Capitol Weekly Podcast

We've got a jam-packed episode this week: Podcast cohost Tim Foster marks TWENTY years at Capitol Weekly. Then we speak with Frank Torres, the new Director of Political and Legislative Advocacy for the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. Finally, we tell you who had the Worst Week in California Politics, and for the first time ever, the #WWCA 'winner' is not human!

:54 What's on Capitol Weekl...

We won't use that old Mark Twain quote (that he probably never wrote anyway) but fighting over water has been California's favorite pastime for at least 175 years. If you think norcal/socal baseball rivalries are bitter - try the socal vs. Delta water wars. One of the people tasked with managing that aqua drama is Jennifer Pierre, General Manager for the State Water Contractors  – a statewide, non-profit association of the public w...

On July 8, Capitol Weekly and the University of California Student and Policy Center presented California and AI, a daylong look at the Golden State's approach to regulating Artificial Intelligence. California is a global leader in AI technology and lawmakers in Sacramento are tasked with creating legislation and regulations that will help the state maintain leadership in this emerging industry, while creating guardrails that prote...

We're joined today by Christina Snider-Ashtari, Tribal Affairs Secretary to Governor Gavin Newsom and head of the Governor’s Office of Tribal Affairs. Snider-Ashtari was first appointed to the position in 2018 by Governor Brown and previously served as Executive Secretary of the California Native American Heritage Commission. We spoke to her about both governors' approaches to Tribal policy, about the California Truth & Healing Cou...

Chris Lehane has a solid gold resume in professional politics: consultant and oppo research in the Clinton White House, Press Secretary to VP Al Gore, and the source of the report on the "vast right wing conspiracy" so infamously cited by Hillary Clinton. Lehane also handles a wide array of corporate, Labor, entertainment and sports clients. Until recently he was Head of Global Policy and Public Affairs for Airbnb, and since 2024 h...

Republican Suzette Martinez Valladares was elected to the California State Assembly in 2020 and served for two years, narrowly losing a reelection bid for the newly drawn 40th Assembly district, then winning a seat in the Senate in 2024. In the Assembly, Valladares was a founding member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. She also serves as the Minority Whip - the first Senate Republican Whip in some time, a reflection of the...

Founded in 1918, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association promotes policies designed to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. Today, CMTA represents 400 manufacturing businesses in California, which is the largest manufacturing state in the country. Heading up that operation is Lance Hastings, who began his career as a capitol staffer and has a long history with California trade associations. Hastings probably t...

Today we welcome Amy O’Gorman Jenkins, the state’s preeminent cannabis lobbyist - so much so that she earned the nickname "Pot Girl" back when Gavin Newsom was still just the Lieutenant Gov. Jenkins, was one of the first lobbyists for the state's once-maligned, now coveted, cannabis industry, first when she worked out of Darius Anderson's shop, then later at her own firm, Precision Advocacy. She was lead lobbyist for the California...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025

This is Panel 2: The Los Angeles Fires, featuring Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore; Steve Hawks, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety; Kelsey Szamet, Eaton Fire Survivors Network; Nancy Wallace, UC Berkeley

Moderated by journalist Dan Morain

Thanks to our Californ...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025

This is Panel 3: What Next?, featuring Sen. Roger Niello; Alex Hall, UCLA; John Norwood, Norwood Associates; and Denni Ritter, American Property Casualty Insurance Association

Moderated by Rich Ehisen of Capitol Weekly

Thanks to our California Conferences sponsors:

THE TRIBAL A...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

This is Panel 1: The State of the Insurance Industry, featuring Amy Bach of United Policyholders; Rex Frazier, Personal Insurance Federation of California; Meredith Fowlie, UC Berkeley.

Moderated by Levi Sumagaysay of Calmatters

Thanks to our California Conferences sponsors:

T...

This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at the California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

This is the KEYNOTE – CALIFORNIA INSURANCE COMMISSIONER RICARDO LARA

Introduced by Rich Ehisen, Capitol Weekly

Thanks to our California Conferences sponsors:

THE TRIBAL ALLIANCE OF SOVEREIGN INDIAN NATIONS, WESTERN STATES PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION, KP PUBLIC AFFAIRS, PERRY COMMUNI...

In March, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a 22-bill package aimed at reforming the building permitting process in California, an effort to fast-track housing development statewide. Wicks described the package as an effort to “slash red tape, remove uncertainty and to drastically reduce the time it takes to get new housing approved and built” in California. Asm. Wicks joined us to talk about...

Our 400th episode! On today's show we welcome April Manatt, Executive Director of the California Problem Solvers Foundation. The California Problem Solvers' mission is to help elected officials find solutions through collaboration and mutual respect, and work in service to the people they represent. In short, to "put people over party," a nearly radical idea in today's hyper-partisan political environment.

Prior to joining the Probl...

We have a packed show today: first up, we chat with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber about The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, proposed federal legislation that would require all Americans to reregister to vote, in person, with either a birth certificate or passport. Weber outlines concerns that the law would effectively disenfranchise millions of voters who may not have access to their birth certificate...

Jeff Pearlman has been a sportswriter for three decades, and is the best-selling author of ten books on sports, including Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, which was adapted as the HBO series Winning Time. In February 2025 he turned his attentions to the ultimate contact sport: politics. 

His new Substack newsletter, The Truth OC, digs deep into Orange County politics, skewering what he...

Democratic Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo joined us to talk about her legislative priorities, the Los Angeles Fires, the Chiquita Canyon Landfill environmental crisis, and why cuts to the VA are personal for her. And as always, we tell you Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics.

1:25 Best and worst jobs in California politics?

3:08 Welcome, Asm. Schiavo

3:35 The 3 Hs: housing, homelessness and healthcare

4:15 #AB301

6:17 The impact...

California political data expert Paul Mitchell joins us to talk about his recent polls that explored public reaction to Governor Gavin Newsom's This is Gavin Newsom podcast, and the results of the first Capitol Weekly Insider Survey, which asked how and where the Capitol Community gets its news.

1:11 Capitol Weekly Internship application deadline: April 18

3:40 What about the Gov's podcast?

14:20 Methodology

17:44 Capitol Weekly Inside...

Today we welcome Asm. David Tangipa, the freshman Republican legislator from the 8th Assembly District, and at 29, the youngest member of the California Legislature. Tangipa grew up off Watt Avenue in Sacramento, not for from McClellan Air Force Base. The impact that McClellan's closure had on Tangipa's friends and neighborhood left a lasting impression - and an awareness that policy decisions affected lives in very real ways. Spor...