Tag: U.S. state

Cities and counties across California are reaching out to the state’s political watchdog about possibly enforcing their campaign finance and ethics ordinances under a new law that took effect on Jan. 1. The law, modeled after an arrangement San Bernardino County has had with the California Fair Political Practices Commission since 2013, essentially allows local agencies to draw on the state’s experience and expertise in dealing with such issues — for a price. “In the last two months, staff have received multiple inquiries and interests from local government agencies on contracting with the Commission for the administration, implementation and enforcement of local campaign finance or government ethics laws,” FPPC Executive Director Loressa Hon wrote in a report that will be presented to the commission on Thursday, Feb. 21. San Jose reached out to the FPPC in January about possibly contracting with the commission to enforce its longstanding campaign finance and ethics ordinance after its seven-member ethics committee dwindled to three members and lacked a quorum to vote on enforcement matters, San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle said Wednesday. Therefore, the city is no longer considering a contract with the FPPC to enforce its ordinance, Doyle said. San Bernardino County first in state San Bernardino County became the first in the state to enter into such an agreement with the FPPC after it adopted an ordinance in August 2012. I think the FPPC has had a positive experience with it as well, and the opportunity to take their highly professional and politically neutral oversight abilities anywhere in the state is going to be a great benefit.” Under its contract with the FPPC, San Bernardino County pays the agency a flat fee of $55,000 annually, and is billed at preapproved hourly rates, for any work exceeding the flat amount. A commission staff report noted that, since 2015, the FPPC’s Enforcement Division investigated 34 cases involving allegations of a public agency spending public funds for campaign purposes. Of the closed cases, three resulted in stipulated settlements, two cases were closed and six remain open, according to the report. If their goal is to ensure that there’s compliance and there’s transparency, then obviously I would support that.” FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga the proposed legislation seeks only to bring current law on the misuse of public funds into the realm of the Political Reform Act so that the FPPC can take administrative or civil action against violators.

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it’s canceling $929 million of federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project and demanding the return of $2.6 billion that’s already been spent. The administration made its move a week after Newsom suggested that the state was refocusing its $77 billion plan to run 220-mph trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco. President Trump seized on the governor’s statement in a tweet, calling California’s rail plan a “disaster” and saying he wanted the state to return federal money that has been invested in the project. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican and close Trump ally who has long opposed the high-speed rail project, also celebrated its “extinction.” Related Stories In a letter sent Tuesday to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Ronald Batory, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, noted Newsom’s “significant retreat” from the state’s original plan. Batory wrote that the high-speed rail authority reported spending only $48 million in December, far short of the $142 million officials committed to design and construction activities, and that “other months show the same shortfall of expenditures as compared to the state contribution commitment.” He said the Federal Railroad Administration had determined that California would be unable to meet its 2022 deadline to complete the first section of track from Madera, north of Fresno, to Shafter, near Bakersfield. The agency is “exploring all available legal options,” Batory wrote, to recover more than $2 billion of stimulus money that it awarded in 2010 for the project. The governor said he just wanted to get the Central Valley segment, which is under construction, up and running first. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019 California joined 15 other states to file suit against the Trump administration on Monday for declaring a national emergency to secure funding for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border without going through Congress. “This is clear political retribution by President Trump, and we won’t sit idly by,” Newsom said. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com, alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander, @akoseff

You can’t find that order on any state website, and the governor didn’t announce it. To find out more, Rashah McChesney from Alaska’s Energy Desk sat down on Friday with James Brooks, who covers the legislature for the Anchorage Daily News. Editor’s note: After this Q&A took place, the governor’s office posted Administrative Order 302 to Alaska’s public notices website on Monday. Instead of having administrative service directors in each department handling budgets inside that department and answering to the commissioner, those people now answer to the Office of Management and Budget under the governor. RM: And what what does an administrative services director do. RM: And is this a new idea? Other former commissioners that I talked to had said it’s a good idea; they just hadn’t followed through on them on it before. RM: The first people to report on this particular administrative order — they are both pretty critical of the Dunleavy administration for signing an order and not announcing it. And you can’t find the order on any state website. JB: Well it’s already in effect, and so — because you’re just changing a boss.

