KQED’s John Myers explored Maplight’s new online search engine that makes tracking political donations much easier and found some interesting numbers: over $80 million was spent on California IEs in the 2014 cycle, more than seven times the amount spent a dozen years ago.
“Golden State voters are now bombarded by campaigns run by independent expenditure committees, efforts that are both relatively opaque and funded by mountains of money.
“’Outside groups have spent millions of dollars to influence election outcomes,’ said Daniel Newman, co-founder and president of MapLight, a Bay Area nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.
“Tracking independent expenditure contributions has never been easy, in part because the state’s official campaign finance system has always treated the cash like a secondary part of the political money machine. That’s why MapLight decided to build its own system.
“’What used to require expertise and days, even weeks of research can now be done in seconds,’ said Newman.”
Aspiring House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is ramping up his effort to take over the top congressional job when John Boehner resigns in October. A reputation for networking genius and sincerity are working in his favor. Martin Wisckol profiles the Bakersfield congressman in the Orange County Register:
“McCarthy was born in Bakersfield, where he still lives, the son of a firefighter and grandson of a cattle rancher. He became a Republican in a family of Democrats, something he traced back to his first business when he spoke to a 2012 joint luncheon of the Orange County Business Council and OC Forum.
“He recounted buying a $5,000 winning lottery ticket when he was 19 and using the money two years later to open a deli. There he confronted a tangle of regulations and taxes that cemented his affiliation with the GOP.
“McCarthy earned an MBA from Cal State Bakersfield, interned with local Republican congressman Bill Thomas, and then worked as a Thomas aide. Around the same time, he was elected to the local community college board.
“When he was elected to the state Assembly in 2002, his modus operandi was established: Get to know everybody possible, ask them what he could do to help and display a sincere sense of caring.
“’He knows where your kids are going to school and what they’re studying,’ [John] Campbell said. ‘And he remembers. He sees you and asks how your kid’s Asian history class is going. He never forgets a name or a face or an important interaction.’”
McCarthy isn’t the only national-profile California pol getting a look back – Capital Public Radio’s Ben Adler digs into GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s failed 2010 Senate run. From NPR:
"’She gave Barbara Boxer a huge run for her money,’ recalls Beth Miller, a senior adviser on Fiorina's 2010 campaign.
“Miller said even though Fiorina lost by a million votes — 52 percent to 42 percent — it wasn't from lack of skill. ‘We all think of Ronald Reagan as a gifted communicator, and no one is Ronald Reagan. But Carly has this unique ability to be able to connect with people, with voters.’"
And, let’s not forget the locals: CALmatters’ Laurel Rosenhall looks at the plans (and donors) of state Senator Isadore Hall (D-Compton) who has announced plans to run for retiring congresswoman Janice Hahn’s seat in 2016. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“As Hall works to build a campaign war chest for what’s likely to be a competitive election next year, just 8 percent of his donors have come from the district he seeks to represent.
“The bulk of the rest reflect relationships he’s built as chairman of the Committee on Governmental Organization. More than one-third of the $369,000 Hall raised in the first six months of the year came from people tied to gambling businesses.
“The donors include former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Willie Brown, a former Assembly speaker and current Chronicle columnist, both of whom have worked as consultants to casino magnate Sheldon Adelson in his fight against online poker — an issue that has come before Hall’s committee repeatedly in recent years.”
In the face of a rapidly changing landscape, including an aging population and millions of recent enrollees in MediCal, the state's health care system is under tremendous pressure. Chuck McFadden reports on solutions, suggesestions and concerns voiced at a health care policy conference last week in Sacramento. From Capitol Weekly:
"Experts in California health care agree: The present system is unsustainable. It needs more money and flexibility.
"But that’s where agreement ends. There are conflicting ideas about where the money should come from and where it should go.
"The problems are not difficult to find: Health care in the Golden State is under increasing pressure because of an aging population, the addition of some four million people to the state’s already-vast MediCal system serving the poor and there are pockets of the medically underserved across the state, particularly in rural areas."
The California School Boards Association has filed a lawsuit contending that lawmakers improperly included childcare expenses in the education portion of the state budget, violating spending guidelines outlined in Prop 98. Jim Miller has the story in the Sacramento Bee:
“Childcare programs had been part of the schools budget before being removed during the recession. At the time, the suit says, lawmakers adjusted the Proposition 98 guarantee to reflect the lower spending. It’s only fair that the guarantee be adjusted upward now that some childcare spending is back within the formula, the lawsuit claims.
“The desired adjustment would increase school funding by $150 million to $180 million, the lawsuit said.”
Sure, we all love to complain about how slow the mail is, but here’s one for the books – the history books.
“The postcard Chuck Ebel received last March came to the correct Missoula address on South 11th Street West. It just wasn’t addressed to him.
“Instead, it was mailed from Heidelberg, Germany, to his grandfather, M.D. Montgomery Jr., ‘and all.’
“In 1972.”
“…’Mom wrote the postcard at the Heidelberg post office in (then) West Germany,’ [Ebel’s mother] said via email in March. ‘When it was delivered last week, one corner was creased and a little skid of grease streaked across the corner. Other than that, it looked brand new with a cancellation from the Seattle U.S.P.S. facility stamped 17 February 2015.’”
