Capitol Weekly Podcast

We're joined today by California State Treasurer Fiona Ma. The Treasurer is the state's banker and manages $3 trillion per year, among many other things. Ma is a former San Francisco Supervisor, state legislator and member of the Board of Equalization, and a current candidate for Lieutenant Governor. She spoke with us about the Treasurer's job, her path to that office, and about her mentor, the legendary John Burton.  

:21 Proposition 50 debate

2:12 Lindsey Horvath and Measure G

6:20 Fiona Ma

7:09 What does the State Treasurer do?

9:10 Dancing with the Capitol Stars

13:32 Origin story

20:22 The Board of Equalization

22:03 Can CA backfill federal budget cuts?

26:53 "Government by Unicorn"

27:28 Public-private partnerships

31:18 What's next for Fiona Ma?

36:03 #WWCA

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Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

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Capitol Weekly and the University of California Student and Policy Center presented A Conference on Health Care on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 in Sacramento.

In today's episode we present the Keynote: A conversation between Dr. S. Monica Soni of Covered California and Capitol Weekly Editor Rich Ehisen.

California is reeling from devastating federal budget cuts to health care and social services while state leaders grapple with shortfalls in our own Budget. Whatever happens in DC and Sacramento, California’s health care system is poised to see major changes.

Stick around til the end; Rich and special guest Robin Epley of the Sacramento Bee tell you Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics.

Thanks to our Health Care sponsors:

THE CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION, THE TRIBAL ALLIANCE OF SOVEREIGN INDIAN NATIONS, WESTERN STATES PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION, KP PUBLIC AFFAIRS, PERRY COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, CAPITOL ADVOCACY, THE WEIDEMAN GROUP, CALKIN PUBLIC AFFAIRS, STUTZMAN PUBLIC AFFAIRS, LUCAS PUBLIC AFFAIRS, BICKER, CASTILLO, FAIRBANKS & SPITZ PUBLIC AFFAIRS and CALIFORNIA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS

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Host Rich Ehisen is back from the wilderness, just in time to welcome lobbyist Jennifer Fearing.  Fearing is perhaps California's best known "White Hat" lobbyist - she largely represents animal rights orgs, environmental groups and other nonprofits - and is recognized for punching above her weight. High on her priority list this session were three bills that would curtail "puppy mill" sales in the state; SB 312, AB 519 and AB 506 have passed the legislature and are currently waiting on the Governor's signature. She spoke with us about those bills,  about the unstable environment nonprofit orgs have found themselves in, what she, and her clients are doing about it. And of course we asked her about First Dog Sutter Brown.

1:37 Highway 395

2:40 The Dave Cogdill Memorial Highway

6:15 "Dewey Defeats Truman"

8:36 From Culbert Olson to a biography of Lone Pine

14:19 Jennifer Fearing

15:10 The environment for nonprofits today

19:28 How do you plan for this moment?

20:42 AB 1318

22:38 "Giant mess"

25:30 Practical actions

26:44 "We have GoBiz but we don't have GoNonProfits"

27:31 Necessary reforms?

29:29 Puppy Mill bills

35:59 Gov. Newsom's attitude about animals

37:11 The pet otter

37:51 The Sutter Brown era

43:07 #WWCA

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Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

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Host Rich Ehisen is on vacation, so original CW Podcast Host John Howard joins Tim Foster in the studio to chat about the news and his life post-Capitol Weekly. We also look at a laundry list of Worst Week candidates including a politician who was unceremoniously booted from office, a California company facing a political backlash, a news organization reminded once again of their past malfeasance, and many more.

:43 John Howard

1:16 A book on California highways

3:57 A visit with the press corp

6:27 #WWCA

Want to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/

Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

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Author, podcaster, gadfly and former Assemblymember Mike Gatto joins us to talk about the state of politics, Roman history, and the experience of being a crime victim... plus so much more.

1:45 AB 325

2:43 Governor's approval rating

4:25 Who's in/Who's out for 26 Gov's race

5:34 Mike Gatto

7:30 "Courage begets courage"

10:16 The diminished power of the legislature

13:16 Roman history allegory

14:55 Redistricting

18:49 Democrats are just reacting to Trump

20:01 Dems need to stand for something

23:54 National Dems with a vision

28:58 Prop. 36

33:03 Murder of Joseph Gatto

38:16 The appeal of Roman History

39:45 WTF History Podcast

40:24 Knighthood?

42:15 What does the future hold for Mike Gatto?

44:17 Who Had the Worst Week in CA Politics?  #WWCA

Want to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/

Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

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The National Conference of State Legislatures was created by state legislators and legislative staff in 1975. NCSL serves America’s 50 states, commonwealths, territories and the District of Columbia with access to bipartisan policy research, training resources and technical assistance and hosts the annual NCSL Legislative Summit, the largest policy meeting in the US. We're joined today by Tim Storey, who has headed the organization since 2019. We asked him what the 'hot' topics were at this year's Summit, how his members feel about the Redistricting wave sweeping the nation, and how the organization has maintained its bipartisan status in a deeply partisan era.

1:22 New polling on Newsom approval rating

2:46 West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative

3:14 Breakout Top 100 star: Jim Wunderman

6:11 Tim Storey

8:23 Jess Unruh

9:45 Bringing people together

10:38 "The largest policy meeting in the United States"

14:40 The difficulty of staying nonpartisan in a deeply partisan era

19:00 Redistricting

24:12 California connection

27:25 A national redistricting law?

28:10 Big issues?

