Capitol Weekly

And whether you follow the clips on Rough & Tumble or have read Joe Mathews and Mark Paul's just-released California Crackup, it is now a growing consensus. ...

At a recent meeting in Oakland sponsored by The New America Foundation, the topic of How to Campaign using IRV or Ranked Choice Voting was debated. ...

For more information on IRV or Ranked Choice voting refer to “Fixing elections” by Steven Hill, the New America Foundation.

Maybe we Californians have such a hard time figuring out how to fix the state because we are too close to the problem. How might an analyst sent here from another world--think of him as an extraterrestrial Alexis de Tocqueville, well read in California history and deeply versed on political practices elsewhere on this globe--diagnose California's ailments?

One of these is Mark Paul, senior scholar with the non-partisan New America Foundation. "I think it's silly to have a conversation about the future direction of California without talking about Prop. 13," Paul said. "I think it's fundamental. ...

The move away from the general fund is a predictable response to a pair of trends that have been chipping away at this money for years, according to Mark Paul, a senior scholar with the non-partisan New America Foundation. First is the tendency to rely ...

Seven hundred billion dollars to bail out the banking and financial industries is a lot of money. But let's not forget where this crisis started: in a failing housing market, the initial domino in the meltdown. The banks are being bailed out - but what about housing?

...But there is wide agreement that as the press corps diminishes, there is an increasing lack of quality state political information. "The importance of having an independent journalism that played a watchdog function is extremely important in keeping government honest and responsive," said Mark Paul, deputy director of the New America Foundation's California program... LINK

In the movie Groundhog Day, the Bill Murray character, a weatherman who is doomed to repeat the same day over and over, asks a question that haunts redistricting reformers in California: "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and everyday was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?"

Governor Schwarzenegger was cheered when he recently talked about post-partisanship in Washington, D.C. But the post-partisan waters don’t run deep back home in California. Two state senators who just crossed the aisle to forward a creative solution to a pressing problem are getting more grief than glory.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sitting on his desk a bill that he ought to sign. Signing AB 2948 would establish California as a national leader in the effort to create a nationwide popular vote for president, which recent elections have shown would be a more democratic method than the 18th Century Electoral College.