the U.S. Senate primary Tuesday, collecting twice the percentage of votes that went to fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez.
Saturday, June 4, 2016 – 03:30 p.m.
Well the much talked about California Primary Election is before us.
Then things will get dull until the presidential nominating conventions. One can expect more policy speeches and sniping between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Phil Willon and Maloy Moore
June 1, 2016
The top two Democrats in California’s U.S. Senate race have raised more than a combined $12 million for their campaigns, but many of the state’s most generous and loyal campaign donors have yet to crack open their wallets.
By Tony Saavedra / Staff Writer
June 1, 2016 – Updated 10:10 p.m.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris is talking a lot these days in her bid to become a U.S. senator, but one subject she’s not mentioning is her complex role in Orange County’s highest-profile criminal case – the penalty phase in the trial of confessed mass murderer Scott Dekraai.
By Joe Garofoli
May 13, 2016
Updated: May 13, 2016 – 2:57pm
California’s U.S. Senate race has been overshadowed by the high-profile presidential campaign but that might change a bit Friday when Democrats Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez launched TV commercials.
Phil Willon, John Myers
May 10, 2016
U.S. Senate hopeful Kamala Harris found herself under attack Tuesday night during a fiery debate where she was accused of putting her political ambitions ahead of serving Californians as state Attorney General and pressed about why she hasn’t investigated police shootings.
By The Southern California News Group, San Bernardino County Sun
Posted: 05/06/16 – 4:50 PM PDT |
California in November will elect a new U.S. senator for the first time in 24 years. To replace four-term Sen. Barbara Boxer, who decided not to seek re-election, we endorse Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Orange, because she has demonstrated incredible judgment on the most crucial issues of our generation, taking tough stands in the face of tremendous opposition.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
April 26, 2016 – 3:50 PM
Barbara Boxer’s decision to retire has inspired 34 men and women to seek her U.S. Senate seat this year.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago and David Siders
ccadelago@sacbee.com
April 25, 2016 – 01:00 p.m.
Stockton–
Democrats Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez offered contrasting styles Monday in the first televised debate of the U.S. Senate contest, while a trio of Republicans leapt at the chance to participate in a bipartisan skirmish.
Phil Willon and Noah Bierman
April 22, 2016
Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s easygoing, neighborly style has won over Orange County voters for two decades, but that blessing has come with a nettlesome curse: the occasional, stinging political gaffe.
Phil Willon
April 13, 2016
The calls to Encino attorney Janice Kamenir-Reznik came every few weeks, pleading for her to run for the California state Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Fran Pavley.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
April 8, 2016 – 1:00 PM
Californians have the rare opportunity to vote for a new U.S. senator in two months – but nearly half of likely voters still haven’t settled on a candidate, according to the latest Field Poll.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
April 3, 2016 – 8:01 AM
Bill Carrick, the veteran political consultant who advises U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez, was obviously elated last month by a Public Policy Institute of California poll.
Cathleen Decker
March 31, 2016
Don’t ask Dianne Feinstein just yet whether she plans to run for a fifth full term in the U.S. Senate, a seat that will be on the ballot in 2018.
Phil Willon
March 28, 2016
California’s U.S. Senate campaign appears stuck in a political stasis, with nearly a third of voters still undecided about who to support in a race lost in the shadow of the nation’s presidential contest, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
Phil Willon
March 23, 2016 – 09:00 p.m.
With just over three months to go before the state’s June primary election, Democrats Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana have more voter support than their Republican rivals in the race for U.S. Senate, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.
By Sean Cockerham
scockerham@mcclatchydc.com
March 22, 2016 – 10:50 AM
WASHINGTON —
Whether she’s sending out cat Christmas cards, mimicking a Native American war whoop, or suggesting that up to 20 percent of Muslims might resort to violence to overthrow the Western way of life, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California is known as much for her personality as her policy.
Published: Feb. 21, 2016 – Updated: 5:38 p.m.
It makes sense, financially and otherwise, to spend on measures to prevent children from becoming criminals as adults, California Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris said during a campaign stop in Riverside on Sunday, Feb. 21.
To read article by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.
By Burgess Everett
Published: 02/16/16 – 07:24 PM EST
Updated 02/16/16 – 08:38 PM EST
Mitch McConnell’s message to the White House after Antonin Scalia’s death on Saturday seemed unequivocal: Don’t even bother sending a Supreme Court nominee to Congress, we won’t act on it.
