Latest news with #RobStutzman
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside California Politics: July 5, 2025
(INSIDE CALIFORNIA POLITICS) — This week on Inside California Politics, host Nikki Laurenzo sat down with Democratic strategist Andrew Acosta and Republican strategist Rob Stutzman. Newsom threatened the implementation of the recently passed state budget unless the legislature also passed several reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act aimed at speeding up the construction of housing. 'When the governor ran for office six years ago, he promised to deliver on new housing — hundreds of thousands of new housing units— and it hasn't happened. And the regulatory chokehold primary reason,' Stutzman said. 'Republicans say kudos to him for doing this, especially as he sees his legacy get closer to him as he goes down the tunnel but if he had done this six years ago, five years ago we would have so much more housing built.' 'The fact that he rolled the legislature for that reason on this issue at this time is an admission that this was an obstacle that's contributed to our housing crisis,' Stutzman continued. '… Lots of promises and lack of delivery. And now I think you see him shedding some of the progressive politics he would adhere to in the past to be much more practical on housing, on homelessness, not yet on criminal justice, but maybe, we'll see. There's some time for that.' A new poll from Emerson College shows Pete Buttigieg with the most support to become the next Democratic Presidential nominee. Sixteen percent of respondents said they would support Buttigieg, 13% said they would support former Vice President Kamala Harris and 12% said they would support Newsom. A poll, first reported on by Politico, shows former Vice President Kamala Harris as the leading choice for California's governor while other candidates struggle to get attention for their campaign. 'There's a lot of room that people have to figure out how to get into the mix for top two…How do you bust through in a primary?' Acosta said. 'She can kind of sit at 25, 28 percent in a primary and she hasn't done anything so she's still kind of where she was a few months ago… But the other candidates are like 'Hey I'm over here' and no one's really paying attention to them.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Gulf Today
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Term limits won't fix what's wrong with Congress
David M. Drucker, Tribune News Service Support for imposing term limits on the US Congress is gaining steam, with at least half a dozen state legislatures approving resolutions urging a cap on service in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It stands to reason. Congress' job approval ratings are perennially in the tank, and a fresh Quinnipiac University poll reveals more of the same. In the survey, Republicans, who control both chambers, received positive marks from just 32% of registered voters. Democrats fared even worse, garnering a meager 21% approval rating. Many Americans across the political spectrum believe term limits would invigorate Capitol Hill, forcing older lawmakers to make way for new faces, loosening the stranglehold of politics and donors on lawmaking and enabling policy outcomes more responsive to their priorities. They're wrong — especially on that last part. Rather than making members of the House and Senate more responsive to the voters, term limits would shift power from veteran, experienced lawmakers to unelected staffers, executive branch bureaucrats and K Street lobbyists, none of whom would be subject to term limits. Just ask longtime political operatives in California, who have watched firsthand the impact of term-limits on the state legislature. Early in my career, I was a statehouse reporter in California, covering a legislature that limited assembly members to three, two-year terms and senators to two, four-year terms. Reform was minimal; political jockeying to reach the next elected position was rampant; and the work product generally was mediocre because novice lawmakers who didn't know what they were doing quickly assumed committee chairmanships and political leadership. Rob Stutzman, a veteran Republican operative in Sacramento, describes it as a 'transfer of institutional power' from elected officials to unelected government professionals and lobbyists. The experience was failure enough that in 2012 Californians approved Proposition 28, a voter initiative that overhauled term-limits. To solve the myriad problems created by letting inexperienced lawmakers govern the state with America's largest population and biggest economy, voters agreed to extend the years of service allowed in either chamber of the legislature to a dozen years (six, two-year terms in the assembly and three, four-year terms in the senate). But there was a trade-off. To sell voters on increasing the number of assembly and senate terms politicians can serve, the total years they are permitted to serve in the legislature overall were reduced from 14 to 12. And that means many of the governing pitfalls Proposition 28 aimed to address have lingered. 'Senior committee staff consider themselves members since they feel they know more than these neophyte legislators,' said David Louden, a Republican operative who previously served as chief of staff to four members of the California legislature. These legislative aides 'end up driving the policy of the committee, as opposed to the legislator,' he added. But cautionary tales about the potential downsides of terms limits have failed to dissuade voters from their firm belief that limits on Congressional service are the antidote for what ails the House and Senate. Over 80% of Americans support Congressional term limits. That would require a constitutional amendment. As political writer John Fund reports for National Review, six legislatures — Indiana, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee — have approved resolutions 'calling for an Article V convention to impose term limits on Congress,' with Arizona and Ohio poised to do the same. (A convention would only be triggered if 34 states passed such a resolution.) Meanwhile, there also is support for congressional term limits brewing in Congress. Freshman Senator Dave McCormick and fifth-term Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, both Republicans from Pennsylvania, have jointly proposed amending the Constitution to put a ceiling on congressional service. Their plan would limit senators to two, six-year terms and House members to six, two-year terms, so that no politician could spend more than a dozen years in either chamber. To encourage support for the measure, McCormick and Fitzpatrick would exclude members who were elected before the 2022 midterm elections. 