Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
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.
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 Seema Mehta
November 7, 2014
Although U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein — two of California’s most experienced political figures — remain popular, a majority of state voters say they should not run for reelection, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
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 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.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, MANU RAJU and JOHN BRESNAHAN
11/5/14 9:02 AM EST – Updated: 11/5/14 1:07 PM EST
At a late October lunch, President Barack Obama looked across the table at Sen. Chuck Schumer. Wasn’t there anywhere else he could go to campaign?
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
Monday, November 3, 2014 – 08:30 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Monday morning.
Sunday, November 2, 2014 – 10:00 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Sunday morning.
Eight of ten contested states are within the margin of error. Read the rest of this entry »
Saturday, November 1, 2014 – 09:30 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Saturday morning.
We’re down to seven states in-play. Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, October 31, 2014 – 09:35 a.m.
New data indicates turnout in the Inland Empire is dismal this year.
Friday, October 31, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Friday morning.
By Charles Krauthammer, Opinion writer
October 30 at 7:29 PM
Is this election really about nothing? Democrats might like to think so, but it’s not.
First, like all U.S. elections, it’s about the economy. The effect of the weakest recovery in two generations is reflected in President Obama’s 13-point underwater ratings for his handling of the economy.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 – 08:30 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Wednesday morning.
We’re back to ten states in-play.
New polling isn’t giving Democrats much solace, with just five days remaining before Election Day. Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday, October 28, 2014 – 09:30 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Tuesday morning.
Nine states now remain in-play.
Monday, October 27, 2014 – 08:30 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Monday morning.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE | 10/27/14 5:02 AM EDT
Nervous that Democrats could lose control of the Senate, the White House is already discussing how to cut deals with a Republican majority.
Saturday, October 25, 2014 – 11:00 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Saturday morning.
If the election were held today, Republicans would control the U.S. Senate by a margin of 52-48. Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, October 24, 2014 – 08:00 p.m.
We’ve been saying it for a year that the President’s healthcare law would impact this years electoral contests..
Thursday, October 23, 2014 – 08:30 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls, produced by RealClearPolitics.com, as of Thursday morning.
By Josh Richman
jrichman@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 10/17/2014 03:16:45 PM PDT
Updated: 10/17/2014 06:34:14 PM PDT
Californians won’t have any say about which party wins this year’s biggest political prize — the reins of the U.S. Senate.
But that doesn’t mean the Golden State has nothing at stake.
Tuesday, October 17, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls produced by RealClearPolitics.com as of Friday morning. If the election were held today, Republicans would control the U.S. Senate by a margin of 53-47.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 – 10:30 a.m.
Here’s the latest update from the average of polls produced by RealClearPolitics.com as of Tuesday morning. If the election were held today, Republicans would control the U.S. Senate by a margin of 53-47.
By Scott Bland, Andrea Drusch and Alex Roarty
October 13, 2014
Three weeks before Election Day, Republicans are on the brink of winning the Senate. But their advantage is so slight that a morale-sapping defeat is still very much possible.
By Dan Balz, Chief correspondent
October 11, 2014
For months, voters have been barraged by claims and counterclaims from Republicans and Democrats about the degree to which the landscape is shifting in the race for control of the Senate, which polls are correct and who has the best voter turnout operation. Get ready for more, and be wary about what you hear.
Two narratives have competed for attention since Campaign 2014 got underway.
By Cristina Marcos – 10/11/14 06:17 AM EDT
The Democratic Party’s worst fears about the midterm election look to be coming true.
Polling in recent weeks suggests turnout on Election Day could be very low, even by the standards of recent midterms. That’s bad news for Democrats because core groups in the liberal base are more likely to stay home than are people in the demographic segments that lean Republican.
By Dana Blanton
Published October 08, 2014
FoxNews.com
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New Fox News battleground polls show a Republican trend in the fight for the U.S. Senate.The GOP candidates — helped by anti-Barack Obama sentiment and strong support from male voters — lead in all five states: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas and Kentucky.
By Dan Balz, Chief correspondent
October 4, 2014 at 4:32 PM
It has become commonplace to describe the midterm political contests as the Seinfeld election — a campaign about nothing. In fact, that’s not correct. This is an election that is still very much about how people view President Obama.