The top California stories of 2022

From: POLITICO California Playbook - Friday Dec 23,2022 02:19 pm

Dec 23, 2022

By Lara Korte, Jeremy B. White and Owen Tucker-Smith

THE BUZZ: It was another year for the history books.

War, a battle for the Senate and global oil crisis captured much of the world’s attention in 2022. But, as usual, California repeatedly got the spotlight — though not always for the best reasons.

Here is our non-comprehensive list of the stories that we think shaped and shook California politics this year:

#11 — A farewell to Madam Speaker

Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco’s long time leading daughter relinquished the gavel this year, ending an era in Democratic politics and cementing her place in history as the first and only woman (for now) to serve as Speaker of the House.

#10 — Villanueva’s political feud got personal

The now-former-LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva raised eyebrows when his office abruptly searched the home of one of his most noted political opponents, County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who retired this year.

#9 — Homelessness continued to dominate

Feeling the pressure, more Democratic mayors backed aggressive measures to clear streets and sidewalks. Gov. Gavin Newsom withheld billions until cities promised better progress. And in LA, Mayor Karen Bass has vowed to move 17,000 people indoors by the end of the year.

#8 — The big bet that flopped

Gambling giants DraftKings and FanDuel poured nearly $170 million into Proposition 27, which would have legalized online sports betting, just to come up with less than 18 percent of the vote. It was the biggest losing margin for a ballot measure in 18 years.

#7 — A record state budget

Lawmakers enjoyed a nearly $100 billion surplus this year, with the total budget clocking in at a record $300 billion.

#6 — California’s big swing on climate change

Lawmakers passed a sweeping, $54 billion package of climate change bills aimed at shoring up the state’s energy supplies and slashing carbon emissions. Among them was an extension for the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

#5 — Gavin Newsom’s national tour

Newsom spent much of 2022 bathing in the national spotlight after taking jabs at red state leaders — most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He bought ads on Fox News, took out full page ads in Texas, and erected billboards across several states. He repeatedly insisted it’s not a trial run for 2024, but rather a mission to push back against Republicans’ narrative on gun control, abortion and LGBTQ issues.

#4 — The fallout from Roe

California responded almost immediately to the Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion ruling with more than a dozen bills and a measure to enshrine the right to abortion and contraception in the state constitution.

Democratic Assemblyman Robert Rivas addresses lawmakers at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, May 23, 2022.

Democratic Assemblyman Robert Rivas addresses lawmakers at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, May 23, 2022. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

#3 — A battle for the speaker’s gavel

Some thought Assemblymember Robert Rivas was finished after his first attempt to take the speakership from Anthony Rendon failed. But the Salinas Democrat triumphed in the end, securing the confidence of the caucus and the title of Speaker-elect heading into 2023.

#2 — The attack on Paul Pelosi

A conspiracy-fueled assault on one of America’s most famous political families drew condemnation from both sides of the aisle, and highlighted an increase in against public officials.

#1 — The LA City Council tapes

This is a story that won’t be left in 2022. The leaked audio of a conversation between three city council members and a labor leader, in which they made crude and racist jokes, continues to dominate the discourse around city government, and, most notably, Councilmember Kevin de León, who refuses to resign.

BUENOS DÍAS, good Friday morning. Wishing a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to our California Playbook readers. Thanks for sticking with us this year, and godspeed to those of you heading East and into a polar vortex this weekend.

Programming note: There will be no California Playbook next week. We’ll return in 2023, on Jan. 3.

Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit us up: jwhite@politico.com and lkorte@politico.com or follow us on Twitter @JeremyBWhite and @Lara_Korte.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "As you're preparing for the excitement of the upcoming winter holidays, now's the perfect time to go out and get your Covid booster shot and your flu shot. It's also a great time to make sure you have an ample supply of Covid tests." California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly in a PSA Thursday.

TWEET OF THE DAY:

Today's Tweet of the Day | Twitter

WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

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Top Talkers

CRUSHED BY CANNABIS — “Dying for your high: The untold exploitation and misery in America’s weed industry,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Paige St. John and Marisa Gerber: “For millions of consumers, the legalization of cannabis has brought a multibillion dollar industry out of the shadows and into brightly lit neighborhood dispensaries. But California, birthplace of both the farm labor movement and counterculture pot, has largely ignored the immigrant workers who grow, harvest and trim America’s weed.”

