"L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's endorsement of Hillary Clinton hits embarrassing snag"

Good to talk to Peter Jamison for this one. 

“I think that city and state law is pretty clear that you don’t use the taxpayer dime to send out campaign endorsements,” said city Ethics Commission President Jessica Levinson. “And the taxpayer dime includes both workers and infrastructure.”

Levinson declined to comment specifically on the mayor’s presidential endorsement, saying the incident could come before her panel for consideration of possible sanctions.

"Female political candidates are treated as circus freaks"

My latest op-ed is up in the San Francisco Chronicle. You can read it here.

"So Far The 2016 Campaign Is More Like The 2016 Un-campaign"

Great to speak with Peter Overby on NPR's All Things Considered.

TOP LOBBYIST: 2016 TO BE “BUMPER YEAR” THANKS TO CLINTON CAMPAIGN

Good to talk to Lee Fang of the Intercept for this one.

“There is no doubt that outside organizations — PACs, Super PACs, etc. — wield enormous influence over both candidates and voters,” says Jessica Levinson, clinical professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “Because money flows so freely throughout our political system, I think the important thing at this point is for there to be thorough transparency about who these lobbyists are, and the interests that they work for.”

"Upwardly mobile women eager to hear Hillary Clinton’s message"

Always great to talk to Carla Marinucci. The full article is here.

In her appearance before a Silicon Valley women’s conference Tuesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is staking an early claim to voters who could be key to her 2016 presidential ambition: upwardly mobile professional women who might be called “Lean In” voters.

“She is their high priestess,” said Jessica Levinson, a political analyst and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, who says the former first lady’s experience shattering the glass ceiling in politics, diplomacy and law will resonate with the hundreds expected to hear her Tuesday at the sold-out Lead On Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women. “She is a trailblazer,” Levinson said. “She speaks their language — and they speak hers.”

...

“Women are embracing that ... they’re talking about how her candidacy could be historic — and frankly, it’s something more feminists want to hear now than in 2008,” Levinson said. Unlike during her first run as president in 2008, Clinton today “is much more robust” in acknowledging her potential impact as the first female president, she said. “And a lot of these women are the first in female leadership in their companies. There’s a common understanding.”

RNC doesn’t want you to hear from their presidential candidates

My latest piece appears on The Hill's Congress Blog. 

Here is an excerpt:

Last week the Republican National Committee (RNC) unanimously passed a resolution to prevent NBC and CNN from hosting Republican primary debates unless those networks halt production of films about former first lady, senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In response to this news I have three words, “get over it.”


The RNC believes that both projects will essentially be endorsements of Clinton, a possible (likely? probable? almost certain?) Democratic candidate for the 2016 presidential election, and that therefore NBC and CNN will not be able to fairly host Republican presidential debates. It is worth pointing out that at least in the case of NBC’s planned miniseries, the entertainment division of the network would be responsible for the project, and the news division would be in charge of any debates. Will viewers appreciate the difference? Maybe not.

Still, the RNC’s move is more than a little ironic for a number of reasons.