Since 2010, when New Jersey was chosen to host Super Bowl XLVIII, business leaders have been building the infrastructure for a successful event. Rooms have been booked. Travel plans have been made. Pipelines have been built to guarantee enough product. For T-shirts, that’s great. For liquor, it’s at least legal. For victims of human trafficking,…
If recent polling is to be believed, the last six weeks have seen two seismic shifts in the San Diego electorate. According to SurveyUSA/U-T SanDiego/KGTV polls, the city lurched 15 points to the right between 12/6/13 and 1/10/14, giving Kevin Faulconer a 16 point lead. Public Policy Polling (PPIC) data released this week says the…
The Chargers’ season may be over, but don’t expect them to leave the headlines. With Councilmembers David Alvarez and Kevin Faulconer meeting in six mayoral debates this month, you should at least find some Chargers news in the political pages. Here are my questions, and answers, for the candidates. Debate moderators, steal as you will….
When I attended an LGBT political training session in December, I expected to learn about financing, polling and voter identification. I did not expect to learn a new way to play Whac-A-Mole, but it was one of the more useful things I took home. For those not familiar with the arcade/midway game, Whac-A-Mole has the…
Whether President Obama lied when he said, “If you like your plan, you can keep it” isn’t much of a question anymore. His team knew that the new coverage rules would require insurers to change or drop plans – that was, at least in part, the whole point of Obamacare. As a staunch supporter of…
Last week, Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democrats changed the Senate, allowing a simple majority to end filibusters on most judicial nominations and executive appointees. To do so, they used what had become known as the “nuclear option,” interpreting the rules to mean that while 60 voters were needed to end a filibuster, only 51…
Some suggest that Alvarez beat Fletcher with Election Day voters, and there is a hint of truth to that. Fletcher was ahead of Alvarez when the first returns came in. But it doesn’t appear that Fletcher was swamped by a tidal wave of Election Day voting. In fact, it appears that the final numbers fell…
One of my favorite memories of the Filner administration (yes, I have a few) was a story he told at, among other places, the 2013 All People’s Celebration. A certain prominent developer and political adversary had some permit issues, and someone from his office had called the mayor’s staff to say when they should meet…
Despite the current respite from the government shutdown and near default, we aren’t really much closer to a real budget deal. House Republicans want to keep discretionary spending at the slashed levels of the sequester and decrease the deficit through cuts to entitlements like Medicare and Social Security. President Obama wants to ease the sequester…
After the late June Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex couples to wed in California, marriage equality had a quiet late summer and early fall. That ended Monday, with the enforcement of a state court decision making New Jersey the 14th state with marriage equality. Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to stop his appeal promises that this…
