CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER — California, the nation’s deep-blue, liberal stronghold, is the latest prize in the struggle among Republicans vying for the White House. After weeks of intraparty fighting, the California GOP recently voted to change how the state doles out its massive amount of primary delegates in a way that some argue will benefit former President Donald Trump. As our POLITICO colleague Rachael Bade reported Friday, that change was quietly pushed by Trump aides, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who helped craft a plan that was supported by the former president’s allies. It’s a strategy that Team Trump is deploying in other states around the country, Rachael tells us, but it also underscores how the presidential primary is causing rifts in the California GOP during a cycle when critical House districts are on the line. While Trump still maintains solid support in the state party, there is concern that his presence on the general ballot could hurt Republicans in purple districts. Already, some California Democrats have seized on Trump’s presence at the party’s upcoming fall convention as a chance to malign their opponents as MAGA extremists. DeSantis, who appears to have been outmaneuvered by Trump in the state primary process, is also speaking at the CA GOP convention in September. As is South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. There is appetite in the party for an alternative to Trump’s polarizing, bombastic politicking, said party Treasurer Greg Gandrud, who backed the former president in 2016 and 2020 but is now openly supporting DeSantis. Trump as the nominee creates some “challenging messaging” for Republicans in close congressional races, Gandrud said. But support for Trump still dominates party dynamics. And if crowd size is any indication, Trump is already holding an advantage over DeSantis among California Republicans. Tickets for Trump’s lunchtime convention speech have already surpassed the maximum room capacity at the Anaheim hotel, Gandrud said. As of Friday, party leaders were looking to move Trump’s speech to a larger venue to meet demand. YELLOW LIGHT — State Sen. Scott Wiener wants to bump up Bay Area bridge tolls by $1.50, but some of the state’s congressional delegation isn’t so jazzed. Seven members criticized the campaign in a letter Friday, contending such a hike would hurt their low-income, car-dependent constituents who can’t afford to live where they work. Wiener is pushing the effort to support low-income public transit users and fund safer and cleaner public transit alongside a handful of co-authors representing the region. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier said he supports increasing transit agency ridership, which is still reeling from the pandemic’s drastic ridership decline. But he's urging state lawmakers to assess the impact of this hike on working-class commuters who live in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties. “It’s particularly egregious for my constituents, knowing how they commute and the length of their commute and the cost of housing,” DeSaulnier said in an interview. “They can’t afford to live in San Francisco.” BONTA GOES TO BATTLE — California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta is once again wading into a fight with conservative school board members over LGBTQ issues. On Friday, Bonta announced a civil rights investigation into the Chino Valley Unified School District’s new policy forcing schools to disclose the identities of transgender and nonbinary students to their parents, as POLITICO’s Blake Jones reports. In a statement the attorney general, who is considering a run for governor, said the district’s policy to forcibly out students “threatens the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students vulnerable to harassment and potential abuse from peers and family members unaccepting of their gender identity.” Democratic state Superintendent Tony Thurmond, who is also mulling a run for the office, was tossed from the Chino Valley board’s July meeting after advocating against the policy — ostensibly because he went over the time he was given to speak. Blake spoke to Chino Board President Sonja Shaw about the investigation on Friday, who said she’s “not backing down.” "It's a joke," Shaw told him. "It just makes me sink my feet that much more into the sand and protect the kids against people who have no best interest for them."
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