Capitol Weekly Podcast

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...

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 Panel 2: The Face of the Electorate, featuring Shakari Byerly, EVITARUS; Mindy Romero, Center for Inclusive Democracy; Roger Salazar, ALZA Strategies; Rob Stutzman, Stutzman Public Affairs. Moderated by...

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 Panel 3: The Ballot Propositions, featuring Brandon Castillo of Bicker Castillo & Fairbanks; Jim DeBoo of DeBoo Communications; Mary-Beth Moylan of McGeorge School of Law and Robin Swanson of Swanso...

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 Panel 1: Polling, featuring Ruth Bernstein of EMC Research; Mark DiCamillo, of the Berkeley IGS Poll; Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc.; and Ben Tulchin of Tulchin Research. Moderated by Marisa Lagos...

David Cruz is the head of the Economic and Business Development Council for the League of United Latin American Citizens; LULAC, as it is known, is the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the country. While LULAC itself has declined to take a position on California's hotly-contested Proposition 22, the Economic and Business Development Council has endorsed the measure. The proponents of Pro...

Veteran political data expert Paul Mitchell sat down with us on Friday to chat about early vote turnout, the partisan breakdown of those votes and how California compares to the national picture. Record turnout among early voters is a story being played out across the country and California is no exception. In 2016 and 2018, less than 20,000 voters returned their ballots within the first week of r...

Our guest today is Caitlin Vega, a longtime labor activist who got her start as a Teamsters organizer when she was still in her teens. Vega is currently the legislative and political adviser to the UFCW Western States Council. She spent 16 years with the California Labor Federation, ultimately working her way up to Legislative Director, before striking out on her own. As the November election appr...

Shawnda Westly is a familiar figure in California politics. From 2009-2018 she served as executive director of the state Democratic Party and "right-hand" of then-Party leader John Burton, overseeing both campaign strategy and day-to-day operations of the party. Westly's tenure saw a massive expansion in Democratic representation in the legislature, with the party surging to supermajorit...

Longtime Sacramento journalist Joe Barr is Capital Public Radio’s strategic leader for content creation for CapRadio News, CapRadio Music and Capradio.org. While most news organizations have seen a stark decline in staffing over the past decade, Barr has led a major expansion in the station's news department. He also developed CapRadio's statewide news service, the Capital Public Radio Network, wh...

Citing a global emergency caused by climate change, Governor Gavin Newsom issued stunning news today, announcing an Executive Order that would outlaw sales of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks in the state by 2035. California, the most populous state, home to one in eight Americans, is already the largest market for zero-emission vehicles in the country; half of all electric vehicles sold in th...

This is a special edition of the Capitol Weekly Podcast, broadcasting a panel from our annual look at health care in the Golden State. We focused this year on the unprecedented public health emergency: COVID-19. Exactly six months and one day after the first Shelter-in-Place order, we examined the response to the crisis and looked at what comes next. A digital version of the program for the event,...

This is a special edition of the Capitol Weekly Podcast, broadcasting a panel from our annual look at health care in the Golden State. We focused this year on the unprecedented public health emergency: COVID-19. Exactly six months and one day after the first Shelter-in-Place order, we examined the response to the crisis and looked at what comes next. A digital version of the program for the event,...

This is a special edition of the Capitol Weekly Podcast, broadcasting a panel from our annual look at health care in the Golden State. We focused this year on the unprecedented public health emergency: COVID-19. Exactly six months and one day after the first Shelter-in-Place order, we examined the response to the crisis and looked at what comes next. A digital version of the program for the event,...