Capitol Weekly Podcast

Another jam-packed episode. We start with reaction to Kamala Harris' bombshell announcement that she will not seek the governorship in 2026, effectively resetting the race, at least on the Dem side. Next up, we welcome Brad Heavner who has stepped into big shoes as Executive Director of The California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA), replacing longtime ED Bernadette Del Chiaro.  Heavner has his job cut out for him; the transition comes at a crucial time for California's solar industry, with rooftop solar facing headwinds from DC and Sacramento. And finally, we tell you Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics. 

1:52 The Top 100 is coming

4:08 The Intern Program

8:22 Kamala: OUT!

14:43 Brad Heavner

17:11 A fraught time for alternative energies

18:35 Net Metering

19:42 Rate changes

22:14 Who has solar?

25:01 Legislation

29:59 Labor vs. Enviros

32:16 Are you optimistic?

35:38 #WWCA

40:05 Lyndon LaRouche

45:38 Things Fell Apart

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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 Weekly

2:50 Twenty years at Capitol Weekly!

4:28 A California version of Roll Call

5:44 "I was happily working as a construction worker"

8:20 "Shane [Goldmacher] was the first person to identify Paul Mitchell as someone we should keep an eye on"

10:18 Tom Hoeber

14:00 Frank Torres

14:44 Following the budget

16:35 The difference between UNAC/UHCP and California Nurses Association

18:56 Nurse staffing

21:32 AB1400

22:25 Impact of Immigration policy

22:33 Addressing healthcare worker shortfall

26:10 Origin story

28:19 The Karen Bass campaign

30:31 Al Checchi reference

31:06 #WWCA

37:00 Adam Gottlieb shout out

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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 water agencies that contract with the Department of Water Resources to receive water from the State Water Project. The SWP provides water for 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland.  A UC Davis alumna with a bachelor’s in environmental biology and conservation, Pierre has 20 years of experience in Delta management and uses that experience to help improve water supply and operations for the SWC. She joined us to talk about challenges of climate change, issues from overpumping groundwater, and if DC and and California can make nice on Water Policy.

1:01 Capitol Weekly Insiders Survey

1:58 Dominique Donette

2:58 AI podcasts

3:33 Top 100 Party

6:04 Jennifer Pierre

7:30 Water in the California Budget

8:53 "Housing doesn't happen without water"

9:41 Background

12:53 Managing Climate Change: Hydrology

13:41 Subsidence: "We've got a major problem on our hands"

16:59 Status of DC vs. California water fights

20:04 Playing peacemaker among different stakeholders

22:43 Prop. 4 implementation

26:30 #WWCA

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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 protect Californians. Legislators have introduced over 30 AI-related bills this session, and nearly 20 AI bills were signed into law by Governor Newsom in 2024. Senator Scott Wiener led the charge both this year and last, and has emerged as one of the key voices in the discussion around AI regulation, and we present his Keynote as part of today's podcast. His remarks begin at about the 16 minute mark.

1:48 Mecha-Hitler

3:15 Op-Eds

12:25 Remembering George Steffes

15:58 Senator Scott Wiener

42:23 #WWCA

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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 Council, and about the deep Native history on Alcatraz, which President Trump has suggested might be returned to use as a federal prison.

Plus, Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics?

1:03 Capitol Weekly story update

2:05 Ai Conference

3:17 Capitol Insiders Survey

4:45 Christina Snider-Ashtari

7:16 Appointed February 2018

10:32 Governor Brown

11:40 Differences between Brown and Newsom

13:43 Governor Newsom's apology for genocide of California Indians

16:52 Alcatraz

18:10 Red Power movement

22:19 California Truth & Healing Council

26:02 "Nothing was here, then gold was found, then people came"

29:25 What has been the response of the Tribes?