IT’S HERE — Extremists at the vanguard of a siege: The Jan. 6 panel's last word, by POLITICO’s Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney: The first wave of rioters to enter the Capitol during the siege, according to the Jan. 6 select committee’s final report released Thursday night, was disproportionately comprised of members of the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, QAnon fanatics and so-called “Groypers” loyal to Nick Fuentes, the former president’s racist and antisemitic recent Mar-a-Lago dinner guest.

CAMPAIGN MODE

RECOUNT RESERVES — “California recounts should not depend on candidate wealth,” Opine the Mercury News and East Bay Times Editorial Boards: “In last month’s election, a City Council race in Richmond ended in a tie. Another in Sunnyvale was decided by one vote. And one in Antioch was determined by a three-vote margin. There are recounts ongoing in all three races. There should be. But the candidates and their backers have had to pay to make sure the results are right. That’s morally wrong.”

CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR

POPULATION DROP — New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show California lost 343,230 residents due to domestic migration last year, the largest of any state. Florida, meanwhile, gained 318,855 residents in net domestic migration.

AFTER THE QUAKE — “It will be a red-tagged Christmas for those whose homes were wrecked in 6.4 quake,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Mackenzie Mays, Susanne Rust and Jessica Garrison: “One day after a 6.4 earthquake rocked these rural, redwood-canopied towns, leaving two dead and at least 17 injured, it was clear that Mcniece’s community of Rio Dell, a lumber town built upon the cliffs of the Eel River, had taken the brunt of the damage.”

AFTER THE TAPE — “Racist audio leak raises a tough question: Why don’t Latinos vote more in L.A.?” by the Los Angeles Times’ Brittny Mejia: “Nearly a million Angelenos turned out to vote in the most recent mayoral election, a significant increase from the roughly 401,000 who cast ballots in 2013 when Eric Garcetti was first elected mayor. But while the total number of voters increased significantly across all demographic groups, the share of the electorate that was Latino did not.”

HOLD UP — “UC graduate worker unions forge tentative deals that could end the strike — but not all workers are celebrating,” by CapRadio’s Janelle Salanga: “The agreements were announced Dec. 16, four days after union and UC bargaining teams brought in Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg to mediate negotiations. But the new contracts haven’t been unanimously celebrated. Both bargaining teams split the vote for the tentative agreements.”

— “Even in Bay Area, Jewish residents face ‘drumbeat’ of antisemitism,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Sharpe: “According to a first-ever survey conducted for the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, nearly a third of the 828 respondents experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the past three years and consider their environment before publicly identifying as Jewish.”

PUMPING PRESSURE — “California gas prices are plummeting. What does it mean for Newsom’s penalty on Big Oil?” by the Sacramento Bee’s Maggie Angst and Lindsey Holden: “Gas prices in the Golden State are plummeting and inflation may be easing, but Democratic lawmakers and other political professionals believe it will have little effect on the state’s push to take oil companies to task for allegedly price-gouging drivers at the pump.”

— “Fentanyl on campus: DA says alleged dealer nicknamed ‘Madman’ targeted Los Gatos High students,” by the Mercury News’ Scooty Nickerson: “A 23 year-old alleged fentanyl peddler was arrested on Thursday and charged with selling fentanyl-laced pills to teenagers in downtown Los Gatos, including at a parking lot and church near Los Gatos High.”

DRY DREAD — “‘Full on crisis’: Groundwater in California’s Central Valley disappearing at alarming rate,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Ian James: “Scientists have discovered that the pace of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has accelerated dramatically during the drought as heavy agricultural pumping has drawn down aquifer levels to new lows and now threatens to devastate the underground water reserves.”

— “California university apologizes for prisoner experiments,” by the AP: “A prominent California medical school has apologized for conducting dozens of unethical medical experiments on at least 2,600 incarcerated men in the 1960s and 1970s, including putting pesticides and herbicides on the men’s skin and injecting it into their veins.”

