If you’re slogging through a California ballot packet, we’re here to help!
We’ll be posting pro-con debates on high-stakes ballot propositions, interviews with candidates for offices that will shape the politics of the state, and special reports on everything from voting rules to money in politics.
Subscribe with Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, or by pasting this link into any podcast player.
First: Wayne Hsiung is mounting a left-flank challenge to incumbent Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin that is quite well-financed and -organized for someone who’s never held office. Hsiung’s also a hardcore animal rights activist, leading a group some ex-members describe as cult-like, who co-authored a strategy document calling for supporters to move to one city, take … Continued
First: Oakland’s at-large council election, where outside money from Lyft has piled on to the effort to oust incumbent councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, and her main challenger is … not the business owner his campaign lit claims. Then: a tour through the late flood of attack money into San Francisco’s local races. 1:06 Darwin BondGraham, news … Continued
If Proposition 25 passes, it will end cash bail — no one will spend time incarcerated just because they couldn’t pay for a ticket out before trial. That’s why the bail bond industry’s poured millions into defeating it. But could the risk assessment tools it uses to replace cash bail be even more unfair? That … Continued
Proposition 24 in an overhaul of our California’s brand-spanking-new Consumer Privacy Act, which regulates what businesses can do with our data. The changes in prop 24 would change who that act applies to–it would wind up covering fewer businesses. It would add some restrictions, it would take some restrictions away, and it would fund a … Continued
Proposition 22 is a $188 million (and counting!) push by Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Instacart, and Postmates to permanently classify the workers who drive for them as independent contractors, and effectively bar the state legislature from passing a law to let them unionize. It’s already shattered all state records for spending on ballot initiatives in California, … Continued
In 2016, California Republican Devin Nunes won re-election in CA-22 by a 35-point margin. Then Nunes, as House Intelligence Chair, became a national symbol of House Republicans’ feverish defense of misconduct by Donald Trump, and his 2018 victory margin dropped to five percent. We talk to the person challenging Nunes–Phil Arballo–about why he thinks it’s … Continued
California is one of only ten states that ban affirmative action. Voters put the ban in our constitution during an era when Republicans started turning to anti-immigrant and anti-affirmative action policies as wedge issues that could split some white voters away from the Democratic party. Our elections reporter Ariel Boone produced this brief history of … Continued
In California, a State Senator represents more people than the average member of Congress. And there’s an open seat in the Bay: Senate District 15, covering big chunk of San Jose and the surrounding area. Voters will face a choice between two Democrats, which can make it hard to suss out the differences, so we … Continued
Under a law called Costa-Hawkins, California’s local governments can’t regulate rent increases in anything built after 1995 (earlier, for places that already had rent control on the books when Costa Hawkins passed), can’t regulate rent increases in single-family homes, and can’t regulate how much rents go up after a rent-controlled tenant moves out. Proposition 21 … Continued
There are two big tax changes on California’s ballot–part of a push to roll back an era of anti-tax politics that started when California voters approved prop 13 in 1978. We’ll debate prop 15, which is pitting public sector unions against big real estate investors; and prop 19, which has pulled together an odd coalition … Continued
