California Common Cause in the News
California Common Cause staff and board members are regularly quoted in newspapers and radio as the voice of government accountability, redistricting, campaign finance reform, and on issues regarding ethics in our elected officials.
- Nothing to fear but democracy itself
- San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2008
Attorney Steve Reyes knows where the interests of minority communities rank when legislators are allowed to draw district boundaries for themselves.
"Incumbent protection," he said, "is the end-all, be-all."
- Ghost voting: A long history
- San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 2008
California lawmakers routinely violate their own law and cast votes for colleagues who aren't there.
Although the practice of "ghost voting" in the state Assembly is usually harmless, experts say it is fraught with the potential for mischief, and at times ghost votes have decided the outcome of potentially far-reaching legislation.
- State's payroll soars under Schwarzenegger; Six-figure earners more than double
- San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2008
The state of California's payroll is skyrocketing, even as its budget deficit has grown to billions of dollars in recent months.
In Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's first four years, the total bill for state workers' salaries jumped by 37 percent, compared with a 5 percent increase in the preceding four years under then-Gov. Gray Davis, a Chronicle analysis of state payroll records shows.
- Why California’s Government Doesn’t Work
- Santa Barbara Independent, May 22, 2008
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new budget plan was pronounced “dead on arrival” by lawmakers of his own party, denounced as “shameful” by rival Democrats and cited by the capital’s leading columnist as evidence that the Terminator was a wimp.
He must be doing something right.
- Tech law expert to take on Congress
- San Jose Mercury News, March 20, 2008
Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford Law professor and a cyberspace legal guru, will team up with Joe Trippi, a nuts-and-bolts political operative in Washington - and
- State political fines drop in chief's 1st year; Fair Political Practices commissioner cites a push toward bigger issues, but activists are alarmed at the shift.
- Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2008
DATELINE:
In the year since a former state legislator took the reins of the state's political watchdog agency, prosecutions and fines for violations have dropped significantly while more cases have been resolved with only warning letters, agency statistics show.
That has some good-government activists worried about the shift at the state Fair Political Practices Commission since former state Sen. Ross Johnson became chairman. The agency is facing a proposed 10% budget cut.
- Speaker race is a Capitol brawl; With Fabian Nunez termed out, 10 Democrats are politicking for the Assembly's biggest prize.
- Sacramento Bee, February 25, 2008
The prize is a $17,500 pay increase, a massive office, giant staff, instant renown, control over millions in campaign contributions and a coveted seat at the table of power beside celebrity Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the nation's largest state.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez's pending departure has sparked a mad scramble among 10 would-be successors that has included:
Assemblyman Charles Calderon sweetening his campaign with bouquets of Valentine's Day roses.
- CLINTON, MCCAIN TAKE CALIFORNIA
- The San Francisco Chronicle, February 6, 2008
An extraordinary surge of
The deluge of voters, along with a return to paper ballots for many counties, will make for a slow count of how many delegates were won by the presidential candidates. It may take days for those final results to be tallied.
- Governor Holds Press Conference to Discuss Significance of California's Early Primary
- States News Service, February 5, 2008
The following information was released by the office of the governor of
KATHAY FENG: Good morning. My name is Kathay Feng with
- Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit
- Lou Dobbs Tonight, February 4, 2008
DOBBS: All right.
We're going to be back with our panel throughout this broadcast.
Up next, voters in 24 states going to the polls tomorrow, and unreliable electronic voting machines may be what you vote on. Our democracy is at risk.
- Political gifts could be curbed; State watchdog agency is considering tougher disclosure rules and a possible outright ban.
- Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2008
If the Fair Political Practices Commission adopts the proposals, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could be in jeopardy of losing free overseas trips on luxury jets leased by a taxpayer-subsidized nonprofit, which is linked to the California Chamber of Commerce.
- The long and short of term limits initiative
- Copley News Service, January 24, 2008
Proposition 93 would reduce the total time a legislator can serve from 14 to 12 years, while also allowing 34 legislators who are barred from running for re-election this year to run again.
- Prison guards give another $1 million to oppose Prop. 93
- The Associated Press, January 19, 2008
The state's powerful prison guards union contributed another $1 million on Friday to defeat Proposition 93 the term limits change proposal on
Meanwhile, the political reform group
- Reform term limits; He backs Prop. 93, the governor says, because it will improve government.
- Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2008
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I have long advocated reform in
We need redistricting reform to make the political system more competitive and more representative of the citizens of
- Governor takes risky '08 strategy to the polls
- December 16, 2007
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Having won big or lost big at the ballot box almost every year since he took office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to go back to the voters again in 2008 with perhaps his most ambitious agenda yet, even as the state's finances seem to be crumbling around him.
Schwarzenegger's high-risk strategy for the year ahead represents a hybrid of the approaches that have worked for him and those that have failed him, a mix of confrontation and collaboration that he hopes will coax legislative leaders and interest groups into joining him on the campaign trail.
- Cash pitches raise doubts; State watchdog says politicians skirt law when they solicit millions for pet causes
- Sacramento Bee (CA), December 1, 2007
The chairman of California's political watchdog agency says the growing practice of politicians soliciting millions for pet causes apparently is being abused for self-serving gain and needs to be reined in.
"If I could, with the stroke of a pen, I'd do away with it," said Ross Johnson, chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission.
"It's a huge end run around the contribution limits that the people of California voted for" in Proposition 34 seven years ago, he said.
- Governor to lead redistricting effort
- Los Angeles Times, December 4, 2007
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that he would serve as chairman of a campaign to qualify an initiative for the November 2008 ballot that would transfer the responsibility of drawing legislative districts from lawmakers to a citizens commission.
The League of Women Voters of California also endorsed the initiative. Also on Monday, a report by the Public Policy Institute of California said that having a citizens group handle redistricting could make elections more competitive.