About Us

PolitickerCA.com is a virtual watercooler for the state’s political elite – officeholders, news makers, staff, party leaders, fundraisers, journalists, government employees, interest groups and policy wonks. It’s a necessary daily stop for politically minded web surfers.

Like Tip O'Neill, PolitickerCA.com views all politics as local. Starting at City Hall and ending at the White House, we cover elections, party leadership contests, lobbyists, fundraisers, the media, and the business of how politicians select judges and prosecutors. We offer a close-up view inside politics for political insiders.

PolitickerWA.com includes Wally Edge’s Inside Edge column. Wally Edge is a pseudonym. Like James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay when they wrote the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym Publius, Wally Edge writes anonymously. That has provided an interesting dimension to our coverage of state politics, complimented by full-time reporters, columnists, bloggers and editorial cartoonists.

Our California site is based on the model created by PoliticsNJ.com, now PolitickerNJ.com, which has become a fixture of politics and government in New Jersey for people who want current and reliable information about campaigns, elections and politicians in New Jersey since its launch on February 1, 2000. Under the ownership of the Observer Media Group, PolitickerCA.com has created a unique model to cover local and state politics, complimented with a national news organization. Politicker.com now operates state political websites in ten states and has a bureau in Washington, D.C.

Both sides agree...

As a former Republican Governor and a former Democratic United States Senator, we don’t always see eye to eye. But when it comes to PolitickerNJ.com, New Jersey’s premier source of political news, we are unabashed fans – and regular contributors. The Politicker state website offers fair, objective and non-ideological coverage of local, state and national politics. It is a must-read site for political insiders – elected officials, party leaders, government staff, community leaders, issue advocates, the judiciary, reporters, and old-fashioned political junkies like us. It seems as though everybody we know in politics reads this website. The New Jersey site has an edge to it – that’s one of the things that makes it fun as well as informative. The site can be harsh (this is something we can both personally attest to!), but they often get things right – way before other reporters do. So take some advice from two veterans of the rough and tumble world of New Jersey politics, a place where we have both literally seen it all: add PolitickerNJ.com to your favorites list, make sure you check the site often, and spread the word that politics in your state might never be the same again.

CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN Governor of New Jersey, 1994-2001 EPA Administrator, 2001-2003

ROBERT G. TORRICELLI United States Senator, 1997-2003 Member of Congress, 1983-1997

Meet the PolitickerCA.com Team

Political Reporters

Jeff Mitchell
jeff.mitchell@politickerca.com
For far, far too long Jeff Mitchell says he has been hopelessly in love with all aspects of journalism and the craft of news writing and editing. He studied at Long Beach State University where he was honored to serve as editor of the campus newspaper, the Daily 49er. Professionally, he has covered a number of beats at papers of all sizes across the Golden State. While he enjoyed them all, his stints at the Los Angeles Times and the LA Daily News would so far have to top his personal highlight reel. A native Californian, Jeff was born in the Los Angeles-area suburb of Redondo Beach. Prior to joining PolitickerCA.com, Jeff served as a senior editor for two Bay Area News Group newspapers in Alameda and San Mateo.
Ben van der Meer
ben.vandermeer@politickerca.com
Ben van der Meer has been a working journalist for more than 10 years in Northern California. After graduating from California State University, Chico, he worked for seven years for the Tracy Press in Tracy, Calif. For the last three years, he worked at the Modesto Bee. During his career, he has covered several congressional races, including the 2006 11th Congressional District race between incumbent Richard Pombo and challenger Jerry McNerney, and the 2002 18th Congressional District race involving Rep. Gary Condit. He has also written a political analysis column and appeared on C-SPAN to discuss political races. He lives in Sacramento.

Editors

 

 

Managing Editor

James Pindell
james.pindell@politicker.com
James followed his passion of politics by reporting on it in five states, two of those being the early presidential states of Iowa and New Hampshire. The Washington Post called him the "Insider's Insider" for his coverage of New Hampshire politics. He ran PoliticsNH.com for four years before joining the Boston Globe in 2006 as a reporter and blogger covering the 2008 New Hampshire primary. He covered the 2000 Iowa Caucuses for the Des Moines Register, and was the Statehouse Bureau Chief of the Morgantown Dominion Post. Pindell is an Adjunct Professor at New England College, and has provides analysis on national and state television and radio stations on a regular basis.

 

Deputy Managing Editors

Michael E. Grass
michael.grass@politicker.com
Grass, a graduate of the University of Michigan, has been blogging and developing websites since 2003, most recently for The Washington Post Co. He’s a veteran of Roll Call newspaper on Capitol Hill where he helped manage RollCall.com while serving as a copy editor, writer and K Street Files lobbying column contributor. (Coincidentally, Grass’ family, whose D.C. roots date to the 1860s, was one of the last to move off of K Street in the 1970s as D.C.’s lobbying and law firm quarter blossomed.) In 2004, Grass started GothamistLLC’s DCist.com, quickly assembling a team of bloggers to create what would become the most popular locally focused blog in the nation’s capital. At The Washington Post, he helped launch ReadExpress.com, where he edited and developed the local blog for Express, The Post’s successful free daily newspaper.

Jamie Klatell
jamie.klatell@politicker.com
Jamie got his start as a video journalist for CNN in the network’s Atlanta headquarters, eventually working as an editorial assistant and associate producer for CNN/U.S. and associate editor for CNN.com . In 2004, he became a producer/editor for ABCNEWS.com and ABC News Now. After a stint as a writer for NY1, New York’s 24-hour cable news channel, he became a home page editor for CBSNews.com. He is a graduate of the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University.

 

National Correspondent

Alex Isenstadt
alex.isenstadt@politicker.com
Alex is a graduate of Haverford College, and worked in the NBC News Political Unit in Washington, D.C. He has also worked for the Mayor of San Francisco.

 

Editorial Cartoonist

Rob Tornoe
rob.tornoe@politicker.com
Rob's political cartoons have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Press of Atlantic City, the Daily Record, the NJ Herald, and NJBIZ.