Elections

1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: The push for marijuana legalization is on the ballot in at least nine states this November, with California’s Prop. 64 the most watched. Although four other states previously have legalized recreational pot, a vote by the nation’s most populous state […]

Prop. 65 Prop. 67 1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: How you carry your groceries home from the store may seem like a trivial subject, but it’s the focus of two rival measures on the California ballot that pit environmentalists against the plastic industry. More than […]

1oo percent of precincts reporting partial returns—will be updated when all results are certified. Background: School districts pay for building new schools and updating older ones with a mix of local and state money, generally financed through bonds. It’s been a decade since California voters approved a bond measure allowing the state to borrow money […]

The slick website offers many ways to get high. Three pre-rolled joints will cost you $30. A gram of hash is $45. Blueberry, pineapple or brownie-flavored cannabis treats go for about $12 a bag. (“Caution,” the label says, they are “very strong.”) It takes just few taps on a smart phone to place an order, […]

California has more billionaires than any other state, and an abundance of direct democracy. Those two facts intersect during election season, when spending by wealthy donors helps determine which initiatives make it on the ballot, and how many TV commercials and mailers campaigns can buy. Their donations carry the potential to influence state policy for […]

As they come of age and register to vote, Millennials—that enormous generation born since 1981—are surging so fast they’re on the verge of overtaking the Baby Boomer behemoth as a share of the California electorate. And new evidence confirms that, so far at least, the GOP is losing them. Fewer than 1 out of every […]

Protracted policy questions. Big-money battles. Contradictory proposals that are difficult to discern. It’s shaping up to be an all-too-typical fall election—once again confronting  California voters with an unwieldy ballot. This wasn’t supposed to happen. After polls confirmed that California voters were frustrated by ballot overload, lawmakers two years ago made changes aimed at pre-empting at […]

As an AIDS activist 30 years ago, Michael Weinstein helped defeat an inflammatory ballot measure that could have quarantined Californians with the disease. Today, Weinstein has turned to the ballot to advance his own controversial vision for public health. President of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has clinics around the world, Weinstein is […]

Questionnaires for candidates are a staple of electoral politics. Many interest groups use them in evaluating whether to endorse contestants or spend money to support their campaigns. The stakes are high on both sides, and the process raises some ethical questions. Here is a sampling of questionnaires given to this year’s candidates for the Legislature.​ […]