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Presented and Paid for by the Coalition for Clean Air: Jeremy B. White’s must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State | | | | |  | | By Jeremy B. White, Chris Ramirez and Graph Massara | Presented and Paid for by the Coalition for Clean Air | THE BUZZ —BITTER MEDICINE: California is about to be at the forefront of the national vaccine wars. State Sen. Richard Pan unveiled legislation on Monday to close a personal belief exemption in an impending coronavirus vaccine mandate for California students. That means we will see the third major Capitol fight over school vaccination requirements in the last several years — and it is likely to be even more intense. POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver has the deets. Few Capitol fights in recent memory have been as vitriolic as the clash over a 2015 law requiring students to get inoculated for afflictions like measles and a 2019 followup narrowing opt-outs. Red-clad critics flooded the Capitol, at times directing violent rhetoric at lawmakers and even physicallyassaulting them. Still, after those debates ended and new laws were passed, opponents have continued to show up at hearings to jeer Pan and his supporters. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic. Attitudes toward mask and vax mandates have become proxies for partisan identity. Health officers have been deluged with threats and elected officials have faced recall campaigns in response to coronavirus restrictions. And Gov. Gavin Newsom has regularly compared California and its stringent restrictions to more lax red states like Texas and Florida. | 
Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan of Sacramento, at podium, announces new vaccine legislation at news conference. | AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes |
So vaccine policy in California has national implications. Pan and allies — including the formidable California Medical Association — are also trying to cut through legal disputes over vaccine mandates. A judge recently knocked down San Diego Unified’s student vaccine order as exceeding the district’s authority, and state lawmakers believe the ball has landed in their court. “The judges have certainly made it clear: legislators have the authority to pass laws to keep their communities safe,” Pan said on Monday, flanked by Los Angeles and San Diego school officials.
Opponents swiftly mobilized. Republican Assemblymember James Gallagher lambasted the proposal and urged parents, teachers and school board members to begin emailing, calling and generally activating their “voice in Sacramento.” If experience is any guide, the next iteration of this fight could light up office phone lines and extend witness testimony at hearings more than any other proposal before the Legislature. What about the governor?Newsom has eschewed a commitment to closing the personal belief exemption, invoking that allowance as an example of flexibility in his school vaccine executive order . Lawmakers and vaccine proponents have not forgotten Newsom’s 11th-hour vaccine vacillation last time, so they’re eager to see what role the governor will ultimately play. BUENOS DÍAS, good Tuesday morning. Is this the year California will outlaw offshore oil drilling and decommission existing rigs? An Assembly select committee on last year’s Orange County oil spill will examine today what that might look like. Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit jwhite@politico.com or follow me on Twitter @jeremybwhite. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Vaccination is the cornerstone of ensuring our schools will be open and safe.” Pan’s argument in a nutshell. TWEET OF THE DAY: LA Times reporter @MattDPearce on mayoral hopeful Rick Caruso switching parties : “it’s a shame you can’t register for all parties simultaneously” WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
| | | | Paid for by the Coalition for Clean Air: Thank you, Governor Newsom, for California’s Climate Commitment! What state lawmakers do next will decide if we preserve a safe, equitable and healthy future for all or leave behind a damaged state to our children. Learn more.
Paid for by the Coalition for Clean Air. | | | |  | Top Talkers | | TICKET TALK — “Controversial restriction on 49ers-Rams NFC Championship Game tickets abruptly disappears on Ticketmaster,” by SFGATE’s Eric Ting: “A spokesperson for Ticketmaster referred SFGATE to the Los Angeles Rams for all policy changes. The Rams then told SFGATE that the policy was lifted after all available tickets were purchased during a presale over the weekend.” NO FREE LUNCH — “ Facebook Promised Poor Countries Free Internet. People Got Charged Anyway,” by the Wall Street Journal’s Justin Scheck, Tom McGinty and Newley Purnell: “One document, in which employees ask management for additional resources to tackle the problem, notes that the issue is ‘Easy to dismiss’ because Facebook’s partners—the cellular companies—aren’t being hurt.” — “ UCSF Doctors Say It’s Time to End ‘Mindless’ Covid Rules in Open Letter,” by SF Standard’s Kevin Truong: “Four doctors, including the director of Covid response for UCSF Medical Center’s emergency department, are calling on state leaders to acknowledge the transition of Covid to an endemic disease and lift most masking policies for school-aged children.”
