Capitol Weekly Podcast

Host Rich Ehisen is back from the wilderness, just in time to welcome lobbyist Jennifer Fearing.  Fearing is perhaps California's best known "White Hat" lobbyist - she largely represents animal rights orgs, environmental groups and other nonprofits - and is recognized for punching above her weight. High on her priority list this session were three bills that would curtail "puppy mill" sales in the...

Host Rich Ehisen is on vacation, so original CW Podcast Host John Howard joins Tim Foster in the studio to chat about the news and his life post-Capitol Weekly. We also look at a laundry list of Worst Week candidates including a politician who was unceremoniously booted from office, a California company facing a political backlash, a news organization reminded once again of their past malfeasance,...

Author, podcaster, gadfly and former Assemblymember Mike Gatto joins us to talk about the state of politics, Roman history, and the experience of being a crime victim... plus so much more. 1:45 AB 325 2:43 Governor's approval rating 4:25 Who's in/Who's out for 26 Gov's race 5:34 Mike Gatto 7:30 "Courage begets courage" 10:16 The diminished power of the legislature 13:16 Roman history allegory 14:5...

The National Conference of State Legislatures was created by state legislators and legislative staff in 1975. NCSL serves America’s 50 states, commonwealths, territories and the District of Columbia with access to bipartisan policy research, training resources and technical assistance and hosts the annual NCSL Legislative Summit, the largest policy meeting in the US. We're joined today by Tim Stor...

We're joined by Assembly Minority Leader-Elect Heath Flora, who will take over as head of the lower house's Republican caucus later this month, succeeding Asm. James Gallagher. The collegial, no-drama GOP leadership transition stood in stark contrast to the last two Dem leadership fights - owing at least in part to Flora's reputation as one of the most well-liked members of the legislature. A stra...

Last night we published the 17th edition of Capitol Weekly’s Top 100 – our annual analysis of the unelected political power structure in California. We look at the mostlybehind the scenes players who influence policy, elections and governance, including Capitol staff, lobbyists, Agency staff, donors, business leaders, activists, Labor leaders – and even journalists. Hosts Rich Ehisen and Tim Foste...

Governor Newsom and Democratic allies announced Thursday that they will propose a constitutional amendment — The Election Rigging Response Act — to counter Texas and other Red states' mid-decade redistricting plans. Framing the proposal as a response to GOP efforts to Gerrymander and "rig" Texas’ elections next year in order to protect Republican control of congress, the proposal would replace Cal...

We're joined today by Kevin Liao of Frontrunner Strategies. Liao spent over four years as Press Secretary and Communications Director for former Speaker Anthony Rendon, before moving on to national campaign work. He was on first Elizabeth Warren and then Joe Biden's 2020 campaign teams, and handled comms for Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz as she barnstormed the Midwest for the Harris-Walz ticket i...

Another jam-packed episode. We start with reaction to Kamala Harris' bombshell announcement that she will not seek the governorship in 2026, effectively resetting the race, at least on the Dem side. Next up, we welcome Brad Heavner who has stepped into big shoes as Executive Director of The California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA), replacing longtime ED Bernadette Del Chiaro.  Heavner has h...

We've got a jam-packed episode this week: Podcast cohost Tim Foster marks TWENTY years at Capitol Weekly. Then we speak with Frank Torres, the new Director of Political and Legislative Advocacy for the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. Finally, we tell you who had the Worst Week in California Politics, and for the first time ever, the #WWCA 'winner' is no...

We won't use that old Mark Twain quote (that he probably never wrote anyway) but fighting over water has been California's favorite pastime for at least 175 years. If you think norcal/socal baseball rivalries are bitter - try the socal vs. Delta water wars. One of the people tasked with managing that aqua drama is Jennifer Pierre, General Manager for the State Water Contractors  – a statewide, non...

On July 8, Capitol Weekly and the University of California Student and Policy Center presented California and AI, a daylong look at the Golden State's approach to regulating Artificial Intelligence. California is a global leader in AI technology and lawmakers in Sacramento are tasked with creating legislation and regulations that will help the state maintain leadership in this emerging industry, w...

