The California Democratic Party has adopted a neutral position on Proposition 19. Many favor the measure, but opponents cited one overriding concern: a yes vote could damage statewide candidates in competitive races.
Read the story from the Los Angeles Times.

Democrats in the California Legislature have countered Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal with two of their own. The Democratic versions balance spending cuts with new revenues. The Schwarzenegger proposal proposed only cuts to balance the budget. (See earlier post.)
Read a story comparing the Senate, Assembly and Governor’s proposals in Calbuzz (June 25, 2010).

The latest report from California Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office shows Democratic voter registration is up and Republican registration is down. Statewide, Democratic registrations have increased from 42.7 percent to 44.5 percent. Republican registrations have decreased from 34.4 percent to 30.8 percent. Decline to state registrations have increased from 18.5 percent to 20.2 percent. [...]

It feels like deja vu — once again the Governor has proposed a revised budget that focuses on cutting social programs aimed mainly at the poor. Included is a proposal to end CalWORKS, a welfare-to-work program, that would make California the only state in the nation without such a program. The budget proposal includes no new [...]

In an appeal from Chair of the California Democratic Party, John Burton, is asking fellow Democrats to help change an undemocratic and outdated loophole that allows the minority of Republicans to block any budget from passing. As it stands now, it takes only a 33.4% vote to block the majority!
Burton refers to it as “hostage taking” [...]

The California Assembly Health Committee has advanced a bill that could control some health insurance rate hikes. AB 2578 addresses rate hike abuses by insurance companies by requiring approval for increases exceeding seven per cent. The recent federal reforms do not address rate hikes, and this measure would rectify that omission for California.
Although the bill [...]

by Charles Cleveland
Murray Hill, Inc., a progressive PR firm in Maryland, is making a bid to be the first corporate member of Congress.  Their effort appears to be tongue-in-cheek, with the aim of calling attention to the potential consequences of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, which gives domestic and foreign corporations the green light to [...]

Petitions are circulating for several proposed initiatives that would change the State Teachers Retirement System, also known as STRS. Member Allison Marks offers some facts that members should know before they consider signing any petitions for these measures.
1. Teachers, counselors, and administrators in California public schools pay eight percent of their salaries to STRS.
2. Unlike social security, the [...]