Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press
02/28/2015 – 4:54 AM
WASHINGTON —
Two months into full Republican control of Congress, GOP leaders are struggling to demonstrate they really are in charge.
By Michael Finnegan and Patrick McGreevy
February 25, 2015
With Antonio Villaraigosa no longer a threat to her campaign for U.S. Senate, some Democratic leaders see state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris as Barbara Boxer’s inevitable successor.
By Christi Parsons and Lisa Mascaro
February 25, 2015
Senate leaders moved toward a deal Wednesday to avoid a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department, sidestepping a fight over immigration policy, as President Obama declared his administration would curtail deportations of immigrants in the country illegally despite losing a court fight on the issue this month.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 – 08:45 a.m.
We won’t belabor the announcement by wasting time placing any media stories up on the blog.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
02/23/2015 5:19 PM
Add his name to the list of Republicans possibly contemplating what would be an uphill run for the U.S. Senate.
By John Bresnahan and Burgess Everett
2/22/15 – 6:17 PM EST
Late Monday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will force the fourth vote in three weeks on a bill to fund the massive agency that protects Americans from terrorists, floods and incursions across the borders. Senate Democrats will almost certainly block it again.
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 Charles Krauthammer
Opinion Writer
February 19, 2015 at 8:12 PM
I’ve been radicalized. By Harry Reid and Barack Obama. Goodbye moderation and sweet reason. No more clinging to constitutional and procedural restraint. It’s time to go nuclear.
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.
By John Myers
Feb 18, 2015
Not bad, but not a blockbuster: Consider that the real takeaway for Kamala Harris in the first statewide public poll in the 2016 race for the U.S. Senate.
By Chuck McFadden
Posted 02.16.2015
ANALYSIS: There are rumblings beneath the surface about the danger of a race-tinged political war breaking out within the California Democratic Party.
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 Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine
February 13, 2015
Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris may be leading the field statewide in 2016 race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer – we won’t actually know until we see some public polling data – but it appears that among Latino voters who say they’re likely to vote, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio “Tony V” Villaraigosa is the clear favorite.
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.
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.
02/09/2015 – 11:44 PM
WASHINGTON — A rare open contest for a U.S. Senate seat in California next year presents a long-awaited opportunity for some of the state’s more politically ambitious House members.
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 Mark Z. Barabak
February 8, 2015
Reinvention is part of California’s credo, the inalienable right of every man, woman and child to make of themselves and their lives what they will — and do it over again, if they’re not happy the first time.
By Seema Mehta
February 9, 2015
Unless a surprise GOP candidate emerges, the U.S. Senate race in California will mark the third straight election with the party’s top-of-the-ticket state candidate given virtually no chance of victory, even by fellow Republicans.
By Michael Finnegan
February 5, 2015
One of Antonio Villaraigosa’s closest friends and advisors said Thursday that all signs were pointing toward the former Los Angeles mayor declaring his candidacy for U.S. Senate within the next two weeks.
George Skelton
February 4, 2015
Latinos feel insulted by blacks. Angelenos are suspicious of San Franciscans. Democrats are squabbling. It’s inevitable.
By Carla Marinucci
February 3, 2015 4:31 PM
Could California’s open 2016 U.S. Senate race turn into a a tussle between two powerhouse Democratic ethnic voting blocs — Latinos and African Americans?
By John Howard
Posted 02.03.2015
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, pondering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2016, has slightly better name recognition than rival Democrat Kamala Harris and could benefit from an energized Latino electorate, according to a survey released by the Legislative Latino Caucus.
By Burgess Everett
2/3/15 – 7:30 PM EST
Senate Democrats are falling back in love with the filibuster.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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 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.
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.
Politics
By Paul Kane
January 4 at 7:26 PM
Mitch McConnell has an unusual admonition for the new Republican majority as it takes over the Senate this week: Don’t be “scary.”
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.
Democrats pushed through dozens in December, but Republicans have all the leverage now.
By Burgess Everett
12/29/14 9:02 PM EST
Democrats are still dancing in the end zone after running up the score on dozens of President Barack Obama’s nominees during the lame duck.
They should enjoy the moment, because Republicans are about to step up their goal-line defense.
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 Bob Egelko
Published: Monday, December 22, 2014
In a sharp reversal of federal drug policy, Congress has prohibited the Justice Department from interfering with laws in California and other states that allow the medical use of marijuana. And the turnabout caught the immediate attention of federal judges, who want to know its impact on some recent criminal convictions under the federal law that classifies pot as one of the most dangerous drugs.
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 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 Manu Raju
12/16/14 3:25 PM EST
Updated 12/16/14 4:27 PM EST
Ted Cruz privately apologized to GOP senators Tuesday for interrupting their holiday schedules by his surprise tactics that effectively brought the Senate into session over the weekend.
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.
By Manu Raju and Burgess Everett
12/16/14 5:32 AM EST
Republican senators pounded Ted Cruz over the weekend, lashing him for his procedural tactics and ultimately voting in large numbers against his immigration gambit.
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 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 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.
Behind closed doors, Republicans are plotting one last tilt at the Affordable Care Act.
By Jennifer Haberkorn and Manu Raju
12/8/14 8:15 PM EST
In high-level strategy sessions on Capitol Hill, Republicans are going through reams of historical information and sitting through marathon slide show presentations, trying to figure out how to gut Obamacare through a complicated budget process that requires only a simple majority — a sign of how seriously they’re taking their best shot yet at dealing a long-term blow to the health care law.
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 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.
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.
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 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 Cathleen Decker
October 8, 2014
Now the real fun begins.
For California politicos who spent the last year yawning over a predictable top-of-the-ticket race, what has been shimmering in the distance is suddenly much closer. The next few statewide elections hold the promise of turnover unseen in a generation.
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.