Capitol Weekly Podcast

Former state senator Holly J. Mitchell was elected last year to a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing District 2 - the same district in which she was born and raised. Term limits have turned the traditional local-government-to-legislature pipeline on its head, as has the stratospheric growth of LA: as a Supervisor, Mitchell represents twice as many constituents as she...

We welcomed the longtime but soon-to-be-retired Metropolitan Water District of Southern California head honcho Jeff Kightlinger for a wide-ranging discussion that covered the status of the Delta Tunnel Project, climate change and the snow survey, the drought, working from home, jukeboxes, his punk rock roots and Dan Walters' connection to the Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra. WHEW. Closing tune is &q...

Veteran political strategist Bill Wong has been a longtime leader in California's Asian Pacific Islander political community, and is a recognized expert on AAPI voters. While Wong should have been celebrating last week's appointment of Rob Bonta as California Attorney General - the first Filipino American to hold the office - he was instead dealing with the fallout of a nationwide spree of raciall...

Democratic political strategist Garry South joins us to talk about the potential recall of Governor Gavin Newsom. South is uniquely positioned to weigh in on the subject: he headed Governor Gray Davis' 1998 and 2002 gubernatorial campaigns, and ran Gavin Newsom's first campaign for Governor back in 2009. South notes that the current recall effort will qualify for the ballot only because of the uni...

While many are noting the success of SB87, which led to the inclusion of more women on corporate boards, there is a lot of room for improvement in diversifying California's boards. A scorecard released last month by Latino Voices for Boardroom Equity reveals that many California boards still lack ethnic diversity. For Latinos, the statistics are particularly shocking: while they make up close to 4...

This special episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live on March 11th at a presentation hosted by Capitol Weekly: The Future of Work, Keynote: Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez is at the forefront of much of the Progressive legislation that emerges from Sacramento. A longtime labor leader and organizer prior to holding office, Gonzalez is the author of AB5, t...

This special episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live on March 4th at a panel discussion hosted by Capitol Weekly: The Future of Work, The Big Picture. For the third year in a row, California has seen a decline in population. Will this alter the state’s employment outlook? And, some high-profile companies have announced that they are leaving the state this year: is this a minor tric...

Political Data Inc., has for 30 years been the state’s largest provider of voter information to political campaigns, consultants, and pollsters, serving a long list of both Democrat and Republican clients. The firm announced last week that they would no longer work with Republican clients, saying, "The company will divest any business that does not align with the organization’s Democratic val...

Today's episode features Delaine Eastin, former Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, two term Superintendent of Public Instruction and now, candidate for California Democratic Party Chair. Eastin joins us to make the case for her campaign, acknowledging that unseating current party chair Rusty Hicks will be a heavy lift, but expressing the optimism that is a hallmark of all of her efforts. E...

This special episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live on February 25 at a panel discussion hosted by Capitol Weekly: The Future of Work, Impact of Proposition 22. After a hard-fought battle at the ballot box, Proposition 22 is law. But, questions remain, the first of which is: does it stand up to the current court challenge? How will 22 impact unions? What other industries may turn...

The past few weeks have seen a spectacular implosion of The Lincoln Project, the high profile collective of never-Trumper ex-Republican political operatives that spent the 2020 election cycle battering the president and his allies with scorching ads, videos and commentary. Whether the Lincoln Project's efforts were effective in the race, or simply played to their base - the Trump-hating Democrats...

This special episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live on February 18 at a panel discussion hosted by Capitol Weekly: The Future of Work, After the Pandemic. What will the workplace look like when the pandemic is over? What will happen to the industries that have been particularly hard-hit, like restaurants and live events/entertainment? Women suffered the worst of the job losses – w...

Daniel Zingale retired from the Governor's office one year ago this week, stepping back from a four decade career in politics that began during Jerry Brown's first run as governor. Now happily ensconced in a cabin in the Gold Country, he joined us to talk about the past year and to look back on a remarkable career that included stints in four gubernatorial administrations. Zingale offers insights...

