Championing what he calls "prudence, not exuberance," Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday rolled out the annual "May Revise" of his proposed California state budget. How's it playing? Oh, and what's the play?

One of the strangest things about California over the past decade is how little impact Arnold Schwarzenegger's two landslide wins for the governorship had on the Republican Party.

Two new polls contain fascinating information about major trends of thought among California voters. The most dramatic development is a sharp reversal of opinion on illegal immigrants.

With Republicans in such profound disarray, can Democrats still screw up their opportunity for ongoing dominance?

Will Jerry Brown be unopposed for reelection? Technically, no. Effectively? We'll see.

There is no shortage of kudos now for Governor Jerry Brown, who with his State of the State address last Thursday tied the late Governor-turned-Chief Justice Earl Warren for the most such addresses in California's history. Does he have things sewn up politically in the battered but brightening Golden State?

Governor Jerry Brown is working on the new California state budget, the first in more than a decade to be free of the state's deep chronic fiscal crisis. It's an agenda which his two most immediate predecessors, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis, in large measure promoted themselves.

The dust is still settling from Governor Jerry Brown's big win with his Proposition 30 revenue initiative. While it may be premature to say that the Prop 13 era has given way completely to the Prop 30 era, this is clearly a very big deal, with ramifications that will play out over a period of years.

Sufficiently contrite or not, Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to be, as Jerry Brown noted on CNN right after the "surprise" announcement of candidacy in 2003, "a very interesting character."

Eastwood is a very familiar character here in California. I've met him, can't say I know him, but certainly know friends of his. This episode surprised me on a few levels.

With California's economy, and the job market in particular, perking up notably in the last two months, could it be time to retire the sack cloth and ashes of the past few years?

Last Friday's narrow passage of legislation authorizing the beginning of construction of the first high-speed rail system in America was a dramatic moment many years in the making.

Does the air of shock around the latest in California's chronic budget crisis count as a failure of Gov. Brown's communications strategy? Or as a success? A bad shock may be what the electoral doctor ordered for Brown's November revenue initiative.

Where, outside of Iran, will new nuclear power plants be contemplated? Wherever that may be, it looks to be increasingly few and far between.

Jerry Brown has a number of problems to deal with in his new/renewed governorship. One of the biggest of all is a persistent tunnel vision in California's frequently dysfunctional political culture.

Two teachers have launched a recall drive to oust Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and state House Speaker Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles) from office....

For the second time in two years a group of Michigan activists is launching a recall drive against Gov. Rick Snyder (R). With a reworded recall pe...

Some imagine that Brown is at last embracing the way of his father, the legendary late Governor Pat Brown, widely credited as the builder of modern California, in developing what might be called an Edifice Complex. But that's not quite it.