Kaba-Text Archive

Nationally, Democrats have boiled their message down to two points: reproductive rights and the future of democracy; Republicans to the economy and crime.

But what about the myriad state issues? You’re blessed if your candidates for State Assembly and State Senate addressed them. Kabateck Strategies follows many states across the nation and has noticed that too many legislative candidates simply hitched their campaign-rhetoric wagons to national issues.

I don’t want this Kabatext to be wrongly seen as detracting from or demeaning the hard-won and hard-earned dignity of the labor unions’ Labor Day, but I would like to make a case for broadening our understanding of labor to include those who also toil as hard as anyone: the small-business owners and independent contractors of California.

Tomorrow, the 2021-2022 session of the California State Legislature comes to an end. Thank God for lawmakers’ desire to stick to schedules and calendars, at least, because this group of elected officials had the biggest appetite for wholesale transformation unlike any other in California’s history and unlike any other state legislative body in the nation.

If you still had any lingering doubt about the importance of full-time advocacy representation in Sacramento, the resurrection of Senate Bill 262 from the legislative grave called the ‘inactive file’ should disabuse you of that.

It is not an exaggeration to say the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) scoping plan to reduce greenhouse gasses could be the most consequential regulation ever
promulgated in California, and not all of it in a good way.

No other group has its fingers on the pulse of the small-business economy more firmly than the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which has been measuring the health of Main Street enterprises for 78 years.

For the moment, retail theft has gone from a boil to a medium simmer in public awareness. Last night’s recall election of San Francisco’s district attorney may turn the heat back up a bit, but lasting damage has been done and continues to be.

When the post-pandemic dust finally settles and policymakers across the nation can look back and assess what steps were taken by Washington and Sacramento that worked and didn’t work, with an aim toward establishing a set of protocols to address future pandemics more effectively, the Newsom administration will get some good grades for some of the actions it took to help heal what ailed the state’s small businesses, that engine of the California economy.

President Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure bill which means monies will soon be flowing to California to make much needed repairs on roads, bridges and other staples of the state infrastructure. This should boost the state’s economy but as taxpayers and business people we must keep the pressure on that the money is spent wisely and, importantly, that the jobs get done in a timely fashion.

Gov. Gavin Newsom can still rule by executive order, but for all intents and purposes, legislative business is done for the year. All that remained was for the governor to sign or veto bills sent to him by October 10.

In the latest episode political opposite brothers Brian and John yuk it up with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg about fixing homelessness, the Recall, and, naturally, ‘57 Buicks, Springsteen, and “rich, thick stews.”

Hard to believe it has been six years since we made the decision to help give a voice to those less heard! We have been blessed to work with so many wonderful individuals and groups, and more importantly, work on some very meaningful campaigns and projects in California and across the nation.