OFFICE ORDERS — “Here’s what new California labor laws mean for you in 2023, from minimum wage to family leave,” by the Sacramento Bee’s Maya Miller: “Job hunters will be able to know how much a position pays before applying. Public employers found to be interfering with union activity will pay sizable fines. Family leave benefits will improve. These are some of the changes coming for California workers and businesses as the calendar flips to 2023."

— “Long-sought pregnancy protections are on the verge of becoming law,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bob Egelko: “Pregnant employees will be entitled to places where they can sit, limits on how much they have to carry and other reasonable accommodations from their employer under long-fought federal legislation co-sponsored by Bay Area Rep. Jackie Speier that is about to become law.”

— “‘Dickensian’ Conditions At LA County Jail Amid Shortage Of Psychiatric Staff,” by LAist’s Robert Garrova: “The L.A. County Jail system is facing a stark shortage of psychiatric staffers amid what experts and officials say is an exploding population of incarcerated people living with a mental illness.”

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BIDEN, HARRIS AND THE HILL

MORE ON J6… Trump acknowledged his election loss to McCarthy before Jan. 6, Hutchinson testified, by POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told then-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson in the days before Jan. 6, 2021, that Donald Trump had privately acknowledged losing the 2020 election, according to a newly disclosed interview Hutchinson gave to the Jan. 6 select committee.

… AND MORE — “Jan. 6 Panel Issues Final Report, Placing Blame for Capitol Riot on ‘One Man,’” by the New York Times’ Luke Broadwater and Maggie Haberman: “Declaring that the central cause of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was ‘one man,’ the House committee investigating the assault delivered its final report on Thursday, describing in extensive detail how former President Donald J. Trump had carried out what it called ‘a multipart plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election’ and offering recommendations for steps to assure nothing like it could happen again.”

— “Congress has a $1.7 trillion bill to fund the government. Here’s what’s in it,” by the Washington Post’s Tony Romm: “Congressional lawmakers hope on Thursday to finalize a bipartisan, roughly $1.7 trillion bill that boosts domestic and defense spending through most of 2023, funding the government and averting a catastrophic shutdown in the waning hours of the year.”

SILICON VALLEYLAND

CRYPTO CHARGES — Former Alameda Research executive Caroline Ellison pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to a massive alleged fraud yesterday; Ellison was the responsible officer for $12 million Alameda Research channeled toward a pandemic prevention initiative. Meanwhile, FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried has been released to his parents’ Palo Alto home as he awaits trial.

THE CALIFORNIA CRUMBLE — “Dream jobs brought them to Silicon Valley. Now they’re laid off and in an ‘impossible’ situation,” by the Guardian’s Johana Bhuiyan: “Over the last few months the tech industry has been in a period of upheaval. In an apparent retrenchment, companies have conducted mass layoffs after pouring their war chest of funding and resources into chasing the Covid pandemic’s explosive but fleeting growth in demand.”

ELON’S BIRD APP — “This Is What It Looks Like When Twitter Falls Apart,” by the Atlantic’s Caroline Mimbs Nyce: “In just eight weeks, Musk has laid off large chunks of the workforce, asked those who remained to commit to being ‘extremely hardcore,’ unbanned previously suspended accounts, caused advertisers to flee the platform, kicked a number of journalists off the platform and then reinstated them, and polled users about whether or not he should continue as CEO (a majority voted no).”

MIXTAPE

DUELING TRENDS — “L.A. students’ grades are rising, but test scores are falling. Why the big disconnect?” by the Los Angeles Times’ Paloma Esquivel.

— “Twitter seeks dismissal of disability bias lawsuit over job cuts,” by Reuters’ Daniel Wiessner.

HOLIDAY HEADACHE — “Wave of canceled flights across US causing Christmas travel headaches at SMF, LAX, SFO,” by the Sacramento Bee’s Jacqueline Pinedo.

— “Arbitration of California Labor Law Claims Still Varies, for Now,” by Bloomberg’s Robert Iafolla.

— “It will be the biggest navigation center in Northern California. Can it end homelessness in this Bay Area county?” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Kevin Fagan.

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