blog post Video: A Conversation with Congressman Kevin McCarthy By Mary Severance Aug 21, 2018 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and PPIC president Mark Baldassare had a wide-ranging conversation about the relationship between California and the federal government in several areas, including tax reform, immigration, health care, water policy, wildfire management, and fuel emissions standards.
blog post Primary Takeaways: Democracy Is Alive and Well in California By Mark Baldassare Jul 14, 2018 Highest turnout for a gubernatorial primary since 2000, surging independent voter participation, and diverse statewide candidates—democracy is alive and well in California.
Report Political Reform and Moderation in California’s Legislature: Did Electoral Reforms Make State Representatives More Moderate? By Eric McGhee May 8, 2018 California implemented several important election reforms at the start of this decade. Each was intended in part to promote more flexible, moderate decision-making among California’s elected officials in an era of increasingly acrimonious partisan conflict. This report looks at the moderating effect of three reforms: the shift of authority to draw legislative and congressional districts from the state legislature to an independent redistricting commission; the loosening of term limits for state legislators; and a highly open “top two” primary system.
blog post Video: Assessing California’s Redistricting Commission By Mary Severance Mar 21, 2018 In a radical departure, California empowered an independent commission to create new electoral maps. A new PPIC report assesses the maps' fairness and competitiveness to both major political parties.
Report Assessing California’s Redistricting Commission: Effects on Partisan Fairness and Competitiveness By Eric McGhee Mar 5, 2018 The creation of the Citizen Redistricting Commission (CRC) in 2008 was a radical departure from California’s previous redistricting process, which had been directed by the legislature with little public input and no official rationale. Many hoped that, in addition to meeting legally mandated representational and geographic goals, the CRC would produce electoral maps that were fair to the two major parties and more competitive than the maps that had been drawn by the legislature.
blog post Testimony: Who Votes, Who Doesn’t, and Why By Eric McGhee May 25, 2017 Californians’ participation in elections has declined, but there is now a fresh opportunity to engage them.