'Our Founding Fathers never imagined that Congress would become an institution filled with career politicians who stay on well past retirement age,' McCormick said in a statement. The senator's point about politicians who stick around beyond the standard retirement age is particularly resonant in a political era with so many elderly political leaders — a development that has left many Democratic, Republican and independent voters hungry for new leadership. On this front, Stutzman pointed out that California's term-limits law has been effective. 'At a time when the US Senate is as old as it's ever been, term limits in California have certainly led to a younger legislature,' he said. 'There were certainly decades-long incumbents that were finally forced to move on once term limits took effect.' My opposition to congressional term-limits notwithstanding, I get the appeal. Roughly a dozen years before I took up political reporting, in the fall of 1990, I voted for Proposition 140, implementing term-limits on the California legislature. Get the career politicians out, I figured. Get imaginative industry professionals with real-world skills in. They would go to Sacramento and focus on good governance and solving problems, I thought, because constitutionally constrained tenures would free them from worrying about reelection. Then, in the winter of 2003, I started covering the statehouse and saw the consequences of my vote up close. It had only made things worse. I can only imagine what would happen in Washington, especially with presidents who take a rather expansive view of their executive powers.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside California Politics: June 21, 2025
(INSIDE CALIFORNIA POLITICS) — State Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) is speaking out about a lack of funding for Proposition 36 in Governor Gavin Newsom's proposed budget. Blakespear joined Inside California Politics this week as Gov. Newsom and the legislature work to reach a budget agreement before the July 1 deadline. Prop 36, which stiffens penalties for repeat drug and theft offenders, passed by an overwhelming majority in 2024. Despite the widespread support, Gov. Newsom did not allocate any funding for the law in his revised budget proposal, citing the state's $12 billion deficit. 'We just shouldn't be playing politics with the voters' will,' Blakespear said. 'The voters supported this at 68%. At the end of the day, we need to fund it. We need to implement this. We need to carry through on what the voters asked for, and that should be the bottom line.' Gov. Newsom, who openly campaigned against the proposition over concerns that it would drive up incarceration rates, argues it is up to local officials who supported the law to find the money. Host Nikki Laurenzo also sat down with political strategists Rob Stutzman (R) and Andrew Acosta (D) to discuss the funding battle. 'The petulance is playing out,' Stutzman said. 'This is a measure that passed in every county, 70% statewide, over [Newsom's] opposition. He famously said when polling came out before the election showing widespread support, 'Oh, I don't recognize my state anymore.' And then behind the scenes, his administration was telling business leaders, 'If you support this, we're just not going to fund it.' He's already lost on this.' The interview also touched on whether Gov. Newsom has emerged as the leader of the Democratic Party, immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent call for unity among democrats and republicans. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside California Politics: March 29, 2025
(INSIDE CALIFORNIA POLITICS) — This week on Inside California Politics, Republican strategist Rob Stutzman spoke with Nikki Laurenzo about why running for governor of California may not be the best path for former Vice President Kamala Harris. As Women's History Month comes to a close, political reporter Eytan Wallace interviewed a group of women lawmakers who chair various major health committees in the legislature. Wallace also reviewed the week's top headlines including members of the Los Angeles city government's asking the state for roughly $1.9 billion and members of the state legislature expressing outrage over PG&E requesting a rate hike to benefit investors. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Harris runs risk of 'astounding upset' if she is out of step with California voter, Republican strategist Rob Stutzman says
(INSIDE CALIFORNIA POLITICS) — Republican strategist Rob Stutzman appeared on Inside California Politics to discuss why he thinks former Vice President Kamala Harris's potential run for governor may not be the guaranteed win for her that some have suggested. Stutzman suggested that in recent election cycles, California voters have taken a more conservative position on issues and that the next governor of California may need to move the state away from some of its progressive policies. 'The dominant leadership in the state which is not just Democrat but very progressive Democrat is consistently demonstrating that they are out of step with where the voters really are, you're seeing it through ballot measures,' Stutzman said. 'If she is not clearly in step with the voters as a candidate, she runs some risk of an astounding upset to someone else who is in step.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
