California
2020 California campaigns: irrelevant and vapid
In abstract
This 12 months’s political campaigns in California have hit a low mark for relevance and a excessive mark for vapidity — with one exception.
California has many severe, even existential, public coverage points that urgently want political consideration — the nation’s worst poverty and homelessness, shortages of housing, water and electrical energy, and a public college system that’s mediocre at greatest, to call the obvious.
Did you hear any of these points debated — and even talked about — to any noticeable diploma throughout the campaigns main as much as at present’s election? No, which is why that is probably the most dismally irrelevant election in latest California historical past.
Upwards of a billion {dollars} has been spent on persuading voters to vote for and in opposition to candidates and largely particular curiosity poll measures, half of it on two sports activities wagering measures that appear destined to fail. Nearly not one of the numerous tv, radio and on-line adverts even talked about any of these actual world points.
As an alternative, we heard a variety of noise about crime from Republicans of their largely unsuccessful efforts to regain relevance in California. We heard much more noise from Democrats about abortion, together with a poll measure to enshrine within the state structure rights which are already protected by legislation and state Supreme Court docket selections.
The measure, positioned on the poll by the Legislature after the U.S. Supreme Court docket reversed the Rose v. Wade choice, is clearly geared toward getting extra Democrats to vote and thereby serving to the occasion win the state’s only a few true partisan contests.
Most of these contests are in a handful of congressional districts and their end result theoretically may — however in all probability gained’t — decide which occasion controls the Home of Representatives.
Except these few congressional seats, the general end result of the election is essentially preordained. Democrats who maintain statewide workplace, together with Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Alex Padilla, will win new phrases. With their victories assured, neither has made greater than token efforts at campaigning and Newsom spends most of his time today constructing a nationwide picture.
The one doable exception to a Democratic sweep of state places of work is a really, very exterior probability {that a} Republican may grow to be state controller because the workplace is vacated resulting from time period limits.
Democrats will proceed to have overwhelming majorities within the state’s congressional delegation and each homes of the Legislature. A lot of the costly legislative duels pit Democrats in opposition to one another, reflecting some slight ideological variations and a pointy private duel between two Democrats over who can be speaker of the Meeting.
The paucity of actual contests for statewide, legislative and congressional places of work signifies that at present’s most essential California election is for mayor of Los Angeles. It’s not solely the state’s largest metropolis, however one in every of its most troubled with immense quantities of poverty and homelessness, rising crime, political corruption, a lackluster economic system and racial battle.
The present mayor, Eric Garcetti, is nearly absent with out go away. His 2000 presidential bid went nowhere and whereas circumstances in his metropolis deteriorated he’s spent the final 16 months making an attempt, in all probability in useless, to win Senate affirmation as ambassador to India.
Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass has the entire regular endorsements to succeed Garcetti and will have been a shoo-in. Nevertheless, Rick Caruso, a really rich actual property developer and philanthropist, has spent tens of millions of his personal {dollars} and tapped into voter discontent with the established order to make it an actual contest.
The 2 rivals have gone toe-to-toe over how they might deal with the squalor of homeless encampments that clog the town’s sidewalks and different points that make the Metropolis of Angels a extremely concentrated microcosm of the whole state’s ills.
The depth and relevance of the Bass-Caruso duel underscore simply how vapid the opposite campaigns have been.
California
Caitlyn Jenner says she'd 'destroy' Kamala Harris in hypothetical race to be CA gov
SAN FRANCISCO – Caitlyn Jenner, the gold-medal Olympian-turned reality TV personality, is considering another run for Governor of California. This time, she says, if she were to go up against Vice President Kamala Harris, she would “destroy her.”
Jenner, who publicly came out as transgender nearly 10 years ago, made a foray into politics when she ran as a Republican during the recall election that attempted to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. Jenner only received one percent of the vote and was not considered a serious candidate.
Jenner posted this week on social media that she’s having conversations with “many people” and hopes to have an announcement soon about whether she will run.
Caitlyn Jenner speaks at the 4th annual Womens March LA: Women Rising at Pershing Square on January 18, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)
She has also posted in Trumpian-style all caps: “MAKE CA GREAT AGAIN!”
As for VP Harris, she has not indicated any future plans for when she leaves office. However, a recent poll suggests Harris would have a sizable advantage should she decide to run in 2026. At that point, Newsom cannot run again because of term limits.
If Jenner decides to run and wins, it would mark the nation and state’s first transgender governor.