Almost one year to the day from his last visit to the Capitol Weekly Podcast, lobbyist, author and adjunct professor at McGeorge School of Law, Chris Micheli joins us to talk about the business of lobbying. Micheli, a self-described "nerd" about government and public policy, has published two books about the function of government: "Understanding the California Legislative Process,&...

This episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast features a discussion between John Howard and Tim Foster and longtime campaign consultant Gale Kaufman. The episode was recorded live (via Zoom) at the California Community College League's 2021 Legislative Conference on January 26. Campaign consultant Gale Kaufman has run a ballot campaign (or two, or more) in every election cycle since 1998 - and, she's...

Why are California property values skyrocketing even as unemployment is at record numbers? How will the new Democratic administration in DC effect California? Could changes in tax policy better prepare the state for emergencies like COVID? And what is a "K shaped" recovery? Lenny Mendonca, the former head of GO-Biz (The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development)for Governor...

Journalist extraordinaire Dan Morain joined John Howard and Tim Foster to talk about his new book, Kamala's Way: An American Life - the first biography of Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. Morain covered Harris' rise in real time for the Los Angeles Times, The Sacramento Bee and CalMatters; that background allowed him to write and research the entire book in a few months during the COVID-19 lock...

On Tuesday we published journalist A.G. Block’s in-depth analysis of the woes plaguing California’s Republican Party: they run barely ahead of ‘Decline to State’ in voter registration, and the state GOP has no elected statewide officials, holds only a third of the state’s legislative seats and about a quarter of the state’s Congressional seats. Republican candidates didn’t even make the ‘Top Two’...

Lobbyist David Quintana joins us for the first Capitol Weekly Podcast of 2021. We cut to the chase with the question on everyone's mind: what happens to The Bash (AKA The Back to Session Bash) for 2021? The good news: it's on. The bad news: not til later. Quintana fills in all the details for this year's Bash, talks about the event's humble origins, and shares Lil John's drink of choice. We also d...

For the second year in a row, California has seen its population decline - After generations of growth, the state is losing more people than it gains every year. What does that mean for a state that has nearly 40 million people already? Can we afford to lose some people? And, who is leaving? For this episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast we spoke with Adam Fowler, Director of Research for Beacon E...

Frank Mecca retires this month after serving as the Executive Director of the County Welfare Directors Association of California for nearly 30 years. A prominent advocate for poor and disadvantaged Californians, Mecca is a champion of direct intervention: "The number one way to help kids in poverty is to give their parents the resources to get them out of poverty." Frank joined Capitol W...

As most of the state winches down amid a new surge of COVID-19 cases, doctors and scientists are racing to prepare for the largest vaccination campaign in generations. Multiple coronavirus vaccines have been found to be be effective; now the challenge shifts to distribution. We were joined by Dr. Dean Blumberg, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, UC Davis School of Medicine and Acting Chief, Pediat...

Doug Moore is the Executive Director of UDW/AFSCME Local 3930, a union of over 140,000 in-home care providers and family child care providers throughout California. Moore joined us by phone to talk about the challenges his members face providing in-home care during the COVID pandemic, and about the larger challenges facing service employees - particularly people of color - every day. Moore credits...

Last week, Governors Gavin Newsom of California and Kate Brown of Oregon, leaders of the Yurok and Karuk Tribes and billionaire investor Warren Buffett issued a joint announcement that four dams on the Klamath River will be removed. The agreement follows decades of often-tense negotiations between the tribes, state and local governments and the dams' owner, PacifiCorp, a massive power utility that...

On November 5, 2020, Capitol Weekly and the McGeorge Capital Center for Law & Policy presented a Post-Mortem of the 2020 Election. This episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast broadcasts audio of the Keynote address from Ace Smith. Campaign consultant Ace Smith has handled many of the biggest campaigns in California history including gubernatorial runs for Jerry Brown, Senate campaigns for Barba...