The fight for second place in California’s governor’s race between Republican John Cox and Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa remains unpredictable and volatile as the June 5 primary approaches, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom led both by 10 percentage points or more, validating every […] Read more »
3 Ways Nancy Pelosi Won’t Be Speaker Next Year
Nancy Pelosi is a drug that Republicans just can’t quit, and the GOP hopes that the threat of her becoming speaker of the House again will awaken any potentially apathetic base voters. While that might work for Republicans for yet another cycle, it might be the last cycle with their […] Read more »
Beating Republicans in November will be harder than Democrats thought
… The elimination of any distance between Trump and the conventional Republican interests that controlled the party before him has happened so incrementally it can be difficult to discern from day to day. But it remains one of the central political dynamics of 2018. Over the long term, Trump’s success […] Read more »
Young People Keep Marching After Parkland, This Time to Register to Vote
The pace of new voter registrations among young people in crucial states is accelerating, a signal that school shootings this year — and the anger and political organizing in their wake — may prove to be more than ephemeral displays of activism. … In addition to the registration figures, new […] Read more »
There’s a surprising lack of good polling in this year’s key Senate races
Calling balls and strikes is difficult when you’re partially blind. That’s the situation Senate prognosticators are in when it comes to this year’s races. In the early going, there just isn’t a lot of good polling data out there to understand the playing field. Democrats need a net gain of […] Read more »
Republican Strengths Turn Out to Be Weaknesses
Republicans knew the hurdles they were facing when they looked ahead to the 2018 midterms. Off-year elections are usually arrayed against the party in power, and the party’s leaders anticipated that Donald Trump would be a problem in swing districts. They thought these hurdles would be offset, however, by their […] Read more »