Veteran California newsmen Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine have teamed up to produce calbuzz, a new Web site dedicated to political news, analysis and commentary in the Golden State.

Roberts, the adviser to UCSB’s Daily Nexus newspaper, is a former senior editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Santa Barbara News-Press, and the author of Dianne Feinstein: Never Let Them See You Cry, a biography of the state’s senior senator. Trounstine, who was with the San Jose Mercury News for many years, served as communications director for then-Gov. Gray Davis before founding the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University. He retired in April.

In an e-mail to Noozhawk, Roberts said calbuzz “won’t try to duplicate the fine work others are doing aggregating political reporting by writers at various newspapers and other media outlets. Instead, we’ll do our own reporting, analysis and commentary and sometimes ask others to weigh in. That’s our plan at the start; this will be a learning process for us and the venture is bound to go through various incarnations.”

Noting the duo’s combined 60 years of experience with the state’s political scene, Roberts said he and Trounstine “envision ourselves as a Germond and Witcover for California politics — except we’re both the fat guy in the middle seat.”

In the current calbuzz post, the pair explain why Feinstein will not run for governor, contrary to the predictions of many political analysts.

Click here for more information.

— Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen can be reached at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com.