Ranked choice has two problems. First, ranking people is inherently problematic. Choosing where to put people you don't know a lot about in a ranked list is fuzzy, yet has a big impact on the outcome. Second, it would require different machinery than is used in California, requiring an expensive upgrade for all counties. Approval voting (marking "yes" for everyone you like, marking "no" for everyone you don't want) doesn't have those problems.
In practice I haven't found it that hard to do (SF has had this for a couple of decades now in local elections), but it maybe would require some people to learn more about other candidates than they do currently. I don't know that that's a bad thing, but I realize not everyone is a high info voter. If you only use it in a primary election, it would still give voters a final election to pick between the two candidates that made it out of the primary. I'm sure there would be some counties that would need to acquire compatible equipment, but some places already use ranked choice voting (mostly the Bay Area - there's a list at the link I posted). It would also require a voter education program, so it wouldn't be free to make the change-over for sure. Equipment has to be replaced regularly anyway so this doesn't seem insurmountable to me if it modernizes your equipment at the same time.
This is being reported on mostly Jewish websites and Bloomberg law news. But if true, this could look very bad for California politics. We will see if this is an exaggeration of a few bad teachers or if it goes wider than that. https://brandeiscenter.com/california-sued/ https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litig...ed-of-ignoring-antisemitism-in-public-schools https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveb...lifornia-for-alleged-antisemitism-in-schools/
This story popped up on Rough and Tumble earlier today, which is a decades old, well-respected, curated aggregator news website for California politics. They had this link to Edsource.org: Frustrated families sue the state to stop antisemitism in California schools https://edsource.org/2026/frustrate...top-antisemitism-in-california-schools/752125 None of this is really new to California politics. Here's a story from last year at CalMatters: Protecting Jewish students or chilling speech? Inside California’s ‘hardest’ fight over antisemitism https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/10/school-antisemitism-bill-signed/ Yes, it's a bad look. It is a widespread and growing problem. A lot of this speaks to matters I've brought up elsewhere here about rising antisemitism, especially among the left and liberals. This is happening in many, many schools. It's very common now to find children -- I repeat:children -- expressing antisemitic views. And a lot of it is swept under the rug by schools. It's all very disturbing.
So the California State government wants cities to build more houses, the state government has passed laws that will force cities to allow more houses or lose local control over housing (and maybe some fines I think). Many NIMBY cities have sued and lost to not be forced to build. But Santa Barbara may have found a good way to stop development, nobody is going to want to build houses if they make it unprofitable. "Santa Barbara does not want rental housing. They've fought for housing law carve outs and are helping end new rental construction with rent freezes like this. Their strategy is simple: Make it as difficult as possible to operate rental housing to discourage new apartment construction." Santa Barbara does not want rental housing.They've fought for housing law carve outs and are helping end new rental construction with rent freezes like this.Their strategy is simple: Make it as difficult as possible to operate rental housing to discourage new apartment… https://t.co/ShrgeoR1NW— John Gregorchuk (@JMGregorchuk) February 26, 2026
I love Santa Barbara but it's always going to be one of the most expensive places to live in the country.
I thought I would pass this along: "Avalanche!": Survivors Recount the Tragedy at Perry’s Peak The story of how nine skiers were killed, and six survived, in the deadliest avalanche in modern California history. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...unlocked_article_code=1.PlA.XYq5.7bwq6EyrhWXp That link should work without a paywall. The account should be taken with a grain of salt, as it's told by the two least experienced survivors. But I expect the contours of the story are accurate.
A political party is a kind of club. The problem with a lot of modern politics, and California’s law, is that it allows people to have all the rights of being in the club with none of the responsibilities.
This is the right idea for the Democratic party in California, but let's see how they enforce this. " For these reasons and following an honest assessment of your candidacy and campaign, I ask the following: If you do not have a viable path to make it to the General Election, do not file to place your name on the ballot for the Primary Election. If you decide to file, be prepared to suspend your campaign and endorse another candidate on or before April 15th if your campaign cannot show meaningful progress towards winning the Primary Election in the coming weeks. " https://cadem.org/open-letter-to-the-democratic-candidates-for-governor/ Whoa. A CA Democratic Party Chair @rustyhicks has seen enough.https://t.co/3fFXlwev9r pic.twitter.com/MmN9HcRgpL— Paul Mitchell (@paulmitche11) March 3, 2026
It's not enforceable. And, frankly, the letter is weak. This is what happens when you do stupid things to your primary process. This is what happens when you have a big state with lots of politicians and few opportunities for advancement, which leads to crowded fields. And this is what happens when a party allows voting and candidate selection to become an opportunity to express individual identity and niche preferences rather than a hard nosed calculation about gaining political power. Democrats are bad at politics and the structure of California politics amplifies Democrats' worst tendencies.
