Capitol Weekly Podcast

As the state reacts to last night's lockdown order from Gov. Newsom, California's hospitals are on the frontline of the battle against the deadly coronavirus. The hurdles are high: supplies of essentials like masks and ventilators are low; a much-needed shipment of testing kits arrived missing parts; doctors, nurses and other hospital staff risk infection as they provide treatment. Carmela Coyle,...

-- Quick note: We recorded this podcast with former California Gambling Control Commission member Richard Schuetz last week, as the coronavirus situation was evolving - some of the discussions about casino closures may be out of date. -- Many people in politics have led colorful lives, but Richard Schuetz has most of them beat. He began working in casinos as a dealer while still in college, and ha...

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner, we sat down with the owner of the most prominent Irish brogue in California politics: Robbie Hunter, head of the State Building and Construction Trades Council. Hunter started his career as a steelworker, but his labor bonafides go deeper than that: his great-grandfather was an Irish labor organizer and steeplejack who helped build the Titanic, and Hunter...

The aptly-named Super Tuesday turbocharged the Democratic primary this week, propelling former Vice President Joe Biden into the lead in both delegates and the popular vote, supplanting Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who had been the clear frontrunner until last week's blowout South Carolina primary revived Biden's moribund campaign. With former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and, as of today, Sena...

In the capitol, David Panush is known as a longtime staffer and top-level expert on health care policy - usually one of our first calls when getting background on a convoluted healthcare story - but after dark he sheds the coat and tie and heads up a rock group called Remedy 7 (even the band name is healthcare-related!) The other members of the group are an eclectic mix, including a lobbyist, a wa...

Randle Communications recently released their third annual Digital Influencer Report, tracking digital advocacy trends in 2019. Sad to say that the Capitol Weekly Podcast didn't make the list, but we won't hold that against them. Randle worked with Zignal Labs, hotshots in the field of social media analysis, to produce data for the report. Short take: this year’s report found that digital advocacy...

Author and reporter Timothy L. O'Brien first came to national prominence with the 2005 publication ofTrump Nation, a book examining the then-TV star's fortunes... and which claimed that Trump had vastly inflated the value of his holdings, and was not, in fact, a billionaire - or even close. Trump sued, claiming he was libeled; a judge dismissed the case. That was then; these days O'Brien is a camp...

Democratic political operative Roger Salazar has worn many hats over the years, working high profile gigs for political heavyweights like VP Al Gore and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In 2008 Salazar headed to Nevada to help with the launch the then-new Nevada Caucus. Most won't remember, but up until '08, Nevada was a primary state; Roger was on hand for that very first Caucus and learne...

In the wake of the Iowa Caucus debacle, the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary takes on added significance in a presidential primary race that appears to have blown wide open. Veteran California political consultant Steve Maviglio is from the Granite State - and served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Winning a spot in the sprawling 400-seat body requires retail politicking on...

Longtime lobbyist Chris Micheli stops by the Podcast to talk about his new book: A Practitioner's Guide to Lobbying and Advocacy in California. Lobbying and legislative advocacy is a unique profession: no official training required, no specific level of academic achievement, and no certification of qualification... yet lobbyists play a crucial role in the creation and implementation of the public...

Another KABATALKS episode of the Capitol Weekly pod, wherein two brothers working opposite sides of the political spectrum discuss issues of the day. John Kabateck is a lifelong Republican and longtime spokesperson for the NFIB; Brian Kabateck is a lifelong Democrat and the former head of the Consumer Attorneys Association. John Howard and Tim Foster of Capitol Weekly guide the discussion, which f...

Reporter Scott Soriano joins John Howard and Tim foster to talk about his recently published three-part series on California's rape crisis centers. These nongovernmental organizations provide crucial resources and support to survivors of sexual assault, who often have nowhere else to turn. The value of the work performed by the centers is not in dispute - but who should pay for it is. While Califo...

January means one thing on the Sacramento legislative calendar (well, aside from the governor's budget): the annual Back to Session Bash! Lobbyist David Quintana launched the soiree 15 years ago and has been its guiding light as the event grew from a modest gathering for capitol staffers into the star-studded blowout it is today. John Howard and Tim Foster sat down with Quintana to talk about the...

