Speculation -Mainly Idle – On Members of Jerry Brown’s Team

With the election concluded, now begins one of the Sacramento insiders’ favorite parlor games, guessing who might be appointed to key posts in the new Jerry Brown administration.

Given the new governor’s mercurial nature, its hazardous to predict what he’ll do from one minute to the next, let alone appoint as chief of staff or cabinet secretaries.    Read more »

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The Confessions of a Women’s Conference Escort — Part 2

A former Bank of America that opened in 1906, L’Opera, the 101 Pine Ave. Long Beach restaurant where Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has dinner the night before First Lady Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, is swamped by conference attendees.

Nevertheless, the hostess accommodates both O’Connor and her team of marshals.

Dinner conversation is varied.    Read more »

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“What Were the Voters Thinking?”

This is the name of a poll released November 3 by Cheryl Boudreau and Scott MacKenie through the University of California at Davis Institute of Governmental Affairs. It examines how much influence policy considerations and the position of a voter’s political party influence decision-making.

As to the title, the political scientists pose an excellent question.    Read more »

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One Presumes They Wouldn’t Be Anything Else…

(An e-mail from Tom Angell, media director for the “Yes on Proposition 19” campaign, regarding voter turnout. Proposition 19 would allow localities to legalize and tax marijuana:)

“I’m told by organizers on the ground that youth turnout is so high that the polling location at San Diego State University has completely run out of provisional ballots.     Read more »

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Not Exactly The Most Sought After of Fortune Cookies…

“If you tempt a squirrel with a nut, be prepared to be bitten.”

(A rung or two up the ladder from “You will lead a short — but happy — life.”)    Read more »

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The Campaign Mailbag Runneth Over – Not for Long, Though

During the last two days of the last week of October another 37 pieces of campaign mail arrive.

Being residents of the 3rd Assembly District, which Democrats hope to wrest from Republicans, there is another flurry of missives condemning or praising Democrat Richard Pan, a pediatrician, and Andy Pugno, who claims to be a “proven and trusted local leader.”    Read more »

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Mail That Follows Like a Tedious Argument of Insidious Intent

During a three-day absence from October 25 to October 27, more than 50 pieces of political mail were delivered.

The stack of mailers is about half as fat as Pascal’s Pensees, padded as the book is with a lengthy introduction by T.S. Eliot.

The stack is slightly smaller than Allen Ginsberg’s “The Fall of America – Poems of the States 1965 – 1971.”    Read more »

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The Confessions of a Women’s Conference Escort — Part 1

Spending a day and a half with Sandra Day O’Connor, it’s quickly apparent why Ronald Reagan nominated her in 1981 to be the first woman Supreme Court justice in United States history.

O’Connor, 80, describes herself as an “unemployed cowgirl” when receiving an award for her trail-blazing career at California First Lady Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, making it easy to understand her appeal to Reagan, an accomplished horseman and believer in the sort of values one expects to find in an Arizona rancher’s daughter.    Read more »

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You Know the Mood Is Ugly Out There When…

On the back of a tanker truck tooling down Interstate 80  is a vintage “Uncle Sam Wants You” poster with the inscription:

“I Want You to Fire Incumbents. If They’re In, Vote Them Out.”    Read more »

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And For Your Viewing Pleasure — The Women’s Conference

Tune into the Women’s Conference the morning of October 26 via its live webcast and hear what First Lady Michelle Obama says to the estimated 30,000 attendees.

At 12:30 pm, there’s a lunchtime conversation between Diane Sawyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the high court.    Read more »

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