And it is not just the governor race. I will give props to the Republican party, having just 2 viable candidates is the right strategy for jumbled primaries. CA Democrats need more smoke filled rooms. "Normington Petts poll | 2/16-2/19 US House | #CA06 jungle primary (top two vote getters advance to the general) (Harris +8 | 2024, Tomlinson internal) Christine Bish 15% Raymond Riehle 15% Richard Pan 14% Lauren Babb Tomlinson 10% Martha Guerrero 9% Thien Ho 8% Tyler Vanderberg 3% Undecided 26%" Normington Petts poll | 2/16-2/19US House | #CA06 jungle primary (top two vote getters advance to the general)(Harris +8 | 2024, Tomlinson internal)🟥Christine Bish 15% 🟥Raymond Riehle 15%🟦Richard Pan 14%🟦Lauren Babb Tomlinson 10%🟦Martha Guerrero 9%🟦Thien Ho 8%… pic.twitter.com/6A8c0lnVBB— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) March 2, 2026
Actually, this poll is very much out of date. Republican Kevin Kiley jumped into this race yesterday. https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/kevin-kiley-congressional-run-21945814.php
I don't know if I'd go that far. Kiley didn't have any good options. Kiley is actually currently representing my district. But my district was carved up into half a dozen districts by the recent redistricting proposition. So, basically, Kiley was politically homeless and needed find a new district to run in. He narrowed it down to the 5th and the 6th, which was a reasonable narrowing. The 5th is one of the remaining solid GOP districts, but it has a long-time incumbent in McClintock. I suspect there was a path for Kiley in the 6th, but he would have needed to come in second in the jungle primary behind McClintock. So, a path but a very tough one. Meanwhile, in the 5th, Kiley should be able to clear the field of the other GOP candidates. With him entering the race, I don't know if the other GOPers will even stay in. I know they have both declared, but I'm not sure if either has actually filed papers. The filing deadline is this Friday. Even if they don't stay in, Kiley is likely to consolidate the GOP vote enough to ensure a Dem comes in first or second in the primary. But he's toast in the general.
More on the potential debacle in California: Fearing GOP win, California’s Democratic leader urges unviable party candidates for governor to drop out LA Times - http://archive.today/CRity That is so typical of the California Democrats and so fcuking absurdly stupid for everyone. This is about cold calculations and power politics. That's more important right now than descriptive representation. Because if you want to make sure the governor is someone who at least gives two shits about descriptive representation, then you better makes sure a Dem gets elected. To get elected, you need to be in the general election. With all these under-performing candidates we have in the primary because they won't drop out because they descriptively represent such-and-such -- well, that's just going to lead to a GOPer in the statehouse. Lefties never learn these hard nosed political lessons. I doubt any of these guys will drop out. They all have their supporters urging them to stay in. They all have egos that get in the way of good decisions. The jackasses will bungle this all the way to a fcuking GOP governor. And then they'll be the first to demand a recall to fix the fcuking mess that they created! Like I always say: I fear the GOP. I fcuking hate the Democrats.
We are hurtling toward disaster. As should be totally expected, Rusty Hicks and his "strongly worded letter" didn't have any effect whatsoever. Defying party pressure, low-polling Democrats refuse to exit CA governor’s race Sacramento Bee - http://archive.today/Gfxlc Let me remind you that just a couple weeks ago Rusty Hicks said this: "Whatever is required" ... right. A strongly worded letter! Anyway, here's a couple choice statements from the under-performing candidates: Wide open! The two GOPers agree with that characterization. Thurmond isn't representing black people with this choice. He's enabling the red hat wearing GOP.
Here's some more news on Kevin Kiley. Above I mentioned that he decline to challenge McClintock in the 5th district, and instead opted to run in the 6th. Well, there's a new a wrinkle that's come out in the last 24 hours. He's not running in the 5th as a Republican. He's running as an independent and changing his registration to "no party preference," which is California's technical designation for independent. Meanwhile, there is a reasonably well-connected and well-supported registered Republican running in the 5th, Christine Bish. The chatter today is whether she will drop out. But in California, you cannot legally drop out after the filing date. And the filing date has passed. So, Kiley is running as an independent in a top two primary, in a Democratic district, in an election that features a viable Republican on the ballot. I just don't see how any of this is supposed to work in Kiley's favor. If this was his plan in the 5th, I think he should have run against McClintock in the 6th. At least there, with the right framing and campaign, he might have been able to squeak into the top 2 to run directly against McClintock.
This is good California, this is going in the right direction. If you all don't fvck this up, I promise I won't make fun of you for a whole day. "New - Governor poll - California Swalwell 17% (+3) Hilton 13% (-4) Steyer 11% (+2) Bienco 11% (-3) Porter 8% (-2) Emerson #A+ - LV - 3/9" New - Governor poll - California 🔵 Swalwell 17% (+3)🔴 Hilton 13% (-4)🔵 Steyer 11% (+2)🔴 Bienco 11% (-3)🔵 Porter 8% (-2)Emerson #A+ - LV - 3/9 pic.twitter.com/NLaCibJPaw— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) March 11, 2026
Kevin Kiley is so full of shit. https://www.npr.org/2026/03/12/nx-s...s-about-why-he-switched-his-party-affiliation What a ridiculous, cowardly, and dishonest answer. He's a committed Republican trying to fool people into believing he's a true independent. He has no integrity.
@Knave Were you in the SacRep brawl last night? https://www.reddit.com/r/SacRepubli...an_ugly_end_to_a_20_win_at_heart_health_park/
You TURNCOAT!!! @The Devil's Architect surely helped design those sound-refracting canopies. I'm sure it will sound amazing. In all honesty, soccer will be greatly helped by having a stable professional experience in Reno. What are the commute time differences for you to go Reno vs SacRep?