How California became the blue state alternative to Trump
Analysis by Ronald Brownstein, CNN
For the California economy, surf's up. And that could hasten the end of a long drought for the state in presidential politics.
In early May, California marked a striking milestone in its recovery from its economic tailspin earlier in the 2000s when new data showed the state has surged past the United Kingdom as the world's fifth largest economy-even though the UK has about 25 million more people. Last Friday, Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown added an exclamation point when he reported that, because of the growing economy, the state government, which faced massive budget deficits less than a decade ago, would amass a budget surplus $8 billion larger than it projected as recently as January.