In a surprise move, Senator Kamala Harris suspended her run for the presidency today, ending what had once been a promising campaign, launched with great fanfare in front of 22,000 Oakland supporters. The announcement came after a slate of bad news; unimpressive fundraising numbers, an ugly public departure of key staffers and several devastating media reports describing a campaign in disarray. Ca...

Brian and John Kabateck visit the podcast to answer the question on everyone's lips: what is Thanksgiving like for two brothers who are on opposing sides of nearly every political fight in the state? John Kabateck is a lifelong Republican and longtime spokesperson for the NFIB; Brian Kabateck is a lifelong Democrat and the former head of the Consumer Attorneys Association. The two sat down with Jo...

California's Redwood forests are celebrated worldwide for their beauty and wonder - but few realize that the Redwoods came close to being logged out of existence. The first reports of California's giant trees made it back to the US in the mid 1800s, before statehood. It wasn't long afterward that loggers began harvesting the redwoods, often seeking the largest - and oldest - trees as their prime t...

California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander is celebrating 25 years since the organization was 'relaunched' in 1994 - she sat down with the CW podcast to talk about the history of CVF and what their top concerns are a quarter century after the kickoff. (In short: a paper trail for votes cast.) The Foundation is backing three pieces of legislation that are currently parked on the governor's...

Political data maven Paul Mitchell joins the Capitol Weekly Podcast's John Howard and Tim Foster to talk about the latest buzzword in the 2020 election lexicon -- electability. Electability is that indefinable something that every candidate wants but few have. It's hard to nail down, but you know it when you see it. Mitchell, the founder of the CA120 political column and one of our regular podcast...

We're celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Top 100 list next week, so on the Capitol Weekly Podcast today thought we'd chat with the person who was there and started it all -- Anthony York, a veteran reporter and the founding editor of the revamped Capitol Weekly. What began as a reward-your-friends-and-punish-your-enemies exercise in clickbait and cheek gradually morphed into a document of so...

The new SCOTUS decision on Gerrymandering was the perfect set-up for today's episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast: California State Auditor Elaine Howle sat down with us to talk about the process for choosing California's 2020 crop of Redistricting Commissioners - a fascinating and MUCH more complex process than most realize. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for infor...

Capitol Weekly's Journalism Internship program has been going for over ten years - in that time we've hosted dozens of interns from a variety of schools across the state (and even a few from outside the state!) Capitol Weekly interns have gone on to work at the Sacramento Bee, the Los Angeles Times, NBC news and even the White House! This semester we have had two interns: Julia Lindbloom of Sierra...

Roger Salazar and Hilary McLean were working together in Governor Gray Davis' Press Office before the current crop of Capitol Weekly interns were born - some may 'recall' that Davis' gig didn't end well. McLean and Salazar have recently have reunited at Alza Strategies, the public affairs/communications firm Salazar founded a few years back. They sat down with us to share stories of interviews gon...

California political data guru Paul Mitchell sits down with the CW Podcast to talk about the 2020 election - who's leading the polls, do the polls matter, who's raising money - and who's spending it. Looking at California, how will the state's new early primary play out, and what impact will the automatic DMV registration process have? All that and plenty more on this episode of the Capitol Weekly...

This week's podcast guest is Carl Guardino, head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and a member of the California Transportation Commission. Carl Sat down with Capitol Weekly's John Howard and Tim Foster at K Street's bustling Ambrosia Cafe (trust us, it gets quieter after a minute or two) to offer insight into the battles over new housing in the Bay Area (including SB50) and the fierce figh...

Following the long and devastating drought that depleted the state's water reserves, California this year has seen heavy storms - and now boasts a historic snowpack. This week's snow measurement at Phillips Station, a site at 8000 feet in the Sierras near Lake Tahoe, indicates that the snowpack is over 160% of the norm. Chris Orrock of the California Department of Water Resources joins the podcast...