Essential Politics archive: Updates from Sacramento

The latest Essential Politics news feed has gotten started over here.

You can bookmark latimes.com/essentialpolitics to track the latest in Sacramento and around the state.

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(Larry French / Getty Images for ANOC)

Vice President Joe Biden will rally the party faithful next weekend, as California Democrats gather for their annual convention.

The state Democratic Party has announced Biden will speak to attendees on Saturday, Feb. 27, at the convention in San Jose.

It’s worth noting that in the last open race for the White House, Biden took a pass on wooing California’s Democrats. He was the only candidate in the 2008 Democratic presidential race who skipped the California party’s convention in 2007.

Neither of this year’s major contenders, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is scheduled to attend next weekend.

Biden will be joined by Sen. Barbara Boxer and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich as the marquee attractions.

A documentary that takes sharp aim at the use of extracting oil through hydraulic fracturing premieres tonight at showings in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the title makes it clear where the filmmakers are pointing their critique.

The documentary is called, quite simply, “Dear Governor Brown.”

The 20-minute film focuses on California’s oil industry, with the filmmakers making it clear that Brown and state officials haven’t done enough when it comes to fracking.

The team behind the movie, led by filmmaker Jon Bowermaster and actor Mark Ruffalo, produced a similar critique of fracking in New York in 2012 titled “Dear Governor Cuomo.”

An invitation to tonight’s Los Angeles showing boasts that when it comes to California’s governor, the film “will expose his oily record, and lift up the voices most impacted by his decisions.”

Brown has faced continued criticism for his dismissal of calls to impose an outright moratorium on fracking in California. After signing a 2013 law to impose new state government oversight, he’s subsequently said he supports “efficient” oil production while looking for longer term replacements.

Ruffalo, an actor most recently known for his roles in the Oscar-nominated movie “Spotlight” and as the comic-book superhero the Hulk, has been dogging Brown for months about his record on oil drilling.

The long, wonky negotiations over Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to revamp a tax on healthcare plans are now getting more overtly political.

The Assembly GOP caucus has staked out its bargaining stance, looking to dictate more than $800 million in spending that would be made possible by the new tax package.

Senate Republicans have taken a more hardline position against the proposal. Other GOP allies, including health insurers and the California Chamber of Commerce, publicly support the plan.

And on Thursday, the influential anti-tax group the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. said it’s neutral on the measure, which could provide political cover for typically tax-averse Republicans to come on board.

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State Sen. Ricardo Lara wants to provide financial help for immigrants seeking to be medical workers.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Immigrants in the country illegally who study to become physicians and nurses would be able to get the same financial help from the state provided to citizens under legislation announced Thursday by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens).

Lara, who has pioneered other immigrant laws, said his bill is necessary to help address a shortage of medical workers in California, especially in under-served immigrant communities.

“Despite the ability for undocumented students to apply for a professional license, these future physicians, nurses and clinical social workers and medical assistants are unable to apply for scholarships or loan repayment,” Lara said in a statement. “This bill will strengthen California’s workforce by ensuring our skilled medical professionals can complete their education and contribute to the well-being of our state.”

The state Health Professions Education Foundation is a nonprofit group that awards scholarships and loan repayments of up to $105,000 to health professionals who are qualified to serve patients for whom English is a second language. The money comes from administrative fines and penalties on health plans, the millionaires tax for mental health services imposed by 2004’s Proposition 63, and health professional licensing surcharges.

Currently, health professionals need to be able to provide a social security number to be eligible for payments, which limits it to legal residents. Lara’s bill would allow applicants to use taxpayer identification numbers, which are available to noncitizens.

(Stefano Paltera / Los Angeles Times)

A former state senator who points to air pollution in his native Central Valley as a priority has been appointed to the California Air Resources Board, one of two spots on the powerful panel created through a law signed last year.

Dean Florez, a native of Kern County, was tapped on Wednesday afternoon by the Senate Rules Committee to become the newest member of the air board.

Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said in a written statement that the former Democratic legislator has “the experience to fight for kids struggling to breathe in our communities and the resolve to stand up to the oil lobby who want to keep the status quo.”

Florez, 52, served for 12 years in the Legislature with most of that in the Senate, before leaving in 2010. He currently owns a public affairs company and has been active in higher education issues since leaving elected office.

Earlier this month, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) appointed environmental advocate Diane Takvorian to the air pollution agency’s governing board. Both positions were created after Gov. Jerry Brown signed Atkins’ bill last year to expand the air board’s membership by two spots, with both new members tasked to speak on behalf of disadvantaged communities.