30:53 "More states are projecting slow revenue growth"

33:12 The pig story

37:37: #WWCA

Want to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/

Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

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We're joined by Assembly Minority Leader-Elect Heath Flora, who will take over as head of the lower house's Republican caucus later this month, succeeding Asm. James Gallagher. The collegial, no-drama GOP leadership transition stood in stark contrast to the last two Dem leadership fights - owing at least in part to Flora's reputation as one of the most well-liked members of the legislature. A straight-talking member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, Flora had compliments for colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and voiced his frustrations overly partisan policymaking. 

1:40 Talking Top 100

2:34 Health Care Conference, October 1

3:28 Special Edition

4:20 Asm. Heath Flora

5:18 The transition

7:10 Agenda/priorities

8:56 Bringing firefighting experiences to wildfire policy

13:39 "You can manage fire"

14:41 looking at the best-available approach

17:07 CEQA and #AB103

20:46 The lawmaker that people want to hang out with

27:59 Redistricting

32:33 What would you like to see from your time in the legislature

34:30 Fly fishing and Henry Winkler

39:08 #WWCA

Want to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/

Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

"#WorstWeekCA" Beat provided by freebeats.io

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Last night we published the 17th edition of Capitol Weekly’s Top 100 – our annual analysis of the unelected political power structure in California. We look at the mostlybehind the scenes players who influence policy, elections and governance, including Capitol staff, lobbyists, Agency staff, donors, business leaders, activists, Labor leaders – and even journalists.

Hosts Rich Ehisen and Tim Foster are joined by KQED's Marisa Lagos, co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast and radio show. Lagos has been reporting on California politics for nearly two decades, and is intimately familiar with the Golden State's political power players - elected and not. Lagos, Ehisen and Foster discuss the themes running through the 2025 list, look at the new faces, and talk about the sophomore class of the Top 100 Hall of Fame.

1:11 "It is A list, not THE list"

1:56 The Top 100 Hall of Fame

6:20 Nancy McFadden

9:31 Mike Belote

10:37 Rex Frazier

12:19 Kip Lipper

15:16 Catherine Reheis-Boyd

19:07 Themes of the year?

22:41 Housing

23:36 Ron Conway

25:55 "The legislature hasn't flexed its muscle really since COVID"

27:04 Bob Salladay

28:43 Paul Mitchell

29:00 Jodi Hicks

29:13 Ann Patterson/Nathan Barankin/Nani Coloretti

32:47 Jason Elliot, Jim DeBoo

34:05 Dave Sapp

35:38 Dee Dee Myers

35:51 Steve Wertheimer

36:15 Steve O'Mara

37:34 Toks Omishakin

38:37 Defending DMV!

40:01 Where are the GOP officials?

42:00 "Were you actually effective?"

42:27 Jennifer Barrera

43:22 Jim Wunderman

45:50 Rob Lapsley

49:24 Chris Cadelago

51:11 Nick Gerda

53:33 Ashley Zavala

1:00:51 Melody Gutierrez and Alene Tchekmedyian

1:04:14 Political Breakdown

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Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

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Governor Newsom and Democratic allies announced Thursday that they will propose a constitutional amendment — The Election Rigging Response Act — to counter Texas and other Red states' mid-decade redistricting plans. Framing the proposal as a response to GOP efforts to Gerrymander and "rig" Texas’ elections next year in order to protect Republican control of congress, the proposal would replace California's current congressional district maps with new maps to be used in the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.  The California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission would resume mapmaking duties after the 2030 census.

Our guest today is California political data and redistricting whiz Paul Mitchell, who was tasked with coming up with the new maps just two weeks ago. Mitchell described the process of drawing the new maps, why the redistricting effort was necessary, and tells us which seats will see the most changes.

Plus-  Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics

:47 Redistricting

1:58 Podcast Schedule

3:31 Paul Mitchell and an intense two weeks

7:14 The opposition

8:16 "Can we do a 52 - zero map?"

9:42 "The Commission's work is the Gold Standard"

12:34 Comparison to other states' process

14:55 Kevin Kiley's proposal

16:44 Role of AI in redistricting

20:57 There is no perfect map

22:47 Which seats are in for a significant change?

23:35 "Young Kim gets a great district?"

26:15 "There are winners and losers"

28:35 It's not about the maps - it's about the fight against Trump

29:40 "It is a gross-looking district"

32:08 The polling

36:23 #WWCA

Want to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/

Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

"#WorstWeekCA" Beat provided by freebeats.io

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We're joined today by Kevin Liao of Frontrunner Strategies. Liao spent over four years as Press Secretary and Communications Director for former Speaker Anthony Rendon, before moving on to national campaign work. He was on first Elizabeth Warren and then Joe Biden's 2020 campaign teams, and handled comms for Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz as she barnstormed the Midwest for the Harris-Walz ticket in 2024. He shares stories from the road - and tells what advice he'd give any other California politicians who might be seeking the White House. Plus - Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics.

30: Kounalakis: Out!

2:17 Experts Expound

3:23 Lobbying numbers

8:00 Kevin Liao

12:43 Rendon's campaign for SUPI

13:22 On the trail with Harris/Walz

18:03 "The Capitol Community isn't the same..."

19:31 Scrapple, butter sculptures and Tomato Pies

25:30 Advice for Gov. Newsom?

27:01 "Inconceivably nasty"

31:55 A conundrum: Democratic ideas are popular, but not when associated with Democrats

33:26 #WWCA

Want to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/

Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang

"#WorstWeekCA" Beat provided by freebeats.io

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.