| | | | JOIN FRIDAY TO HEAR FROM GOVERNORS ACROSS AMERICA : As we head into the third year of the pandemic, state governors are taking varying approaches to public health measures including vaccine and mask mandates. "The Fifty: America's Governors" is a series of live conversations featuring various governors on the unique challenges they face as they take the lead and command the national spotlight in historic ways. Learn what is working and what is not from the governors on the front lines, REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR | | ON THE JOB — “ COVID-infected nurses working at short-staffed nursing homes, ” by CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang: “Severe worker shortages — worsened by the omicron surge — have forced some of California’s long-term care facilities to rely on COVID-positive staff for patient care.” — “ Rising sea levels could submerge major Northern California highway, Caltrans report says,” by the Sac Bee’s Ryan Lillis: “Rising sea levels could completely submerge the road by 2050, Caltrans said.” — “ No debate on skyrocketing cost of California single-payer bill? So much for good government,” opines the LA Times’ George Skelton: “The California Legislature was organized many years ago to operate as a mass-production bill factory. Term-limited legislators want a long list of enacted bills — no matter how trivial — to display on their résumés when they run for another office. And they don’t have the luxury to spend years getting the legislation right.” BATTLE FOR BELVEDERE — “ One of California’s richest cities could have its first big housing project in decades. Some locals are pushing back,” by the SF Chronicle’s J.K. Dineen: “The proposal, which will be submitted to the city next week, is causing consternation in a town where the average home sells for $3.3 million and where lagoon-fronting homes regularly fetch between $5 million and $10 million.” MORE HOUSING — “ Appeals court upholds San Francisco law protecting tenants from ‘eviction by another name,’” by the SF Chronicle’s Bob Egelko: “The city ordinance, passed in January 2019, prohibited property owners from increasing rents in amounts so large that they were clearly not intended to recoup the owner’s costs but were instead meant to displace the tenant, either voluntarily or by a suit for nonpayment of rent.” — “ ‘Progress’ but ’no cause for celebration’: How Fresno is tackling homelessness in 2022,” by CalMatters’ Melissa Montalvo: “The city said it assisted 8,019 people with one or more services between July 2019 and December 2021, but acknowledged that some people could have been double-counted if they engaged with one or of the city’s services.” SOLAR FLARES — “ A Fight Over Rooftop Solar Threatens California’s Climate Goals,” by the New York Times’ Ivan Penn: “The dispute is about who will get to build the green energy economy — utilities or smaller companies that install solar panels and batteries at homes — and reap billions of dollars in profits from those investments.” MISSING IN ACTION — “Where did all the workers go?” by CalMatters’ Emily Hoeven: “The problem is so acute that the federal government on Friday devoted $103 million to improving retention of health care workers through programs that combat burnout and promote wellness and mental health. Four California providers will receive a combined $8.7 million.” WISHFUL THINKING —“ Mayor Breed’s prior Tenderloin police blitzes promised lots, delivered little,” by Mission Local’s Eleni Balakrishnan and Will Jarrett: “Inevitably, after a period of increased deployment, these officers return to their home districts when attention fades.” — “The Fight for $15 Is Moving Beyond the Minimum Wage With a Bold New Idea,” by the New Republic’s Alex Park.
| | | | Paid for by the Coalition for Clean Air:   | | | | | CAMPAIGN MODE | | MONEY MOVES — Lyft, labor unions, environmentalists pour $3.4M into climate referendum, by POLITICO’s Debra Kahn: California Environmental Voters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Lyft and a state firefighters’ union announced Monday they would campaign for the November ballot initiative, which would increase personal income taxes by 1.75 percent on income over $2 million. — “ Santa Clara County DA campaigns give progress reports for 2022 primary,” by the Mercury News’ Robert Salonga. ANOTHER ONE — Scott Jones to run for Congress, setting up clash with Kiley, by POLITICO’s Jeremy B. White: Conservative voters in the solidly Republican new 3rd congressional district will have a choice between Scott Jones, a longtime Sacramento law enforcement figure, and Kevin Kiley, one of Sacramento’s most vocal critics of Democratic governance. AD-30 — Zoë Carter , a Monterey County Business Council official and former intern with former first lady Michelle Obama, is jumping into the race for the new long, coastal 30th Assembly district seat encompassing the turf of GOP Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham, who is not running for reelection in the newly blue district. WHY NOT BOTH? — Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has endorsed both Democrats running to be insurance commissioner, incumbent Ricardo Lara and challenger Assemblymember Marc Levine. While he’s not breaking with Lara, Rendon is still providing Levine with a rare nod, as much of California’s elected Democratic class has coalesced behind Lara. TRUMP ALUM EYES CONGRESSIONAL SEAT, via DC Playbook’s Tara Palmeri: Former senior Trump White House aide and campaign staffer Steven Cheung is eyeing a run for California’s 9th congressional seat after Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) announced last week he’s retiring. Cheung, who is from South Sacramento but is considering a seat that is primarily Stockton and San Joaquin County, has been speaking with donors and local GOP officials in the area about whether he has a shot at flipping the Democratic-leaning seat, according to two people familiar. He would likely earn a Trump endorsement, but it’s unclear whether that would actually boost his chances.