““Today’s ground zero on air pollution is located in communities of color in Los Angeles, Central Valley, and the Inland Empire,” said Florez in a written statement. “People there don’t drive high end cars, but they breathe dirty air and suffer from pollution more than others.”

A trio of state Assembly members wants to prohibit school districts from collecting students’ Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.

The measure was inspired by news that 10 million public school students’ records -- that include Social Security numbers and medical information -- must be turned over to a parents advocacy organization that is suing the state Department of Education.

The parents’ suit contends that special needs students are not getting enough school resources.

Two Democratic Assembly members, Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego and Mike Gatto of Glendale, and one Republican, Melissa Melendez of Lake Elsinore, want to stop schools from collecting such data in the first place.

Their bill, which was introduced Wednesday, would bar schools from asking for Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.

“As a mom, I’ve seen my kids’ schools over the years request Social Security numbers, medical information, and other private information that they don’t need or have a right to,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

“Rather than expecting parents to have the knowledge and capacity to fight to protect their child’s privacy, we should get schools out of the business of asking in the first place.”

A new wage-equality law aimed at helping women in California should be extended to also reduce disparities in pay by race, a state lawmaker said Wednesday.

Sen. Isadore Hall III (D-Compton) introduced a bill that would prohibit employers from paying workers a wage rate less than the rate paid to employees of a different race or ethnicity for “substantially similar” work.

“No employee should be denied an equal wage for an equal day of work,” said Hall, who is chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, during a Capitol news conference. “It is an economic injustice. It is discriminatory. It is just wrong.”

Hall cited a 2013 study by the American Assn. of University Women that found African American men earn 75% of the average salary of a Caucasian male worker in California, while African American women make 64 cents, and Hispanic or Latina women make just 54 cents for every dollar that a white man earns.

The new standard would make it easier for employees to challenge what they believe is unfair pay, borrowing language from a gender pay law approved last year by the Legislature and governor.

Hall said his mother had to work three jobs to care for her six kids, which was difficult. “It is even more difficult to do when your job pays you less than your white co-workers,” he said.

The measure is supported by several civil rights activists, including Cassandra Jennings, president of the Greater Sacramento Urban League, who said the wage disparity is “unacceptable.”

“This puts many of our participants at a huge disadvantage in entering the workplace,” she said during the news conference to announce SB 1063.

Concerned by the death last year of a special needs teenager left on a bus during a heat wave, a state lawmaker on Tuesday proposed that California school buses be equipped with child-safety alarm systems.

Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) said such alarms prompt the driver to inspect all seats before leaving the bus, making sure drivers do not leave children unattended.

“No parent should fear that their child will not return home safely at the end of the day,” Mendoza said. “My hope is that SB 1072 will prevent future tragedies by requiring every school bus in the state to be equipped with a child-safety alarm system.”

Mendoza was reacting to the September death of 19-year-old special needs student Hun Joon Lee, who regularly rode a school bus from his home in Whittier to the Sierra Education Center in Whittier.

When he didn’t return home on time one day, his parents called the school. Lee was found slumped in the aisle of a bus that had been parked for the day.

State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) is making another run at a measure to outlaw the use of bullhooks when handling elephants.

Lara tried last year to make it a misdemeanor to use the sharp devices in order to train or manage elephants. But the measure was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who nixed a number of bills that would have created new crimes.

This time, Lara proposes adding a new section to the state’s Fish and Game Code to outlaw the use of bullhooks.

“I remain committed to protecting elephants from abusive management practices. It is a privilege to possess elephants in California and we should not tolerate mistreating elephants for any reason,” Lara said in a statement.

The city of Los Angeles passed a bullhook ban in 2014.

(Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

One of the selling points for California’s top-two primary system was that when two candidates from the same party moved on to the November election, they would have to court voters whose party was left out and thus create an advantage for more centrist candidates.

But if the voters without a party standard bearer simply skip that race altogether, then is the new system really working as promised?

That’s the question posed in a new column penned by Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc. for the online news publication Capitol Weekly.

Mitchell has been tracking the “undervote” ballots from the last two election cycles, a phenomenon where a voter leaves one or more races blank. And he’s found that the percentage of undervotes is demonstrably higher in races featuring either two Democrats or two Republicans.

“And this undervote contains an unpleasant truth about the open primary,” writes Mitchell. “In some cases, voters from both sides just abstain from the process rather than serve as a counterbalance to extreme partisanship.”

