California voters gave the state Legislature its highest marks in years despite a recent spate of political scandals that could put three Democratic lawmakers behind bars, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. CONT. Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times Read more »
California Democrats Worry About Voter Turnout as They Gather for Convention
You’d be hard pressed to find a state deeper blue than California. Democrats dominate statewide politics, Jerry Brown seems headed for an easy re-election, and Republicans have had a tough time fielding credible statewide candidates. Yet, as Democrats gather in Los Angeles this weekend for their annual party convention, there […] Read more »
Merv Field at 93: A Tribute to California’s ‘Swami’
Mervin Field, a pioneer in using non-partisan public opinion research to analyze and interpret politics, will be feted, honored and gushed over by friends, colleagues and neighbors on his Marin County hometown turf tonight. … For many years, California political reporters were pestered and harassed by campaign operatives (and, in […] Read more »
Deep-Sixing California
California is such a massive state — if it were an independent nation, it would have the eighth-largest economy in the world — that it has long been the subject of partitioning proposals. Now a new plan is calling for the Golden State to be dismembered into six new states. […] Read more »
Wait, Did California Fix Political Polarization?
In recent decades, California has stood out among other states for its political dysfunction. Indeed, the Golden State has served for a while now as a cautionary example of where the nation as a whole could be heading. … Yet somehow over the past year, the state has emerged as […] Read more »
In a first, majority of California voters back marijuana legalization
In a state that pioneered rethinking marijuana laws, a majority of voters have legalization in mind. A new Field Poll tracks the increasingly green-friendly attitude of Californians, a decades-long trend that has seen Golden State residents swing from seeking tougher enforcement to favoring the end of pot prohibition. Eight percent […] Read more »