| | BIDEN, HARRIS AND THE HILL | | ON THE DOCKET — Supreme Court will take up Harvard, UNC affirmative action challenge, by POLITICO’s Bianca Quilantan: The challenge against Harvard is widely considered to be the court’s next opening to potentially ban affirmative action in higher education. Education and civil rights groups have argued that if the court does overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, they fear race-neutral admissions policies will exacerbate inequality for students of color for years to come. MCCARTHY DENIED — Supreme Court denies Kevin McCarthy’s challenge to proxy voting in House, by POLITICO’s Katherine Tully-McManus: In practice, the proxy privilege has been widely used by members of both sides of the aisle, often for non-pandemic reasons. McCarthy isn’t the only top House Republican who has repeatedly vowed to kill the practice if they take control of the chamber in the 2022 midterm elections.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | SILICON VALLEYLAND | | TICK, TOCK — “ Why Is Silicon Valley Still Waiting for the Next Big Thing? ” by the New York Times’ Cade Metz: “ The great wealth generated by the industry in recent years has generally been thanks to ideas, like the iPhone and mobile apps, that arrived years ago.” FASTER, STRONGER — “ Facebook parent Meta says its new AI supercomputer will be world’s fastest,” by Reuters’ Elizabeth Culliford: “Meta said in a blog post that its new AI Research SuperCluster (RSC) would help the company build better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples, work across hundreds of languages, and analyze text, images and video together to determine if content was harmful.”
| | HOLLYWOODLAND | | THE FIRST RULE … “ Cult Classic ‘Fight Club’ Gets a Very Different Ending in China, ” by VICE’s Viola Zhou: “A source familiar with the matter said the film was edited by the copyright owner and then approved by the government before it was sold to streaming sites for distribution.” REAL TROUBLE — “ State Bar probes whether insiders helped ‘Real Housewives’ star Tom Girardi avoid scrutiny,” by the LA Times’ Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton: The probe “is attempting ‘to identify actions by anyone with ties to the State Bar that may constitute malfeasance in how discipline complaints against Girardi were handled,’ the agency said in a statement.”
| | MIXTAPE | | — “ Man surrenders to SWAT after brief rooftop standoff in Walnut Park,” by the LA Times’ Nathan Solis. — “Sirhan Sirhan’s Continued Imprisonment Flies in the Face of RFK’s Ideals,” Natalie Shure opines in the New Republic. — “ Bottlenose dolphins seen off Sonoma Coast part of closely watched northward push,” by The Press Democrat’s Mary Callahan. — “ Free N95 masks could be coming to your California pharmacy. Where can you get one?” by the Sac Bee’s Hanh Truong. OAKLAND’S VERY OWN — “ Jeopardy! contestant Amy Schneider breaks new record amid historic winning streak,” by the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano. — “ L.A. County faces two lawsuits in last year’s deadly Agua Dulce fire station shooting,” by the LA Times’ Gregory Yee.
| | BIRTHDAYS | | Erika Reynoso of Amazon … ICM Partners’ Michael Glantz … Robert N. Newman … Maya Arad
| | | | Paid for by the Coalition for Clean Air: Thank you, Governor Newsom, for California’s Climate Commitment!
This decade offers a narrow window of time - our last chance - to fight polluters and prevent irreversible damage to California caused by climate change and air pollution. Such high stakes make Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Climate Commitment so important. It’s an unprecedented $37 billion action plan to:
• Protect Californians from the extreme effects of climate change
• Lead the world in reducing carbon and air pollution
• Ensure that those most harmed by climate change, often communities of color, are empowered to fight for climate justice.
What state lawmakers do next will decide if we preserve a safe, equitable and healthy future for all or leave behind a damaged state to our children. Learn more.
Paid for by the Coalition for Clean Air. | | | CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this -only service offers,click here. Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.
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