Gov. Gavin Newsom got some good news last week with a new statewide poll indicating that just 40% of California voters would support a recall were the election to be held now. Thus, despite much criticism of Newsom for how he has handled the COVID-19 pandemic under an emergency order...
Walters : California Sheriffs are Feeling the Heat
A half-century ago, I was the editor of a small daily newspaper in Northern California and one of my reporters dug up a terrific story. Popularity of Elected Sheriffs He learned that that the county’s Board of Supervisors had privately compelled the county’s sheriff to receive alcoholism treatment by threatening...
Opinion: Prosecutors Feud Over Criminal Sentencing Laws
The starkest aspect to California’s evolution from a relatively conservative state into a blue bastion has been an evolving attitude toward crime and punishment. In the 1980s and 1990s, California became a national leader in increasing penalties for crimes large and small, symbolized by a three-strikes-and-you’re-out law calling for life...
Opinion: Some Sober Advice on Homelessness
A year ago, before COVID-19 changed everything, Gov. Gavin Newsom dedicated almost all of his State of the State address to one issue: homelessness. “As Californians, we pride ourselves on our unwavering sense of compassion and justice for humankind,” Newsom told legislators, “but there’s nothing compassionate about allowing fellow Californians...
Walters: Data Delay Weighs on Redistricting Plans
The California constitution commands that by Aug. 15, the state’s independent redistricting commission “shall approve four final maps that separately set forth the district boundary lines for the congressional, senatorial, assembly, and State Board of Equalization districts.” It’s not going to happen. The commission needs data from the 2020 census...
Walters: Medi-Cal Overhaul Sounds Good on Paper
State officials are fond of giving their high-concept — and expensive — new programs snappy, one-word acronyms derived from much-longer and often awkward official titles. Thus, for example, the Financial Information System for California is shortened to become FI$Cal. Unfortunately, officials are often more adept at dreaming up names for...
Walters: Newsom Polishes Image as Recall Drive Escalates
For months, Gov. Gavin Newsom communicated about the COVID-19 pandemic via frequent webcasts in which he cited the latest statistics and beseeched Californians to wear masks, wash their hands, and avoid crowds. In the last couple of weeks, however, Newsom has shifted venues to orchestrated outdoor events at sports arenas...
Walters: Bullet Train Follies
As oft-noted in this space, those in California’s state government — governors, legislators and agency directors — have an unfortunate habit of starting programs and projects that are never fully implemented. These governmental orphans fall roughly into two categories, those that have some valid rationale and those that don’t. For...
Walters: The GOP's Decline and Fall in California
The very rapid decline of California’s Republican Party — from near-dominance in the 1980s and early 1990s to its current irrelevance — has been one of the state’s most dramatic political events. Thirty years ago, in 1989, Republicans were on a roll in California, to wit: —GOP candidates dominated the...
Walters: A Model of Mismanagement
Two years ago, with teachers in Sacramento’s school district on the verge of striking, the city’s mayor stepped in to mediate a compromise contract. “Forty-three thousand students, parents, teachers and our entire community can breathe easy this afternoon,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg declared after the Sacramento City Unified School District and the Sacramento...