By DANIEL WEINTRAUB, Sacramento Bee

Gay-marriage supporters have time on their side. Public opinion is shifting in their favor. Eventually, California's ban on same-sex marriage will be lifted.But many gay couples, activists and lawyers say they have waited long enough. They are ready for change, and they think California is, too. So they are taking a calculated risk.

When California voters approved Proposition 34 in 2000, they were told it would limit the influence of money in political campaigns. The measure capped contributions to legislative races at $3,000, and it put a $5,000 limit on donations in most statewide elections, with a $20,000 ceiling in campaigns for governor.

Don't look now, but the Democrats in the California Legislature want to unionize Grandma. Really.A bill pending in the Senate would create a union to organize family members who provide child care for their kin and are paid by the state so that mothers can work outside the home. The measure already has passed in the Assembly.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's first election in 2003 was centered on one issue: California's dysfunctional government. Schwarzenegger mocked the politicians in Sacramento who couldn't balance a budget the way you and I balance our checkbooks, and he promised to quickly tame the "spending addicts" in the Capitol.

For as long as I have been watching and writing about California politics and public policy, well-meaning people have been coming to me with the promise to fix what ails government in the Golden State.

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, early in his first term, brokered a bipartisan compromise to overhaul California's troubled system for compensating workers injured on the job, many observers thought his claims of success might be overblown, an enthusiastic exaggeration of the kind for which he was already becoming famous.

For Barack Obama, California's early presidential primary was too early. He ran out of time before he could make inroads with women and non-black minorities, who have been the base of Hillary Rodham Clinton's support nationally and helped her win here Tuesday.

Independent voters are suddenly the hottest commodity in American politics.

Proposition 92 on the Feb. 5 ballot offers Californians a chance to increase spending on the community colleges and then lock in that spending -- at the expense of health care, assistance for the poor, public safety and all of the other programs in the state budget.

Even for voters in a state as accustomed to direct democracy as California, the four propositions involving Indian gambling on the Feb. 5 ballot have to be a bit bewildering. What are these measures doing on the ballot, what would they do if they pass and how should you vote?