NEWS
April 13, 2013 | By Seema Mehta
SACRAMENTO - Sandra Fluke, the law school graduate who became famous after Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" for demanding that health insurers be required to pay for contraception, made the rounds at the California Democratic Party on Saturday. The 31-year-old Los Angeles resident spoke to party delegates about federal student-loan reform and the California domestic workers' bill of rights, which would require overtime pay, meal breaks and other benefits for housekeepers, nannies and caregivers.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 12, 2013 | By Chris Megerian
SACRAMENTO -- John Burton, the combative chairman of the California Democratic Party, isn't too worried about Republican Abel Maldonado running for governor next year. "Oh, I bet Jerry Brown is wetting his pants," he quipped Friday before speaking during the opening night of his party's convention here in Sacramento. Maldonado filed paperwork earlier this month to begin raising money for a potential gubernatorial campaign. A former state lawmaker, he was appointed as lieutenant governor by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger but lost the seat to Gavin Newsom in the 2010 election.
NEWS
October 11, 2012 | By Robert Greene
They didn't go there. Did they? Did the No on 31 campaign , funded mostly by organized labor and backed by the California Democratic Party, really invoke the "Tea Party" as being on the right (right as in “correct”) side of the issue? Did they really cite fringy populist conservatives who worry about a United Nations takeover of California? Yeah, they kinda did. How else would you interpret the Google ad that says “Learn why California Democrats and Tea Party both say vote No”?
NEWS
September 14, 2012 | By Robert Greene
The California Democratic Party opposes Proposition 31 , a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot to change the way budgeting is done at the state level while reframing the relationship between Sacramento and local governments. The California Republican Party supports it. No surprise. Democrats run California and have a vested interest in retaining the status quo. In the game of politics, they're winning here. They have mastered the rules. They will resist efforts to change them.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 8, 2011 | By Seema Mehta and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times
At one of the many gatherings that marked the recent state Democratic convention, the party's future could be glimpsed. As Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke to a group of activists, his eyes briefly darted to a commotion at the back of the room. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris was trying to leave after her own speech but had been mobbed by admirers begging for autographs and pictures. Moments later, Newsom was surrounded by his own crush as he tried to exit. Democrats have swept the statewide offices in recent elections, but their success has masked a looming problem: The party's top officeholders — Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Sens.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 4, 2010 | By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
Joe Cerrell, a prominent political consultant who over several decades helped steer successful campaigns for both the presidency and top offices in California, died Friday. He was 75. Cerrell, who had pneumonia, died at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, his family said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called him the "indefatigable wise man of California politics" whom "you could always count on ? to give it to you straight, and with a big dose of his characteristic humor.