Mitchell says that since 2012, there have been more than a dozen legislative races in which the percentage of undervotes was substantially higher than normal — and that all of them were intra-party contests.

“It is possible that trends will change as more voters become familiar with intra-party general elections,” he writes. “But for this to happen, it would probably require a big statewide intraparty race for governor, U.S. Senate or another constitutional office.”

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A number of California’s most experienced political consultants say to keep an eye on what happens between now and early April, when backers of potential ballot measures are going to have to make some tough decisions about what they’re willing to spend on a November statewide election.

And at this point, there’s at least one analysis to suggest the grand total could be as high as $500 million by the time voters have their say on a bumper crop of ballot measures Nov. 8.

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Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) are asking that federal employees be allowed to be reimbursed for using ride-sharing services such as Lyft or Uber.

The letter asks the General Services Administration to instruct federal agencies to issue a guidance that using the services is permitted, encouraged and reimbursable.

Issa and Swalwell are co-chairmen of the House Sharing Economy Caucus. Uber and Lyft, the best-known ride share services, are based in San Francisco.

“Ride-sharing companies are often a more efficient and less expensive way to travel. A little [administration] guidance would go a long way toward getting all agencies on board with the future of local transportation,” Swalwell said in a statement.

Issa said the federal government should embrace the use of ride-sharing services, as consumers have.

“In many cases it will save a traveler time and money, making it a common sense choice the [administration] should allow for government business travel,” Issa said in a statement.

In October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation allowing the state’s 228,000 employees to be reimbursed for the cost of using the sharing-economy businesses for business travel. The legislation took effect last month.

California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris on Monday morning holds her first public event since Justice Antonin Scalia’s death and the subsequent speculation about her potential consideration to fill his vacancy.

Harris’ spokesman politely says the candidate is flattered, but focused on her Senate race.

Here’s why the speculation is unlikely to amount to more than just talk.

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Rep. Loretta Sanchez

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Senate hopeful Rep. Loretta Sanchez has earned the backing of the Latino Victory Fund, a political action committee that supports Latino candidates and includes billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as co-chairmen.

The endorsement, which the Washington-based group will announce this morning, is not a major surprise. If elected, Sanchez would be the Senate’s first Latina. But she has a long way to go, and first faces a primary against California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris.

That’s what is intriguing about the endorsement — Maya Harris, the sister of Sanchez’s top Democratic rival, is on the board of directors of the group’s parent organization, the Latino Victory Project.

Cristóbal Alex, president of the Latino Victory Project, praised Sanchez as a champion of “issues that the Latino community cares about, including working to improve the economy, to ensure that our children receive access to quality education and that our communities have a clean, safe environment.”

The Latino Victory Project was founded by actress Eva Longoria and businessman and Democratic fundraiser Henry R. Muñoz III. The group also aims to increase voter registration and turnout among Latinos.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager and deep-pocketed Democratic donor, joined the Latino Victory Fund in January. He serves as a co-director along with Villaraigosa, Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro and Melissa Mark-Viverito , speaker of the New York City Council.

The 2016 campaign season in California was big news in the week that’s just ended, with one fewer candidate in the race for the U.S. Senate and new challenges for Gov. Jerry Brown’s political agenda.

In this week’s California Politics Podcast, we also discuss the intense debate over the future of the Coastal Commission, and the fascinating politics of gender equity bills introduced in the Legislature.

You can subscribe the podcast via iTunes here.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

The Brown administration may have underestimated the state’s savings as a result of Proposition 47 by as much as $100 million, says the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Prop. 47, an initiative passed by California voters in 2014, downgraded drug possession and other nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors.

Brown’s budget had estimated that the savings would be about $39 million.

In a report released Friday suggesting the total savings could be as high as $130 million, the analyst’s office says Brown’s figures underestimate the savings in court costs and prison housing and overestimate how much state agencies have spent to implement the law.

The money, by law, is supposed to go into a fund that helps pay for mental health and substance abuse programs, combat truancy and lower dropout rates, along with victim services.

“While the administration’s approach would benefit the General Fund ... it does so at the expense of the programs that receive funding from [the account],” the report said.

Rocky Chavez, seated left, with George “Duf” Sundheim, middle, and Tom Del Beccaro, right, at a debate Monday night.

(Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times)

Oceanside Assemblyman Rocky Chavez is endorsing Republican candidate George “Duf” Sundheim’s U.S. Senate bid, just days after ending his own candidacy.

“We also need someone who understands the diverse nature of our state and can represent all Californians,” Chavez, a Republican and former Marine colonel, said in a statement released by the Sundheim campaign. “Duf Sundheim is the candidate who not only understands these issues, but has a track record of achievement. That is why I am endorsing him today.”

Chavez’s endorsement snubs Tom Del Beccaro, who is considered the more conservative of the three. Both Del Beccaro and Sundheim are Bay Area attorneys who had served as chairmen of the California Republican Party.

Chavez and Sundheim aligned on several issues, including supporting a “pathway to legal status” for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Chavez plans to run for reelection in his Republican-leaning Assembly district, which includes Oceanside, Encinitas and Carlsbad. Other candidates currently in that race include Republicans Phil Graham, the stepson of former Gov. Pete Wilson, and Oceanside City Councilman Jerry Kern.

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We had a behind-the-scenes perch for President Obama’s fundraisers in Hancock Park on Thursday.

Find out who was there, what John Legend sang and what Obama had to say about Los Angeles.

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Gov. Jerry Brown has come out against a $9-billion school bond measure that will go before voters in November, erecting a political hurdle for advocates of new spending on school construction.

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Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) took a drag off his pocket vaporizer during a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday to protest a proposed ban of electronic cigarettes on airplanes.

“So, this is called a -- this is called a vaporizer,” Hunter said, holding back a smile after blowing out a dramatic white cloud.

“There is no burning. There is nothing noxious about this whatsoever,” Hunter went on to say. “This has helped thousands of people quit smoking. It’s helped me quit smoking.”

The room broke out in giggles after the stunt but Hunter is deadly serious when it comes to opposing efforts to restrict the use of e-cigarettes. Hunter wrote a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) last month, saying, “E-cigarettes are a suitable alternative to cigarettes, and they could very well save my life.”

Hunter’s vaping didn’t save the day for e-cigarette smokers. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee adopted the amendment by a 33-26 vote, USA Today reported.

Hunter is so well known around Washington for vaping that other members of Congress unfamiliar with the devices have asked to try his out, said Hunter’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper. Hunter always lets them take a puff.

“He makes no effort to conceal it,” Kasper said. “People know him as somebody who not only vapes but is a huge proponent.”

Hunter recently toured the facilities of a Los Angeles-based company, Vaporcade, that sells a combination cellphone vaporizer called the Jupiter, he said.

Kasper said Hunter was working on legislation to create a regulatory framework for e-cigarettes.

The Food and Drug Administration has reported that the potential health effects of electronic cigarettes have not been fully studied.

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President Obama told Democratic donors in the Bay Area, “don’t despair” over a Supreme Court decision to stay a case involving his Environmental Protection Agency’s clean power initiative.

“The Supreme Court did something unusual this week. The centerpiece of our climate action plan involves working with states like California to come up with a strategy for reducing their carbon emissions,” the president said as he attended a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.

The remarks, his first on the topic since the ruling earlier this week, were captured by a reporter allowed into the fundraiser for a portion of Obama’s talk with donors at Steve Westly’s home in Atherton.

Obama explained his administration’s strategy comes under the Clean Air Act, “which the Supreme Court says requires the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions if we can show, as science has clearly shown, damage to public health.”

The president said his team is “very confident we are on strong legal footing here.”

“One of reasons I want to talk about this is because in the last couple of days I’ve heard people say, ‘The Supreme Court struck down the clean power plant rule. That’s not true, so don’t despair people,” Obama said. “This a legal decision that says, ‘Hold on until we review the legality.’ We are very firm in terms of the legal footing here… “

The president called for “investing in the future, not the past” and then went on to give boilerplate fundraising remarks.

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As we’ve been reporting in our Essential Politics newsletter, President Obama is headed to Los Angeles this afternoon to tape with Ellen DeGeneres and attend two Democratic National Committee fundraisers in Hancock Park. John Legend is performing in one of them.

Live in L.A. and worried about the roads? Here’s a list of street closures.

And here’s how California Republicans are preparing.

(Christina House / For The Times)

Remember that bruising fight over SB 350 and whether the state should slash the petroleum use in half?

It’s back again, this year in the form of Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal.

The budget the governor submitted to the Legislature last month proposed spending a third of the state’s cap-and-trade funds, about $1 billion, on public transit, promoting electric vehicles and other programs, all with the explicit goal of cutting oil use by 50% by 2030. Those dollars were collected through the auction of pollution credits to companies that emit greenhouse gases.

