Free Republic

Among the many plot lines in the Dianne Feinstein saga is Gov. Gavin Newsom's pledge to appoint a Black woman to replace the 89-year-old should a vacancy arise before her term expires in January 2025. He made that promise during his 2021 anti-recall campaign, and a new article from the Associated Press' Michael R. Blood conveys the extent to which the governor may have boxed himself in. While many Black Democrats expect the governor to follow through on his pledge, the two candidates who seemed the most likely at the time of the pledge — Reps. Barbara Lee and Karen...

President Joe Biden is publicly pressuring California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would make it easier for the state's farmworkers to unionize, and Newsom is reportedly angry about it.

After the United States Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey on Friday, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis appeared on MSNBC to discuss the ruling. She touted California's plans to become an abortion sanctuary for out-of-state travelers seeking abortions, and also took aim at Justice Clarence Thomas, comparing him to an individual from a country with restrictive laws governing women's behavior. "Sadly I think that this decision is delegitimizing the Supreme Court," she said. "Who is Clarence Thomas? Is he my Saudi Arabian father who's going to tell me what I can and cannot do...

SFGATE politics editor Eric Ting Did His Own Research and is Just Asking QuestionsI don't believe for a minute that Will Smith's "slap" of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards on Sunday night was real. No way. No how. No evidence to the contrary — no matter how compelling — can persuade me to abandon my world view that "elites lie, my own research is always better." The Academy — a cabal of Hollywood scum with a penchant for drinking the blood of children — is clearly seeking to improve the Oscars broadcast's sagging ratings and disappointing crowd size. They...

A week after several high-profile departures from the office of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Washington Post published a larger story on Harris' management skills based on interviews with "18 people connected to Harris." The Washington Post reported that "one consistent problem" staffers referenced was the fact that "Harris would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared." It was this phenomenon that prompted a particularly biting quote by an anonymous former staffer. "It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,"...

mily Wilder, a journalist and 2020 graduate of Stanford University, started a new job as an Associated Press news associate based in Maricopa County, Arizona, on May 3. Two weeks later, she was unceremoniously fired by the news outlet after conservatives resurfaced old social media posts that drew attention from Republicans as prominent as Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton. In Wilder's eyes, her firing is the latest example of right-wing cancel culture. "There's no question I was just canceled," Wilder told SFGATE by phone Thursday afternoon. "This is exactly the issue with the rhetoric around 'cancel culture.' To Republicans, cancel culture...

During an appearance on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch discussed President Trump, gentrification in Oakland, Colin Kaepernick and more.

According to a new poll, California's two biggest statewide races in 2018 are tightening, as the leads for front-runners Gavin Newsom and Dianne Feinstein have been cut to single digits. The poll, conducted by Probolsky Research between Aug. 29 and Sept. 2, found that Lt. Gov. Newsom leads Republican businessman John Cox 44 percent to 39, with 17 percent of the poll's participants saying that they are undecided. Additionally, the poll found that Sen. Feinstein leads progressive challenger Kevin de León 37 percent to 29, with a whopping 34 percent of participants undecided.