Ben Adler
Monday, February 1, 2016 | Sacramento, CA
New fundraising reports show two Democrats lead the field in California’s U.S. Senate race, just as they do in recent polls.
Dan Walters
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
January 28, 2016 – 4:00 PM
California’s attorney general has responsibilities and powers second only to those of the governor, and the office’s occupant is always in position to climb the political ladder.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
January 20, 2016 – 5:43 PM
Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, campaigning Wednesday in Sacramento, again put aside conventional political subtleties and cut right to the point: “I think we need a Latina in the U.S. Senate.”
Kathleen Decker
January 11, 2016
The upsides of California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris’ political ambitions have been apparent as she’s climbed in politics: She charms an audience like few candidates do, speaks knowledgeably about criminal justice-related issues and stays relentlessly on message.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
January 6, 2016 4:01 PM
Attorney General Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez continue to lead the contest to succeed U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, but the all-Democratic dynamic could change once more Republican voters begin engaging in the race, according to the new Field Poll.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
December 31, 2015 – 2:26 PM
Since 2016 is a number divisible by 2, this is also an election year, and that biennial fact will dominate – and perhaps distort – California politics in the forthcoming months.
Capitol Alert
By Alexei Koseff
akoseff@sacbee.com
December 31, 2015 6:00 AM
As 2016 dawns in California, politics looms large. Dozens of initiatives have been filed for what could become a November ballot of record size. State political parties are calculating their odds in nearly 175 legislative and congressional races. Some candidates for statewide office in 2018 are already campaigning.
By Christine Mai-Duc
December 18, 2015
The sweeping budget deal — a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill — tackles a number of policy areas, including making some $650 billion in tax breaks permanent, adopting new cybersecurity rules and repealing a decades-old ban on crude oil exports.
Phil Willon
December 11, 2015
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is trying to beat back criticism over a comment she made about the percentage of Muslims who support a caliphate — the establishment of a strict Islamic state — to defend and advance their religious ideology.
By Brian Faler
12/02/15 – 05:37 PM EST
Congress is eyeing a year-end budget-busting tax cut blowout.
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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
November 30, 2015
Six years ago, to pass a state budget, the Legislature’s Democratic leaders agreed to place a major change in primary election voting before voters.
They’ve regretted it ever since.
By Martin Wisckol / Staff Columnist
Nov. 29, 2015 – Updated 12:00 a.m.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s campaign for U.S. Senate is showing signs of expanding its base beyond Southern California, giving frontrunner Kamala Harris, the state’s attorney general, reason to keep an eye on the rear-view mirror.
By Alexander Bolton – 11/25/15 06:01 AM EST
Congressional leaders face several hurdles to getting a budget deal done by the Dec. 11 deadline, including a fight over health funding that is holding up the omnibus spending package.
By Amie Parnes and Jonathan Swan
November 21, 2015 – 03:46 pm
Turmoil and lackluster funding in California Attorney General Kamala Harris’s Senate campaign has some Democratic operatives wondering what’s gone wrong.
Phil Willon
November 20, 2015
A state ethics agency has determined that California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris did not violate state laws when she received gifts from a company owned by San Francisco interior designer Ken Fulk.
Capitol Alert
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
November 17, 2015
U.S. Senate frontrunner Kamala Harris is changing campaign managers and making moves to reduce costs, her campaign said Tuesday, after unusually heavy spending in recent months.
By Burgess Everett and Kevin Robillard
11/08/15 – 01:36 PM EST
For months, Missouri barely registered in the 2016 battle for Senate control: It’s a conservative state with a solid Republican incumbent in Sen. Roy Blunt. But an unexpectedly strong Democratic recruit, Jason Kander, has put the state in play — prompting a Karl Rove-backed group to spend $800,000 to keep the seat in GOP hands.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
October 29, 2015
Democrat Kamala Harris is developing a spending problem that has nagged front-runners before her.
Phil Willon
October 29, 2015
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, the Democrat famous for bumping ultra-conservative GOP Rep. Robert “B-1 Bob” Dornan from office in Orange County two decades ago, may need a little Republican love next year.