In doing so, the governor’s decision to place such a visible marker could be adding a sizable new wrinkle to budget negotiations this spring in Sacramento.

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Californians with questions about the state’s aid-in-dying law would be able to call a toll-free hotline under a proposal by state Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel).

Monning, a co-author of the new End of Life Option Act, introduced legislation Thursday that would require the California Department of Public Health to establish and operate the hotline.

The new law allows physicians in California to prescribe lethal doses of drugs for use by terminally ill patients who want to hasten their deaths.

“As California moves forward to implement this pioneering law, it is important that there is a resource available to patients, doctors, or anyone who is interested in learning how the new law works,” Monning said in a statement.

The California Medical Assn. recently issued guidelines for people wanting to use the new law, which won’t take effect until 90 days after the end of the current special legislative session on healthcare.

More than two dozen state employees mishandled or wasted a total of $372,000 through improper expenses, overcharging for time worked, filing false claims and not disclosing outside income, a state audit found Thursday.

State Auditor Elaine Howle detailed the misconduct in a report on whistleblower investigations completed by her office during the last two years.

“Through our investigations, we found misuse of state resources, forgery, false time reporting, violations of financial interests disclosure, and waste of state funds,” Howle wrote to Gov. Jerry Brown in a letter accompanying the report.

Ten cases were detailed in the report, which included the following findings:

-- Four psychiatrists at Patton State Hospital were paid $296,800 for work they did not do as each put in much less than the 40 hours per week they claimed during a one-year period. Some worked as few as 22 hours.

-- A supervising nurse for California Correctional Health Care Services, the agency overseeing prison health care appointed by federal judges, was paid $6,000 more than he was due after he forged military documents and falsely claimed he worked military reservist duties.

-- A psychiatrist at the Department of State Hospitals violated state law by failing to disclose income of $29,800 that he received from a pharmaceutical company.

-- The state wasted $25,600 in taxpayer funds during one year when it charged only eight hours of leave for 12 employees at Porterville Developmental Center who missed scheduled nine-hour or 10-hour workdays.

-- The state Resources Recycling and Recovery office wasted $4,200 on improper use of rental vehicles for state travel by renting from a private firm instead of a state government office.

--The Department of Water Resources wasted taxpayer funds when it improperly reimbursed three employees $4,500 in excess of the allowed amount for training they received.

(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, the only Republican leading one of the nation’s top 10 cities, is a rising star in the California GOP after just two years in office.

Bill Whalen, a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution who was a speechwriter for former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, says Faulconer’s on the “short list” of possible Republican candidates for governor in 2018.

So, the Los Angeles Times sat down with the mayor for a brief chat inside San Diego City Hall.

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On the floor of the U.S. House on Thursday, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) read the names of 18 people who died last month in mass shootings.

She plans to make it a habit.

Speier, who was shot five times while on a congressional fact-finding mission into the People’s Temple in Jonestown in 1978, said she will return to the House floor monthly to read the names of mass shooting victims from the previous month. She also plans to create a memorial wall for the victims outside her office.

“I’ve had enough of Congress’ failure to lead,” Speier said.

Lamenting that she didn’t have enough time to read the names of those who were shot but didn’t die, Speier told the stories of the 18 people killed in California, Delaware, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington and other states. Their photos and names will be added to the wall outside her Washington office in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Several members began similar memorial walls outside their congressional offices for military members who died in Iraq or Afghanistan. A handful remain.

“May the dead rest in peace and the wounded recover completely. It’s time, it’s time for Congress to end this bloodshed,” she said.

The day after the horrific attacks in San Bernardino, Speier said she’d boycott the House chamber or stay seated instead of standing for another moment of silence to shooting victims. She said the tributes are hollow because they have not been followed by action from Congress.

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State Sen. Isadore Hall III (D-Compton) is taking over the chairmanship of the California Legislative Black Caucus after Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Sr. (D–Los Angeles) abruptly resigned from the leadership position.

Jones-Sawyer said in a statement that the switch at midnight Friday would allow him to focus on legislative priorities as he seeks reelection.

“We’ve also worked tirelessly to raise awareness and increase the dialogue about the issues affecting our community,” Jones-Sawyer said, “while prioritizing the expansion of representation of our community at all levels of government.”

But Capitol sources said there has been tension over the caucus’ mixed record of success legislatively and the loss of top black staffers in the Legislature.

