Articles by Ben Christopher CalMatters

Californians are voting on 12 propositions, but not all are funded equally. Just take a look at that fat slab of lilac in the graphic below. No surprise for even the most dimly engaged Californians who have been bombarded with ads for weeks now: Funding for Proposition 22, a measure to exempt gig-economy companies from a new state labor law, dwarfs just about everything else. To date, its yes campaign has raised nearly $188 million. That’s $3 of every $10 that’s been spent for or against any pr...

It’s not easy to get work done during a pandemic. Even for the fortunate who kept their pre-pandemic jobs, productivity has taken it on the chin in 2020. The same goes for those in the lawmaking business. In March, just days after the governor instructed all Californians to shelter in their homes, legislators left Sacramento to do exactly that — and they stayed away for two months. A second viral wave, plus more than half a dozen infections among lawmakers and their staff, prompted another ext...

When supporters of a November property tax ballot measure talk about soaking the state’s faceless corporate giants and its wealthiest landlords, they are not talking about people like John Kevranian. The co-owner of Nuts for Candy & Toys in Burlingame, Kevranian and his wife have operated this mainstay of the Bay Area city’s downtown strip for more than a quarter-century. He rents the shop. And he’s exactly the type of voter that backers of Proposition 15 — which would raise property taxes on m...

For months President Donald Trump has been reluctant to extend a lifeline to the financially infirm Postal Service, a reluctance his critics have said is motivated by his loathing of vote-by-mail. Today Trump made that subtext…text. Speaking about the ongoing COVID relief negotiations on Fox Business, the president claimed that without new funding for the Postal Service, California and other states that plan to send every voter a ballot before the November election will be out of luck. “Now, ...

More than any other vice presidential contender in a generation, Kamala Harris’ biography is singularly Californian. Born and bussed to school in Berkeley, tested by San Francisco’s cut-throat municipal politics and propelled onto the national stage as the state’s top law enforcement officer and then its first female senator of color, Harris’ approach to politics and policymaking were honed here. Although most Americans are now focusing on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s ticket p...