California
Northern California 6-year-old, parents hailed as heroes for saving woman who crashed into canal
LIVE OAK — A six-year-old and her parents are being called heroes by a Northern California community for jumping into a canal to save a 75-year-old woman who drove off the road.
It happened on Larkin Road near Paseo Avenue in the Sutter County community of Live Oak on Monday.
“I just about lost her, but I didn’t,” said Terry Carpenter, husband of the woman who was rescued. “We got more chances.”
Terry said his wife of 33 years, Robin Carpenter, is the love of his life and soulmate. He is grateful he has been granted more time to spend with her after she survived her car crashing off a two-lane road and overturning into a canal.
“She’s doing really well,” Terry said. “No broken bones, praise the Lord.”
It is what some call a miracle that could have had a much different outcome without a family of good Samaritans.
“Her lips were purple,” said Ashley Martin, who helped rescue the woman. “There wasn’t a breath at all. I was scared.”
Martin and her husband, Cyle Johnson, are being hailed heroes by the Live Oak community for jumping into the canal, cutting Robin out of her seat belt and pulling her head above water until first responders arrived.
“She was literally submerged underwater,” Martin said. “She had a back brace on. Apparently, she just had back surgery. So, I grabbed her brace from down below and I flipped her upward just in a quick motion to get her out of that water.”
The couple said the real hero was their six-year-old daughter, Cayleigh Johnson.
“It was scary,” Cayleigh said. “So the car was going like this, and it just went boom, right into the ditch.”
Cayleigh was playing outside and screamed for her parents who were inside the house near the canal.
I spoke with Robin from her hospital bed over the phone who told us she is in a lot of pain but grateful.
“The thing I can remember is I started falling asleep and then I was going over the bump and I went into the ditch and that’s all I remember,” Robin said.
It was a split-second decision for a family who firefighters said helped save a stranger’s life.
“It’s pretty unique that someone would jump in and help somebody that they don’t even know,” said Battalion Chief for Sutter County Fire Richard Epperson.
Robin is hopeful that she will be released from the hospital on Wednesday in time to be home for Thanksgiving.
“She gets Thanksgiving and Christmas now with her family and grandkids,” Martin said.
Terry and Robin are looking forward to eventually meeting the family who helped save Robin’s life. The family expressed the same feelings about meeting the woman they helped when she is out of the hospital.
“I can’t wait for my baby to get home,” Terry said.
California
California may exclude Tesla from EV rebate program
California Gov. Gavin Newsom may exclude Tesla and other automakers from an electric vehicle (EV) rebate program if the incoming Trump administration scraps a federal tax credit for electric car purchases.
Newsom proposed creating a new version of the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, which was phased out in 2023 after funding more than 594,000 vehicles and saving more than 456 million gallons of fuel, the governor’s office said in a news release on Monday.
“Consumers continue to prove the skeptics wrong – zero-emission vehicles are here to stay,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future – we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”
The proposed rebates would be funded with money from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which is funded by polluters under the state’s cap-and-trade program, the governor’s office said. Officials did not say how much the program would cost or save consumers.
NEBRASKA AG LAUNCHES ASSAULT AGAINST CALIFORNIA’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH
They would also include changes to promote innovation and competition in the zero-emission vehicles market – changes that could prevent automakers like Tesla from qualifying for the rebates.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who relocated Tesla’s corporate headquarters from California to Texas in 2021, responded to the possibility of having Tesla EVs left out of the program.
“Even though Tesla is the only company who manufactures their EVs in California! This is insane,” Musk wrote on X, which he also owns.
BENTLEY PUSHES BACK ALL-EV LINEUP TIMELINE TO 2035
Those buying or leasing Tesla vehicles accounted for about 42% of the state’s rebates, The Associated Press reported, citing data from the California Air Resources Board.
Newsom’s office told Fox Business Digital that the proposal is intended to foster market competition, and any potential market cap is subject to negotiation with the state Legislature.
Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
---|---|---|---|---|
TSLA | TESLA INC. | 338.59 | -13.97 | -3.96% |
“Under a potential market cap, and depending on what the cap is, there’s a possibility that Tesla and other automakers could be excluded,” the governor’s office said. “But that’s again subject to negotiations with the legislature.”
Newsom’s office noted that such market caps have been part of rebate programs since George W. Bush’s administration in 2005.
Federal tax credits for EVs are currently worth up to $7,500 for new zero-emission vehicles. President-elect Trump has previously vowed to end the credit.
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California has surpassed 2 million zero-emission vehicles sold, according to the governor’s office. The state, however, could face a $2 billion budget deficit next year, Reuters reported, citing a non-partisan legislative estimate released last week.
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