Over the last few decades, Californians have seen crime spike upwards to crisis levels and then decline just as sharply. Their attitudes about crime have been just as volatile, translating into ever-changing waves of policy. When crime rates were rising in the 1970s and 1980s, it became the state’s No....
Walters: A Cautious Budget With a Bold Housing Plan
Jerry Brown is a hard act to follow but his successor as governor, Gavin Newsom, acquitted himself well – if very lengthily – in presenting his first state budget on Thursday. For nearly two hours, Newsom explained his $209.1 billion 2019-20 budget and fielded questions from reporters, displaying in minute...
Was Brown's Appointment of Berryhill a Political Reward?
Tom Berryhill is a newly elected Stanislaus County supervisor. But, in one of Jerry Brown’s last acts of governor, he appointed Berryhill to a state board that pays a five-figure salary. Berryhill, who just finished up as a state senator for the area that includes Fresno, was supposed to be sworn...
Brown's Last Valley Snub: Appoints Hollywood Agent to UC Board
Ever since Fred Ruiz left the UC Board of Regents, many in the San Joaquin Valley have hoped someone from the area would succeed him. The wait will continue, at least another year for the region that is home to UC Merced. In a final snub to the Valley, Gov....
Change on Bench: Judge Petrucelli Retires, Jones Is Replacement
James Petrucelli is concluding 20 years on the bench a few months earlier than expected. The judge, who first won election to the Fresno County bench in 1998, is retiring. On Wednesday (Jan. 2), Gov. Jerry Brown announced Petrucelli's successor, current court commissioner Heather Mardel Jones. She officially takes the...
2019 Shapes up as Another Big Political Year
While 2018 has been a pivotal year in California’s political history – particularly the Republican Party’s losing half of its congressional seats – 2019 may be even more significant. The state’s politics will likely be dominated by two rolling events: the beginning of Gavin Newsom’s governorship and California’s bid to...
Walters: Jerry Brown Redux, the Son Also Rises
Jerry Brown closed a cosmic circle this month when he inducted actor Robert Redford into the California Hall of Fame. Forty-six years earlier, Redford had played a fictional version of Brown in the widely acclaimed political film “The Candidate,” centering on the complicated relationship between a young, idealistic candidate for...
Walters: Brown's Symbiotic Relationship With the Media
During his half-century-long career in California politics, Jerry Brown has had a complex relationship with journalists, particularly those who covered him on a day-to-day basis. He once referred to “the journalistic weather” – sometimes sunny and helpful to his career, sometimes dark and critical. That said, he was fairly open...
Jerry Brown’s Last Stand on Pension Reform
Six years ago, as California strained to emerge from the Great Recession, Gov. Jerry Brown worked a minor political miracle — a rebalancing of the massive state pension systems for public employees. Shuttling between unions and the strapped governments on the hook for public sector benefits and paychecks, Brown scaled...
Walters: Another Conflict Brewing Over Work Disability Costs
Gavin Newsom loves high-concept, almost edgy, approaches to governance – not unlike a younger Jerry Brown during his first governorship four decades ago. However, as Brown eventually learned and Newsom will discover if, as expected, he follows Brown into the Capitol’s corner office, much of governing is not pro-active and...