Hall, who is in a heated battle to win an open congressional seat, said in a statement that his goal is to expand the 12-member caucus in the 120-member Legislature through this year’s elections.

“As chair, I remain resolute in my commitment to expand African American representation in the California Legislature,” and to “promote workforce development and vocational education opportunities” as well as “protect and improve access to high quality preschool for every African American child,” he said.

Hall said other priorities would include increasing high school graduation rates and the number of black students who gain admission to and graduate from California colleges and universities.

For more than a year, the state has grappled with how to overhaul a tax on healthcare plans. Now, as Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal winds through the Legislature, there’s another question surfacing: What will the money be spent on?

The proposal got its first public hearing Wednesday. Legislators on the Assembly’s public health panel did not vote on the plan, but did hear a rundown of the complicated system of levies and tax breaks proposed to replace the state’s current tax on managed care organizations, which is set to expire in June.

Revenues from the new tax will help pay for Medi-Cal, state-subsidized healthcare for the poor. But members of both parties have also called for money to fund services for the developmentally disabled.

Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R-San Ramon) pointedly clarified on Wednesday that the current plan includes “zero funding” for the developmentally disabled.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) said there was “separately work being done to get to a deal” to secure such funding.

The proposal has garnered substantial industry support, ranging from the California Assn. of Health Plans to individual heavyweights such as Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente.

The health plans have historically been vital in attracting the Republican votes necessary to meet the two-thirds threshold for new taxes. Assemblyman Brian Maienschein (R-San Diego) said the number of supporters for the proposal was significant.

Still, he said, “we’re not there yet.” He and Baker were not outwardly hostile to the plan, but stopped short of signaling support.

The Senate will hold its own informational hearing later today. Votes on the proposal will likely be held next week, according to legislative sources.

Yet another bill has been proposed to tighten ethics and campaign finance standards for the state’s elected tax board.

The latest proposal, made Wednesday by Assemblyman Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma, would close loopholes that have allowed those with business before the panel to benefit the campaigns of members. The loopholes were identified in recent reports by the Los Angeles Times.

Dodd’s AB 1828 would ban political contributions from people and businesses that have appeals cases before the board a year before and after the case is adjudicated.

The bill, like one introduced last month by state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), also would prohibit board members from soliciting donations to nonprofit groups during the same two-year period. Hill’s measure would require board members to recuse themselves from acting on any matter involving a campaign contributor.

“It’s important that the public is given confidence that tax rulings before the Board are based on their merits and absent of the appearance of influence or favoritism,” Dodd said in a statement.

The Times recently reported that Board Chairman Jerome Horton solicited a donation to a charity founded by his wife from SpaceX after voting on a policy that could benefit the firm.

In addition, the newspaper reported that firms got around the $250 limit on contributions by having employees make dozens of $249 contributions or by giving money to a political action committee that then donated to board members.

The state’s ethics watchdog agency has launched a yearlong overhaul of California’s law governing campaign finance and lobbying with an eye toward streamlining and simplifying rules that many politicians complain are too complex, the agency’s top official said Wednesday.

Jodi Remke, chairwoman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, said the 41-year-old Political Reform Act needs to be updated, in part, to reflect changes in the way special interests try to influence elections and those who are elected.

“It’s impossible to understand,” Remke said of the law in a meeting with The Times’ Sacramento bureau. “If we can really focus on this and clean it up, it would be a huge step forward.”

In a step separate from the Act’s review, Remke said Wednesday that campaign contribution limits will likely be looked at to see whether they are adequate, given that far more money is spent independently from candidates by special interest groups. “Are we chasing our tails talking about contribution limits when that’s not really the game anymore?” she asked.

FPPC officials have long said the law needs to reflect the desire to prevent serious corruption instead of tripping up public officials on relatively minor issues.

“The goal is that we get away from the small, ticky-tacky technical violations so we can focus on the more serious violations,” Remke said. She also said there may be changes to get more people to disclose activity that should be considered as lobbying.

Faster disclosure of information, she said, is hindered by the state’s antiquated Cal-Access campaign finance system, which advocates and elections officials have urged should be overhauled.

Remke said the FPPC is working with UC Berkeley School of Law’s California Constitutional Center and the UC Davis School of Law where students are working on a first draft that then will go through revision by a citizens’ panel before being taken up by the FPPC.

Two Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation say they want the Federal Trade Commission to help stop “gay conversion therapy” targeted toward LGBT youth.

