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Turns out 2021 isn’t a good year for Democrats to get California too noticed because it’s weird.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a September 14 recall election, his fellow Democrats in the Legislature appeared to protect him from the signing or veto of controversial measures as they eliminated hundreds of bills on Thursday in part of the semi-annual ritual known as the waiting file.
The notorious process marks a critical point in the legislative cycle when lawmakers decide which bills will pass the full Senate or Assembly vote – and which they will hush up for the year, often without explanation. Killing pending bills is a way Democrats who control Capitol Hill protect their party from a tough vote – on a proposal that could anger a powerful interest group, frustrate progressive voters or draw the wrong kind of attention to it. dark blue condition.
The recall the current election – voters have already received the ballots in the mail and have until September 14 to deliver them – have added a new layer of political intrigue to the waiting dossier process which is already steeped in mystery. While Newsom has until October 10 to decide on bills approved by the Legislature, removing those bills – which had already been passed by a chamber – removes them from the campaign altogether.
Here are the highlights of what we saw:
Newsom will not have to decide this year whether California should legalize mushrooms, ecstasy, and other psychedelic drugs – neither will he have to weigh in an ethical debate on turning people into garden compost after they die.
A few minutes before the start of the hearing of the waiting file, the senator who wrote a bill allowing adults to use and share psychedelic drugs announced he was suspending him for the year. While the proposal has received support from progressives who want to decriminalize drug use and advocates who cite the therapeutic role of psychedelics in treating certain mental health disorders, it has been opposed by enforcement groups. laws as well as by Republicans and moderate Democrats.
“We have a realistic chance of passing it next year,” said a statement from Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco.
Lawmakers also suspended a measure aimed at allow Californians to turn their bodies into compost after death. Although it has enjoyed bipartisan support and has been touted as an environmental alternative to cremation, which emits pollution, the proposal has met opposition from the Catholic Church.
Bottling the bills now protects Newsom from having to choose between its progressive base and the potential national perception of “California is going crazy.”
Democrats have also put aside two progressive efforts to combat the influence of money in politics. A measure would have demanded more disclosure about online political ads about who funds them, and reportedly demanded disclosure of the backers behind the initiative petitions when voters sign them. The other would have required prosecutors recuse themselves from investigating police shooting if they had received campaign donations police unions. Both measures have met opposition from public sector employee unions, which are the Democrats’ major campaign donors. The International Union of Service Employees, which testified against the disclosure bill, paid at least $ 4 million in Newsom’s anti-recall campaign.
Police unions – who have not donated to Newsom’s anti-recall campaign but are making a large donation to lawmaker re-election campaigns – opposed the bill requiring prosecutors to recuse themselves from criminal investigations into officers if they accept campaign donations from police unions. The measure also reflected an ideological schism among district attorneys. Although he was backed by a handful of progressive prosecutors, he was opposed by the statewide association.
Lawmakers helped themselves by avoiding a conflict with the police unions – while helping Newsom avoid the fight between prosecutors.
In progress crises at the Employment Development Department have become one of the most embarrassing aspects of Newsom’s leadership during the pandemic. As Californians who lost their jobs struggled to get unemployment benefits From an agency overwhelmed by technological glitches and growing demand, a criminal network has managed to fraudulently claw back billions of dollars in profits.
Lawmakers on both sides have introduced bills that attempt to address some of the issues. Democrats on Thursday killed three Republican measures regarding ESD, including one for improve call centers, modernize its technology and assess its guarantees against fraud; another to demand from the agency cross-reference unemployment assistance applications with current state prison registers; and a third aimed at preventing fraud by prohibit the ministry from sending mail containing social security numbers.
“California completely let down its unemployed during the pandemic and stranded them again today,” said a statement from GOP Senate Leader Scott Wilk of Santa Clarita. “These were good common sense solutions recommended by the auditor. Good solutions should not have a party line – unfortunately that was not the case today.”
Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego who heads the credit committee that killed the Bills, said on twitter:
“We passed a lot of reform bills, they’re in the Senate. They were duplicating.”
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