Rural Wisconsin has gotten redder. The Democratic Party’s gains have occurred almost entirely in the Milwaukee and Madison media markets. In these four areas combined, Democrats saw a net gain of nearly 130,000 votes from the 50-50 elections of 2000/2004 to the 50-50 elections of 2016/2018. It’s the equivalent of 4 percentage points or more in a major statewide race. Milwaukee County suburbs: A gain of 23,000 votes. Another way of putting it: in close statewide elections, Democrats are now winning the city of Madison by almost 40,000 votes more than they did in the early 2000s. While the biggest Democratic gains by far have come in the state’s two biggest counties (Milwaukee, Dane), the Republican gains have come in lots of small counties, especially across the northern two-thirds of the state. In 2000 and 2004, there was an average gap of 7 points between how Wisconsin’s metropolitan counties voted and how its non-metro (i.e., more rural) counties voted. The 130,000 votes that Democrats have gained in metropolitan Milwaukee and Madison have been offset by GOP gains elsewhere in the state. Their biggest percentage gains over the past two decades have come in the state’s least populous places.

Scott Walker on Tuesday, among them a tsunami of Democratic votes in the blue bastions of Dane and Milwaukee counties. Waukesha and Ozaukee counties, two of the state’s wealthiest, most-educated and most-Republican counties, “underperformed” for Walker on Tuesday. The governor, who won Waukesha County by 46 points in 2014, carried it by 34 this time. Nowhere in Wisconsin did Walker’s winning margins decline as much as it did in those two counties. And four, the suburbs have been a minefield for the GOP under Trump and they cost the party its House majority Tuesday. Here, too, the trend in the Walker vote Tuesday followed the trend in the Trump vote in 2016. Both parties fighting trends That trend leaves both parties with sometimes fatal flaws. If the GOP suburbs here grow less Republican and the rural areas grow more Republican, Wisconsin will lose some attributes that set it apart from other states. Democrat Baldwin won 17 counties Tuesday that Trump carried in 2016. Wisconsin isn’t “trending” even if some of its parts are.

California voters have a lot of choices in front of them come election day — perhaps none larger than whether they see the state’s political choices as part of a national referendum on President Trump. On this week’s podcast, we take a close look at the candidates in the races for governor and U.S. Senate. We also dive deep into the congressional battleground of Orange County — home to four closely watched contests. And we examine the potential impact if the polls are right and two major California ballot measures are rejected. In his last campaign as governor, Jerry Brown rallied Friday against Proposition 6, tying the initiative to supporters of President Trump and warning it will hinder California’s efforts to repair roads and bridges. “Prop. 6 is a scheme and a scam put on the ballot by some partisans,” Brown said at a campaign rally in Palo Alto. “Actually they are acolytes of Donald Trump. They don't have the best interest of California in mind." Republican leaders hope the measure will drive conservative voters to the polls on Tuesday to boost the chances of their party’s candidates.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) - Thursday was a day filled with politics in Southeastern Wisconsin. Really, the entire week has seen politics in the headlines. From the controversy over Harley-Davidson, to the Presidential visit, to the Foxconn groundbreaking, it's been hard to ignore. But none of that mattered at the Summerfest grounds. Fest goers say they enjoyed a break from politics while they listened to music, tried great food and downed a beverage or two. "Oh yeah definitely, anytime I can get away from politics, I’m going to try," said one fest goer. "I don’t get too much into politics, it causes fights, but not here, this is politics free," said another. Some saw it as an opportunity to get away from the stress of work as well. There was extra excitement at the grounds on Thursday, with music legend James Taylor taking the stage.