By Seung Min Kim
10/25/15 – 05:29 PM EDT
Senate Republicans’ carefully-laid plans to use a powerful fast-track tool to send an Obamacare repeal to President Barack Obama is running into fresh resistance, with new opposition from high-profile conservatives and bubbling concerns from moderates.
Phil Willon
October 15, 2015
Rep. Loretta Sanchez reported raising almost $1 million in contributions this year for her U.S. Senate campaign, well behind the $6 million that her chief Democratic rival, California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, has collected for the race, according to financial filings released Thursday.
Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
October 8, 2015
Two Democrats – state Attorney General Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez – hold the top two spots in the contest to replace U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, according to a new Field Poll.
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
Oct. 2, 2015 | 6:11 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Friday he won’t sign another temporary government funding bill after the current one expires Dec. 11, insisting that congressional Republicans and Democrats work out a long-term budget deal with the White House.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
WASHINGTON — The federal government will hit a legal debt limit and be unable to borrow more money around Nov. 5, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Thursday.
By Joel Gehrke
September 25, 2015
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) will be the next target of conservatives frustrated with party leadership, according to one of the conservative representatives who pressured House speaker John Boehner in the weeks leading up to his resignation.
By Beau Yarbrough, The Sun
Posted: 09/06/15 – 8:30 PM PDT |
When the House of Representatives and the Senate return to work in Washington on Tuesday, all of the legislators representing the Inland Empire have something in common: None of them have had any bills signed into law this year.
Politics
By David Lightman
dlightman@mcclatchydc.com
July 31, 2015
WASHINGTON — In this summer of political gloom, the drumbeat from the American heartland to Washington has been relentless: Fix the economy. Fix the immigration system. Talk to each other.
By Debra J. Saunders
Published: Wednesday, July 8, 2015 – 5:00 pm
Democrats now will say anything to distance themselves from sanctuary city policies, even though they have supported these policies for years. In an exclusive CNN interview Tuesday, Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked about San Francisco’s refusal to hand over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement seven-time convicted felon and five-time deportee Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez. He stands accused in the fatal shooting of Kathryn Steinle as she took an evening stroll on Pier 14 last week. (After telling a local TV station he shot Steinle by accident, Lopez-Sanchez has pleaded not guilty to murder.) Clinton answered, “The city made a mistake not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported. So I have absolutely no support for a city that ignores the strong evidence that should be acted on.”
Sunday, June 28, 2015 – 10:30 a.m.
Set aside all the hubbub.
The Supreme Court of the United States did the Republican Party a huge favor this week.
By Fawn Johnson
June 7, 2015
The message from Senate Democrats this week will go like this: Serious talks should begin now on avoiding a government shutdown. Why force us to carry out our threat of blocking all spending bills until we hit September, the last few days of the fiscal year, to come up with a panicked back-against-the-wall solution? We all know that’s where we’re heading.
Political news, analysis, commentary and more about California and beyond
By Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine
Friday, May 22, 2015
Bottom line on the new Merv and Mark Poll: Kamala Harris looks strong, but far from inevitable, in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer.
By Martin Wisckol / Staff Writer
May 18, 2015
Updated: May 19, 2015 – 12:12 a.m.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s colorful, freewheeling persona shows no signs of being watered down for her U.S. Senate race, as she demonstrated at last weekend’s state Democratic convention in Anaheim.
By Michael Finnegan and Peter Jamison
May 16, 2015
The contours of California’s U.S. Senate race sharpened Saturday, with Kamala Harris trying to keep stride as the leading contender while upstart Loretta Sanchez sought to knock her off balance.
Capitol Alert
May 15, 2015
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
Anaheim — Rep. Xavier Becerra, mulling a run for the U.S. Senate, urged the media to more aggressively question Attorney General Kamala Harris, the Democratic frontrunner in the race.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
May 14, 2015
Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat from Orange County, rocked the political world nearly two decades ago when she narrowly ousted a sharp-tongued Republican congressman and then defended the seat in a rematch.
News
May 13, 2015
Updated 7:30 p.m.
By Martin Wisckol, Staff Writer
On the eve of Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s expected announcement that she’ll run for U.S. Senate, current frontrunner Kamala Harris on Wednesday rolled out a list of eight Orange County elected officials who’ve endorsed her bid.
