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Jeremy B. White and Lara Korte’s must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State | | | | |  | | By Lara Korte, Jeremy B. White, Matthew Brown and Ramon Castanos | THE BUZZ: Walgreens’ decision not to sell abortion pills in several states may have just cost it all its state business in another. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said the state will cut ties with the pharmacy giant after POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein first reported the company’s decision to stop distributing abortion pills in several states where they remain legal — due mostly to Republican pressure. What does that mean? Unclear. Newsom tweeted that the state won’t do business with Walgreens “or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women's lives at risk.” When asked for more info, it took the governor’s office two hours to issue a statement saying, effectively, the same thing as the tweet. “California is reviewing all relationships between Walgreens and the state,” Deputy Communications Director Brandon Richards told us. It’s hard to know the full extent of California’s business with Walgreens, but one stroll through the state contracts database shows millions of dollars worth of contracts between the pharmacy and the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation just within the last year — most recently, a $17,000 drug purchase on March 1. The declaration underscores California’s stance as an abortion safe-haven that works to defend women. But a tweet is not an executive order, even if it comes from the executive. How and when Newsom follows up will be key. This isn’t the first time the governor has taken a big swing before hammering out the fine print. As the Los Angeles Times’ Taryn Luna noted Monday, “Newsom has a tendency to seize on hot-button political issues and make attention-grabbing announcements before he has determined how the state will carry out his plan.” Walgreens’ Senior Director of External Relations Fraser Engerman, in an email, said “we aren’t going to comment on the tweet,” and pointed us to a previous press release on abortion pills. IN OTHER NEWSOM NEWS — The governor is going on tour. In lieu of the traditional State of the State address, Newsom will be traveling across California March 16-19 to outline policy proposals. Locations are TBD, and the governor plans to fulfill his constitutional obligation by sending a letter about the State of the State to the Legislature. The trip has the potential to give us a taste of the on-the-road trail experience we missed last year, when Newsom was such a shoo-in for re-election he barely campaigned. Newsom was, again, light on details. His office issued a statement vaguely promising “new policy proposals that will strengthen our communities.” BUENOS DÍAS, good Tuesday morning. Federal prosecutors today will try to convict former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley Thomas on corruption charges as his trial commences in L.A. Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit us up at jwhite@politico.com and lkorte@politico.com or follow us on Twitter @JeremyBWhite and @Lara_Korte. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I don’t know the facts. I don’t want to know facts. He’s a friend, and you stand by your friends when they have issues.” Fred Rosen, former CEO of Ticketmaster, who pitched in a total of $4,100 for the defense of Ridley-Thomas. TWEET OF THE DAY:
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katieporteroc | WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced today. For those who were curious — the governor was in Baja California from Thursday through Sunday for personal travel, his office told us. When he returned he got a briefing from the Office of Emergency Services on the severe winter storms in 13 counties.
| | | | PLAYBOOK MEET & GREET! Join California Playbook and POLITICO’s growing team in Sacramento at Smic’s Sip & Quip on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, for an evening of cocktails and conversation. As POLITICO expands in California, we want to more frequently convene our most influential readers in Sacramento and beyond. Swing by and have a cocktail on us—you never know who you might run into! Register here. | | | | | |  | TOP TALKERS | | GLOOMY BUDGET FORECASTS CONTINUE — California’s dour budget picture got worse in February when personal and corporate income taxes paid to the state fell $1.2 billion — or 25 percent — short of projections, according to Jason Sisney, the Assembly Democrats’ budget adviser. The lower-than-expected tax receipts deepen a projected deficit that Newsom’s administration earlier this year pegged at $22.5 billion. Newsom’s initial budget proposal, released in January, called for cuts and delays in climate, transportation and other spending, rather than dipping into the state’s rainy day fund, to make up for the shortfall. Legislators have been weighing other options in budget hearings. The February receipts came up short due to unexpectedly large corporate tax refunds and to a shortfall in personal income tax withholding, Sisney wrote in his Substack newsletter. That contributed to a revenue shortfall of around $4.5 billion compared to projections, Sisney said. — From POLITICO’s Wes Venteicher. — “California farmworkers just gained the right to vote for unions by mail, but for how long?” by CalMatters’ Nicole Foy: “The law went into effect on Jan. 1, but so far no bill with the agreed-upon changes had been filed by the Feb. 17 bill introduction deadline. Neither union officials nor the governor’s office would comment on why.”