In a letter addressed to the commission, Reps. Jackie Speier (Hillsborough) and Ted Lieu (Torrance) urged the FTC to “take all actions possible” to stop the practice, which they called “unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent.” The letter also was signed by U.S. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

Conversion therapy puts LGBT children and youth at risk of suicide and substance abuse, the letter said, and “provokes guilt, anxiety, and societal rejection that negatively impacts healthy development of children and youth.”

Programs that aim to convert minors from gay to straight are already illegal in California, thanks to a law Lieu helped pass.

Similar bans have been introduced in Congress, including one by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), but have stalled. The White House has said it supports such a ban, saying conversion therapy “is neither medically nor ethically appropriate.”

President Obama is getting regular updates about the ongoing methane leak in Porter Ranch, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.

“That is a very serious situation out in California,” Earnest said on Air Force One at the start of a trip that will conclude in California. “I know the president has been updated regularly on this.”

The leaking gas well in Aliso Canyon prompted the evacuation of more than 4,000 homes but could be plugged in the next several days, the Southern California Gas Co. said Tuesday amid a weeks-long saga.

Prompted by questions from Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) at a speech to House Democrats in January, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden both committed to push for national gas storage standards to prevent future leaks.

Obama is on his way to California for several political fundraisers, an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and a summit about the Asia Pacific region. A stop in Porter Ranch or at the site of the spill is not on his schedule.

The ballot measure backed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom to impose new rules including background checks before buying ammunition now appears eligible for negotiation in the state Capitol -- that is, if either Newsom or legislators are interested.

Newsom tweeted on Tuesday that his initiative had gathered 25% of the voter signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot. That’s the threshold set by a 2014 law for legislative hearings on an initiative and could, if all sides agree, result in a compromise instead of a political campaign.

But so far the law that was hailed as major reform of California’s initiative process has produced no legislative hearings or political truces. Newsom’s proposal, drafted with the help of national groups, will be one to watch as it mirrors several prior gun violence proposals in the Legislature.

It looks like there was quite the party Tuesday night in downtown Sacramento, as Assembly Democrats gathered with Gov. Jerry Brown at the historic Stanford Mansion.

The gathering wasn’t announced ahead of time, but became pretty obvious once lawmakers opened up their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts later in the evening.

The private dinner offered legislative Democrats a chance to schmooze with the state’s constitutional officers. And given all statewide officials are Democrats, it was a single-party affair.

(Michel Euler / Associated Press)

Gov. Jerry Brown wasted little time on Tuesday criticizing the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to block the Obama administration’s carbon pollution limits on power plants.

“As the world gets hotter and closer to irreversible climate change, these justices appear tone-deaf as they fiddle with procedural niceties,” said Brown in a written statement released by his office.

It’s not the first time the governor has come to the defense of the federal effort, launched by President Obama last summer, to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by almost a third over the next decade and a half. In November, California joined 24 other states to formally support the Clean Power Plan in lawsuits brought by West Virginia, Texas, and other states. Brown later called out the leaders in those states for what he called “crass obstructionism.”

The governor was no less pointed in his comments issued on Tuesday.

“This arbitrary roadblock does incalculable damage and undermines America’s climate leadership,” said Brown’s statement on the high court’s action. “But make no mistake, this won’t stop California from continuing to do its part under the Clean Power Plan.”

(Stephen Dunn / Getty Images)

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a co-chairman of Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign in California, said before returns came in from New Hampshire he expected his guy to do “very well today.”

“I’ve been around enough to know that in campaigns and debates, you’re going to do great in some, you’re going to wish you did things differently in others,” Faulconer said in an interview. “Every race is a long race. I think he’s very, very well positioned.”

Faulconer is the only Republican mayor representing one of the nation’s 10 largest cities.

Faulconer, considered a rising star in a California Republican Party that is in dire need of one, said Rubio’s life story — he is the son of Cuban immigrants — and inspiring political message will connect with Californians.

“He has a very compelling story, and our job is to get that out,” he said.

The primary is June 7.

A Republican who already had devoted time and money to winning a state Assembly seat is not happy with Rocky Chavez’s surprise decision to drop out of the U.S. Senate race and instead run for reelection to his Oceanside district.

Phil Graham, the stepson of former California Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, said he never would have entered the race for the 76th Assembly District if he knew Chavez may opt to run again. Chavez, a former Marine colonel, had assured Graham he was all-in for the Senate race, according to a statement Graham’s campaign released Tuesday.

