1.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
2.
State Board of Equalization (California)
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The State Board of Equalization is a public agency charged with tax administration and fee collection in the state of California in the United States. The authorities of the Board fall into four areas, sales and use taxes, property taxes, special taxes. The BOE is the publicly elected tax commission in the United States. The current board members are, The terms of all five members, including the State Controller, as of 2008, the agency employed approximately 3,950 people throughout the state. The State Board of Equalization was created in 1879 by ratification of the second California Constitution and its original mandate was to ensure that property tax assessments were uniform and equal across all counties in the state. Of course, assessors were tempted to boost their popularity with county voters by undervaluing voters property, for the purposes of tax administration, the BOE divides the state into four Equalization districts, each with its own elected board member. Following the 2011 redistricting, the new districts have been in effect since January 1,2015, before 2015, most of this area was the second district. Before 2015, most of area was the first district. The fourth Equalization District is made up of the counties, Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, a portion of Los Angeles
3.
Know Nothing
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The Native American Party, renamed the American Party in 1855 and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement, was an American political party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s. The motivators of the Partys rise were,1. )Nativist sentiment caused by the sudden, unprecedented influx of German and Irish immigrants in the late 1840s,2. )A rapid, steep decline in wages caused by the sudden influx of very large numbers of Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine,3. )The threat members perceived that the expansion of slavery into factory labor. In the eyes of supporters of both the Free Soil and Know Nothing movements, the existence of black slavery threatened to reduce free, white workers to wage slaves, and 4. )Fear that land in the western territories would be awarded to wealthy slave plantation owners rather than to white small farmers. It was due to fear that slavery would destroy the economic prospects of working families that the Party enrolled massive numbers of voters in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. The Partys most prominent leaders were U. S, the American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election. Anti-Catholicism had been a factor in colonial America but played little role in American politics until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and it then reemerged in nativist attacks on Catholic immigration. It appeared in New York politics as early as 1843, under the banner of the American Republican Party, the movement quickly spread to nearby states, using that name or Native American Party or variants of it. They succeeded in a number of local and Congressional elections, notably in 1844 in Philadelphia, in the early 1850s, numerous secret orders grew up, of which the Order of United Americans and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner came to be the most important. They merged in New York in the early 1850s as an order that quickly spread across the North, reaching non-Catholics. The name Know Nothing originated in the organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, outsiders called them Know Nothings, and the name stuck. In 1855, the Know Nothings first entered politics under the American Party label, the immigration of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics to the United States in the period between 1830 and 1860 made religious differences between Catholics and Protestants a political issue. Violence occasionally erupted at the polls, Protestants alleged that Pope Pius IX had put down the failed liberal Revolutions of 1848 and that he was an opponent of liberty, democracy and Republicanism. One Boston minister described Catholicism as the ally of tyranny, the opponent of material prosperity, the foe of thrift, the enemy of the railroad, the caucus, and the school. In 1849, a secret society, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, was created by Charles B. Allen in New York City. Fear of Catholic immigration led to a dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party, activists formed secret groups, coordinating their votes and throwing their weight behind candidates sympathetic to their cause. When asked about these organizations, members were to reply I know nothing. Immigration during the first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times greater than a decade earlier, most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic peasants or laborers from Ireland and Germany who crowded into the tenements of large cities
4.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
5.
Gray Davis
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Joseph Graham Gray Davis, Jr. is an American politician and attorney who served as the 37th Governor of California from 1999 to 2003. A member of the Democratic Party, only months into his term, in 2003 Davis was recalled and removed from office. Prior to serving as governor, Davis was chief of staff to Governor Jerry Brown, a California State Assemblyman, California State Controller, Davis holds a B. A. in history from Stanford University and a J. D. from Columbia Law School. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service as a Captain in the Vietnam War, during his time as governor, Davis made education his top priority and California spent eight billion dollars more than was required under Proposition 98 during his first term. Under Davis, California standardized test scores increased for five straight years, Davis signed the nations first state law requiring automakers to limit auto emissions. Davis supported laws to ban assault weapons and he is credited with improving relations between California and Mexico. Voters were also alienated by Daviss record-breaking fundraising efforts and negative campaigning and he was succeeded in office on November 17,2003 by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won the recall replacement race. Davis spent 1,778 days as governor and signed 5,132 bills out of 6,244, vetoing 1,112 bills. Since being recalled, Davis has worked as a lecturer at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, as an attorney at Loeb & Loeb, Davis was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Doris Morell and Joseph G. Davis. Davis moved to California with his family as a child in 1954 and he was the first of the familys five children, three boys and two girls. He was raised a Roman Catholic, Davis and his family were one of the millions of Americans to migrate to the southwest and California as part of the post-World War II sun belt migration. His diverse educational experiences at public, private and Catholic schools allowed him an opportunity to all three systems as a lawmaker. Davis graduated from a North Hollywood military academy, the Harvard School for Boys, Davis family was upper middle class and was led by his demanding mother. Davis was nicknamed Gray by his mother and his father, Joseph Graham Davis, Sr. an advertising manager at Time Inc. and an alcoholic, was the son of businessman William Rhodes Davis. His strong academic accomplishments earned him acceptance to Stanford University and he played on the Stanford golf team with a two handicap. After Davis entered Stanford University, his left the family. The deal included a promise to enter the regular Army after completing his education and he earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at Stanford, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, graduating in 1964 with distinction. He then returned to New York City to attend Columbia Law School where he won the Moot Court award, during law school Davis had a romantic encounter with actress Cybill Shepherd
6.
Governor of California
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The position was created in 1849, the year before California became a state. The current governor is Jerry Brown, a Democrat who was inaugurated January 3,2011, in October 2013, Jerry Brown surpassed Earl Warren for the longest cumulative period of time served as governor. Governors are elected by ballot and serve terms of four years. Governors take office on the first Monday after January 1 after their election, there are two methods available to remove a governor before the expiration of the gubernatorial term of office. Impeachment and removal by the legislature The governor can be impeached for misconduct in office by the State Assembly, recall by the voters Petitions signed by California state voters equal in number to 12% of the last vote for the office of governor can launch a gubernatorial recall election. The voters can vote on whether or not to recall the incumbent governor. If a majority of the voters in the vote to recall the governor. The 2003 California recall began with a drive that successfully forced sitting Democratic Governor Gray Davis into a special recall election. It marked the first time in the history of California that a governor faced a recall election and he was subsequently voted out of office, becoming the second governor in the history of the United States to be recalled after Lynn Frazier of North Dakota in 1921. He was replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Lieutenant Governor of California is separately elected during the same election, not jointly as the running mate of the gubernatorial candidate. California has had a governor and a lieutenant governor of different parties 26 of the past 31 years, the lieutenant governor is also the President of the California State Senate. In practice, there is an agreement for the Lieutenant Governor not to perform more than perfunctory duties while the Governor is away from the state. This agreement was violated when Mike Curb was in office, as he signed several executive orders at odds with the Brown administration when Brown was out of the state. Court rulings have upheld the lieutenant governors right to perform the duties, peter Burnett had the longest post-governorship,44 years. He left office in 1851 and died in 1895, excluding governors who died in office, Robert Waterman had the shortest post-governorship. He died on April 12,1891, a three months and four days after the expiration of his term. Sworn in at the age of 30, J. Neely Johnson was the youngest governor from 1856 to 1858, sworn in at the age of 72, Jerry Brown became the oldest governor in 2011. Earl Warren was the governor to serve more than two consecutive terms in office
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California statewide elected officials