Dan Walters
Observations on California and its politics
dwalters@sacbee.com
04/22/2015 – 7:43 AM
It’s always perilous for politicians to tell the truth, as President Barack Obama discovered when he commented on Kamala Harris’ good looks in 2013.
April 20, 2015 – Updated 9:19 p.m.
By MARTIN WISCKOL / STAFF WRITER
Sounding like she’s on the verge of declaring her candidacy for U.S. Senate, Rep. Loretta Sanchez encouraged donors in Orange County to pony up Monday and explained why she would be a better choice than Attorney General Kamala Harris.
April 19, 2015 – Updated 10:06 p.m.
By Martin Wicskol, Staff Columnist
Before heading back to Congress after a two-week Easter recess, Rep. Loretta Sanchez stoked the buzz that she’ll be challenging Attorney General Kamala Harris next year in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.
By Jim Puzzanghera
April 17, 2015
Despite optimistic talk from Democrats and Republicans about overhauling the tax code, General Electric Co. recently showed that corporate executives aren’t holding their breath for a bipartisan deal any time soon.
By Carla Marinucci
April 16, 2015
Updated: April 16, 2015 – 10:26pm
U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris tackled some national issues Thursday, expressing support for President Obama’s nuclear arms deal with Iran and for authorizing military force against the Islamic State, but she declined to take stands on Internet privacy and easing restrictions on marijuana.
By Alexander Bolton
04/11/15 – 11:34 AM EDT
Democrats are badly split on geographic and political lines over whether to support or oppose a bill allowing Congress to review and possibly vote on a nuclear deal with Iran.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
04/11/2015 – 9:18 AM
SAN FRANCISCO
Venturing far outside her Orange County district, Rep. Loretta Sanchez gave a passionate, campaign-style talk here Friday evening, offering the strongest indication yet that she intends to enter the sleepy contest to replace U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
By Carla Marinucci
Friday, April 3, 2015 – Updated 9:15 pm
When U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris held a campaign kickoff in San Francisco this week, the media was barred — an unusual move that has some people complaining she’s shielding herself from the press.
Friday, March 27, 2015 – 08:30 a.m.
Senator Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has announced he will not run for reelection in 2016.
By Jonathan Weisman
March 27, 2015
WASHINGTON — Emerging from an all-night session that contained more exhaustion than drama, Senate Republicans squeaked through a budget blueprint Friday morning that would repeal the Affordable Care Act, fundamentally remake federal health care for the poor and elderly, and push the federal deficit toward zero over the next decade.
By David Hawkings
Posted at 5 a.m. March 26
Senators readying their patience, their reading material and even their bladders for the annual ritual known as the “vote-a-rama” may rightfully be getting ready to ask, “Will it be worth it?”
By Dan Balz, Chief Correspondent
March 21, 2015
The Gallup organization recently recorded another dreary milestone in American politics. For the first time since the polling organization began tracking public impressions of the Republican and Democratic parties back in 1992, neither party has a favorability rating above 40 percent.
By Michael Finnegan and Noah Bierman
March 20, 2015
After 14 years in Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank is finally getting the kind of coverage that ambitious politicians crave: CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, MSNBC and NPR have all come calling in recent weeks.
By Jim Puzzanghera
March 13, 2015
The Treasury Department has started taking steps to extend the federal government’s borrowing ability as the U.S. hits its debt limit again Monday, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew told lawmakers Friday.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 – 04:30 p.m.
Tonight on The Lou Desmond & Company Show, Dr. Adrian Moore, vice president of policy at the Reason Foundation, joins Lou to talk about the sudden ousting of San Bernardino’s financial director in the midst of the city’s financial woes.
By Sean Sullivan
March 8, 2015 at 11:15 AM
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called Sunday on Hillary Clinton to “step up and come out” to explain in more detail why she used a personal e-mail account to conduct government business during her time as secretary of state.
By Martin Crutsinger
AP Economics Writer
03/06/2015 – 4:41 PM
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress on Friday that he will start using the package of emergency measures he has used in the past to keep the federal government from going over the debt limit next week.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
03/05/2015 7:46 PM
Republican Assemblyman Rocky Chávez formally entered the contest to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer on Thursday, offering himself as a pragmatic leader focused on strengthening national security, educational opportunities and the state economy.