Just to pick up on what happened in my neck of the woods out here in California. It turned out to be a great night.

The tax revolt is dead, or at least not a binding religious totem, the way it was described here for the last 35 years. Prop 30, which temporarily raises income taxes on wealthy earners and 1/4 cent sales taxes on everyone, passed with 54% of the vote. Schools will not be shut down an additional 20 days. Public safety budgets will swell. Most polls had this topping out at 48% support leading up to the vote, so it defied expectations. In addition, Prop 39, which repeals a corporate tax break worth $1 billion, passed easily. Three strikes was reformed with Prop 36, which will save money.

There are a couple bellweather races in the Senate (I think North Dakota will show the power of ideology versus candidate competence) and the House (a couple member-versus-member races, like Jim Renacci versus Betty Sutton in Ohio, will be determinative).

But I’m going with Kevin Drum: Prop 30 in California, and the symbolic end to the era of the tax revolt it would usher in, is the most important thing on the ballot this year, to me.

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission forced a mysterious $11 million donor to two ballot measures to reveal its secret funding sources today, and the result showed how most of these independent expenditure groups work, mostly through money laundering:

Brad Plumer has a decent enough explanation of why gas prices have soared in California over the past week or so. Being a California resident, perhaps I can provide a bit more insight into how this has played out on the ground. Professor James Hamilton explains that a series of refinery and pipeline shutdowns, and [...]