33:56 #WWCA

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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 has been VP of Global Affairs and a member of the executive team at OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence organization based in San Francisco. Lehane joined us to talk about the opportunities and dangers of this fascinating new technology and to make the case for the importance of California maintaining its role as a global leader in AI.

Plus - who had the Worst Week in California Politics?

1:26 Capitol Weekly this week

4:53 The Top 100 is coming!

10:23 Chris Lehane

11:32 What is Open Ai?

14:25 Fastest growing internet platform

15:29 Ai to benefit humanity

16:17 Impact on jobs

17:01 Ai is going to change everything - on the level with electricity, fire and the wheel

22:24 "Building democracy in at the front end"

25:36 Educating lawmakers about Ai

28:17 Twenty percent of Californians now use Open Ai

30:01 How do legislators set up guardrails?

33:47 The "Big Beautiful Bill" precludes state Ai legislation - will it pass?  Should it?

39:28 Competition between US and China

41:21 End on a high note: California is the leader in Ai

43:01 The Red Flag Law

45:45 #WWCA

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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 GOP's increased presence in the body. She spoke with us about pursuing policy goals during a year that has been, to put it mildly, a wild ride, (with no end in sight) and offered her perspective on the Immigration raids in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

:47 Vacaville State Prison story

1:42 Online sports betting

3:00 California Lowrider Holiday photos

3:28 The Micheli Minute

6:18 SenatorSuzette Martinez Valladares

6:58 A wild year

9:32 Minority Whip

11:17 "An affordability crisis"

14:47 Prop. 36

18:21 The Problem Solvers and Hispanic Caucuses

22:16 Perspective on Immigration raids

26:49 a Xennial

27:37 #WWCA

Photo by Ellie Appleby, Capitol Weekly

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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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 thought that the COVID pandemic would be the biggest disruptor of the state's manufacturing industry in his time, but President Trump's 'on again, off again' tariff policy may give COVID a run for its money. He joins us to talk about the state of California's manufacturing industry, tariffs, and just how long it might take to reshore production.

Plus, Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics?

1:50 A change in senate leadership

3:12 Trump vs. Musk poll

4:08 Budget funds private foster agencies

4:42 The Top 100 is coming

9:53 Matt Rexroad

10:45 Lance Hastings

12:01 California: largest manufacturing state in the country

13:21 Workforce

17:39 Tariffs

24:52 it took 40 years to lose manufacturing - it will take at least that long to bring it back

25:31 Impact of retaliatory tariffs

27:47 Finding common ground with environmental advocates

33:45 Cap and invest

36:42 California Lowrider Holiday

38:46 #WWCA

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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 Cannabis Industry Association for a decade, but left this year to head up new a new cannabis trade group representing the state’s largest retailers, The California Cannabis Operators Association. Jenkins describes an industry in peril, with legal outlets closing, legal sales dropping, and the state's cannabis excise tax poised to go up July 1 unless the legislature acts.

Plus, as always, we tell you Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics.

1:42 Prop. 103 repeal?

4:25 Changing the excise tax on cannabis?

5:24 "A week of Lea/hs"

6:19 Should Kamala Harris still be considered a frontrunner for California Governor?

7:08 Polling on Democrats' attitudes

8:11 Jason Sisney's Budget odds

8:46 California and AI

9:44 Amy O'Gorman Jenkins

10:59 Origin story

12:04 "Pot Girl"

13:01 The change in attitude toward the cannabis industry

15:02 #AB564

18:03 The cannabis industry in crisis

20:13 Illicit sales are still far larger than legal sales

26:47 CA's cannabis excise tax is 124% higher than Michigan's

27:27 Cannabis is taxed at 2.5 times the rate of tobacco and 6 times the rate of alcohol

29:44 How dire is the crisis?

30:51 about 68% of CA jurisdictions ban legal cannabis

31:54 National cannabis legislation?

33:32 "This is a heritage industry"

37:53 #WWCA

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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 California Conferences sponsors:

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 and CALIFORNIA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS 

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