We're joined today by Christina Snider-Ashtari, Tribal Affairs Secretary to Governor Gavin Newsom and head of the Governor’s Office of Tribal Affairs. Snider-Ashtari was first appointed to the position in 2018 by Governor Brown and previously served as Executive Secretary of the California Native American Heritage Commission. We spoke to her about both governors' approaches to Tribal policy, about...

Chris Lehane has a solid gold resume in professional politics: consultant and oppo research in the Clinton White House, Press Secretary to VP Al Gore, and the source of the report on the "vast right wing conspiracy" so infamously cited by Hillary Clinton. Lehane also handles a wide array of corporate, Labor, entertainment and sports clients. Until recently he was Head of Global Policy and Public A...

Republican Suzette Martinez Valladares was elected to the California State Assembly in 2020 and served for two years, narrowly losing a reelection bid for the newly drawn 40th Assembly district, then winning a seat in the Senate in 2024. In the Assembly, Valladares was a founding member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. She also serves as the Minority Whip - the first Senate Republican Whi...

Founded in 1918, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association promotes policies designed to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. Today, CMTA represents 400 manufacturing businesses in California, which is the largest manufacturing state in the country. Heading up that operation is Lance Hastings, who began his career as a capitol staffer and has a long history with California trad...

Today we welcome Amy O’Gorman Jenkins, the state’s preeminent cannabis lobbyist - so much so that she earned the nickname "Pot Girl" back when Gavin Newsom was still just the Lieutenant Gov. Jenkins, was one of the first lobbyists for the state's once-maligned, now coveted, cannabis industry, first when she worked out of Darius Anderson's shop, then later at her own firm, Precision Advocacy. She w...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 This is Panel 2: The Los Angeles Fires, featuring Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore; Steve Hawks, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety; Kelsey Szamet, Eaton Fire Survivors Network; Nancy Wallace, UC Berkeley Moderated by journa...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 This is Panel 3: What Next?, featuring Sen. Roger Niello; Alex Hall, UCLA; John Norwood, Norwood Associates; and Denni Ritter, American Property Casualty Insurance Association Moderated by Rich Ehisen of Capitol Weekly Thanks to our Califo...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. This is Panel 1: The State of the Insurance Industry, featuring Amy Bach of United Policyholders; Rex Frazier, Personal Insurance Federation of California; Meredith Fowlie, UC Berkeley. Moderated by Levi Sumagaysay of Calmatters Thanks to...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. This is the KEYNOTE – CALIFORNIA INSURANCE COMMISSIONER RICARDO LARA Introduced by Rich Ehisen, Capitol Weekly Thanks to our California Conferences sponsors: THE TRIBAL ALLIANCE OF SOVEREIGN INDIAN NATIONS, WESTERN STATES PETROLEUM ASSOCI...

In March, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a 22-bill package aimed at reforming the building permitting process in California, an effort to fast-track housing development statewide. Wicks described the package as an effort to “slash red tape, remove uncertainty and to drastically reduce the time it takes to get new housing approved and built” in California....

Our 400th episode! On today's show we welcome April Manatt, Executive Director of the California Problem Solvers Foundation. The California Problem Solvers' mission is to help elected officials find solutions through collaboration and mutual respect, and work in service to the people they represent. In short, to "put people over party," a nearly radical idea in today's hyper-partisan political env...

We have a packed show today: first up, we chat with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber about The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, proposed federal legislation that would require all Americans to reregister to vote, in person, with either a birth certificate or passport. Weber outlines concerns that the law would effectively disenfranchise millions of voters who may not hav...

Jeff Pearlman has been a sportswriter for three decades, and is the best-selling author of ten books on sports, including Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s , which was adapted as the HBO series Winning Time. In February 2025 he turned his attentions to the ultimate contact sport: politics.  His new Substack newsletter, The Truth OC, digs deep into Oran...