Dan Walters

"Trailer bills" to the state budget are meant to enact the budget's financial decisions, but they have become convenient vehicles for enacting non-budgetary laws that have nothing to do with the budget.

Twenty-two years after the Legislature and then-Gov. Pete Wilson made a horrendous error in reconfiguring California's electric power system, lawmakers are weighing another big change, this time integrating California's grid with those of other Western states. Politicians should be very cautious of the new scheme.

The duplicitous campaigns against Democratic state Sen. Josh Newman and Republican Assemblyman Rocky Chavez are harsh reminders that California politics is not a game of tiddlywinks.

A collection of commentaries by Dan Walters over the past week.

A "trailer" bill for the 2018-2019 state budget would suspend a law requiring voters to be told about the effects of local bond issues on their property taxes. Local officials apparently fear that with more information, voters would be less inclined to vote for the measures.

Gavin Newsom is almost certain to become California's next governor and is promising a vast array of new services. But with Californians' taxes already among nation's highest. how would he pay for them?

The state Senate voted unanimously to increase welfare grants to nearly a million Californians. But it also voted almost unanimously to give welfare of another kind to the movie industry.

National media were drawn to California by its top-two primary election system and its effect on congressional races. Political party leaders hate the system, but voters like it and it's likely to remain in place.

A collection of commentaries by Dan Walters over the past week.

Gavin Newsom, the Democrats' candidate for governor, and Republican President Donald Trump both wanted Republican businessman John Cox to finish second in this weeks's gubernatorial primary and thus gain a spot on the November ballot Both got their wishes. Newsom can now coast to the governorship, and Republicans hope having Cox on the ballot will spur a higher turnout of GOP voters and save several embattled congressional districts.