| | CAMPAIGN MODE | | JUST BIDEN TIME — No, he hasn’t formally announced a reelection bid, but President Joe Biden is planning a West Coast fundraising swing next week, as first reported by POLITICO White House correspondent (and soon-to-be California bureau chief) Christopher Cadelago. It’s the surest sign yet the president will run for reelection, despite concerns about him starting a second term at 82 years old. The fundraising trip will take him to Rancho Santa Fe, a wealthy enclave of sprawling estates north of San Diego, Cadelago reports. He also will have likely stops in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
| | CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR | | — “Arnold Schwarzenegger has pointed message for antisemites: ‘You remove your own power’,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Emily St. Martin: “Schwarzenegger, who was California’s most recent Republican governor, began his address by describing the horrors he encountered when touring the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He also referenced his father, who was a member of the Nazi party, and his upbringing in Austria post-World War II.” — How Bay Area landlord Neill Sullivan changed West Oakland neighborhood, by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susie Nielson: “This corner is in one of Oakland’s oldest, most historic neighborhoods. Now called the Prescott or Lower Bottoms, it was sometimes referred to as a “Harlem of the West” due to the jazz clubs and bars that lined its streets in the 1940s and ’50s. But jobs dried up after the World War II boom, and the government neglected what had become a largely Black community.” — “Gascón loses retaliation case, a grim omen for the L.A. County D.A.,” by the Los Angeles Times’ James Queally: “An L.A. County prosecutor on Monday was awarded $1.5 million in a retaliation lawsuit against Dist. Atty. George Gascón, who faces more than a dozen similar civil claims that could prove equally costly. Shawn Randolph, the former head of the juvenile division of the district attorney’s office, claimed she was shuttled off to the parole division for pushing back against some of Gascón’s shifts to the handling of criminal cases involving minors, including his blanket ban on trying juveniles as adults.” — Is California’s antiquated water rights system racist? by the Los Angeles Times’ Ian James: “In the face of global warming and worsening cycles of drought, a growing number of water experts, lawmakers, environmental groups and tribes say the time has finally come for change. Some are pushing for a variety of reforms, while others are calling for the outright dismantling of California’s contentious water rights system.” — “Nonbinary workers in California are concentrated in lowest-paying jobs, report shows,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bob Egelko: “Data from private employers with 100 or more employees showed that, as of 2020, between 50 percent and 55 percent of workers who classified themselves as nonbinary were in a low-paying category of jobs, those paying less than $30,679 a year, said the California Civil Rights Department. In comparison, 32 percent of male employees and 43 percent of female workers earned less than that amount.” — “SoCalGas' proposed $4.9-billion revenue hike plan sparks outrage amid soaring bills,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Terry Castleman: “Despite public outcry over unusually high natural gas prices this winter, utility executives sought Monday to justify a proposal to generate nearly $5 billion in additional revenue from customers over the next four years.” FIDO 2.0 — “City Council to vote on LAPD robot dog donation amid growing criticism,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Libor Jany: “The controversial device would be paid for with a nearly $280,000 donation from the Los Angeles Police Foundation. The Police Commission and the council’s public safety committee have approved the move.”
| | BIDEN, HARRIS AND THE HILL | | — Biden administration expected to grant protected immigration status for Nicaraguans, by POLITICO’s Myah Ward: President Donald Trump sought to end Temporary Protected Status for Nicaraguans and several other nationalities in 2017 and 2018, putting more than 300,000 people at risk of losing their legal relief. Last fall, the Biden administration announced an 18-month TPS extension for multiple countries, including Nicaragua. — “There's no home field advantage in California for Vice President Kamala Harris,” opines George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times: “That concern was justified by a California poll last week. It was bad news for Harris. It showed that she leaves a lot of home state voters cold — and not just Republicans, but many independents who represent 23 percent of the electorate.”
| | SILICON VALLEYLAND | | TWITTER’S ‘TECH DEBT’ — “How a single engineer brought down Twitter on Monday,” by Platformer’s Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer: “On Monday morning, Twitter users logged on to find a thicket of connected issues. Clicking on links would no longer open them; instead, users would see a mysterious error message reporting that “your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint.” Images stopped loading as well. Other users reported that they could not access TweetDeck, the Twitter-owned client for professional users.”
| | HOLLYWOODLAND | | THE SLAP HEARD AROUND THE WORLD — Oscars 23: "Why 'The Slap' still matters, one year later,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein: “A year later, the Slap has become more than just a stunning scene from the 2022 Oscars. It’s been etched forever into the annals of popular culture, propelled by an unrelenting social media debate of the event’s every angle.”
| | IN MEMORIAM | | — “Famed mountain lion P-22 laid to rest in private tribal ceremony,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Laura J. Nelson.
| | BIRTHDAYS | | — Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) … Michael Eisner … Rachel Zuckerman … Katie McCormick Lelyveld
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