David Lesher

California's Great Disconnect: The Governed and the Government David Lesher, California Program Director

Slice 'N Dice: Smaller Legislative Districts Will Yield More Lawmakers, More Accountability and Better Decision Making Heather Barbour, Fellow

Dear {Insert Name}: VOTE FOR ME! Farai Chideya, Fellow Democracy at a Crossroads … more

It may seem incredible, but supposedly blue-state California is hemorrhaging Democrats.

Since 1990, when a majority of voters were registered Democrats, the party's share of the electorate has dropped to just 43 percent today. In fact, even as the state has grown, the number of Democratic voters has shrunk. There are about 100,000 fewer Democrats today than there were nearly 10 years ago, even though there are nearly 2 million more voters.

That doesn't sound like the state that voted 13 points to the left of the nation… more

Like a powerful earthquake, it appears that last year's historic recall of an incumbent governor vented a lot of pressure that was building in the California electorate. Nearly a year later, it's hard to overstate the magnitude of that event and the total rejection of California's political leadership it represented.

Voters chose a celebrity Hollywood action star whose campaign was limited to outsider cliches from a ballot that included a second-term governor, a lieutenant governor and a longtime Republican state senator.… more