“I took him at his word when he said he was going to bring a Marine’s tenacity to the US Senate campaign, so I was surprised yesterday when I read that he had dropped out,” Graham said in the statement. “I feel I have a lot to offer in Sacramento, but if Rocky hadn’t told me and the rest of California he was committed to the US Senate race, I would not have run for his Assembly seat.”

Graham, an Encinitas executive, said he will spend the next few days talking with his supporters and “considering my options.” He said a number of people are encouraging him to stay in the race.

He raised $355,000 for his campaign in 2015 and had $221,000 in cash on hand at the end of the year. Chavez had $601 in his Assembly campaign account at the end of 2015.

Another Republican in the running, Oceanside City Councilman Jerry Kern, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Kern raised $184,000 and had $138,000 in the bank at the end of the year, state campaign finance records show.

The district includes Oceanside, Encinitas, Carlsbad and the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. Its voter registration leans strongly Republican.

San Diego political consultant John Hoy said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Graham and Kern stay in the race, even though Chavez will have strong support as the incumbent and someone with a military background.

“Any person who has invested that much time and energy and money is going to be reluctant to throw in the towel,” Hoy said.

Crews work on a relief well at the Aliso Canyon facility above the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles

(Dean Musgrove / Associated Press)

Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) asked for a congressional hearing Tuesday on the cause of the Porter Ranch gas leak, which has forced thousands from their homes.

Knight, whose district includes much of the Porter Ranch area, sent a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Railways, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) asking him to examine policy around underground natural gas storage facilities, such as the one in Aliso Canyon that has been leaking since October.

Knight also has asked the committee to consider legislation he sponsored last week that would require the Department of Transportation to set safety standards for natural gas storage facilities that considers the economic effects of the standards.

One of Knight’s opponents for reelection, Democrat Bryan Caforio, has criticized the legislation, saying the freshman lawmaker consulted the energy industry for what the bill should include. Caforio also charges Knight didn’t act quickly enough to respond to the leak.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) also has filed legislation and pushed President Obama to commit to new agency rules regarding gas storage.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

California state Treasurer John Chiang told a group of business leaders on Tuesday that he’s nearing a decision on running for governor in 2018 and could wrap up that process as soon as April.

And he hinted at what the decision will be.

“I’m strongly leaning toward it,” he said.

Chiang, 53, would join Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom as early contenders in what could be a crowded field of Democrats vying to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also is considering a run, and others could jump in as the 2018 campaign season kicks into gear.

Prior to being elected treasurer in 2014, Chiang spent eight years as state controller and a stint on the state Board of Equalization.

In brief remarks to reporters after a midday speech to the California Business Roundtable, the Los Angeles Democrat touted his experience in managing the state’s finances during the depths of the recession.

“If you’re going to have the big dreams, you have to finance it,” said Chiang in how his prior experience would play to his advantage in a campaign for governor.

Chiang reported $3.2 million in campaign funds in his most recent state filing, while Newsom reported about $8.4 million on hand.

The treasurer seemed eager to discuss the idea of running for governor, happily fielding the question from the business group after a brief presentation marketed as a speech on public finance.

“I’m almost there,” Chiang told the group.

An effort to place a $4.9-billion water bond on the November statewide ballot has officially ended before it began, with supporters saying they’re putting their hopes on the Legislature crafting a bond measure later this year.

“Legislative leadership has expressed an interest in natural resources bonds, and we are committed to working with them to place a measure on the 2016 ballot through the legislative process,” two of the bond’s backers, Jerry Meral of the Natural Heritage Institute and Jay Ziegler of The Nature Conservancy, wrote in a letter to supporters.

Meral had submitted multiple versions of a water bond initiative to elections officials and said in an interview last month that he was waiting to see whether a well-funded campaign could be mobilized for its passage. In the written statement, Meral and Ziegler noted that it may help to allow more of the money from 2014’s water bond, Proposition 1, to be spent first.

But money — the campaign kind in what’s shaping up to be a huge year for ballot initiatives — was also a key factor.

“The cost of gaining a place on this November’s ballot has risen dramatically in the last few weeks,” wrote the two men in their recent letter. “An extraordinary eleven initiatives are in circulation today, with several more about to enter circulation. This has driven the price of [voter] signatures to a very high level.”

Legislative oversight of California’s high-speed train project could increase under a new proposal to add two legislators to the system’s board of directors.

Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley), who chairs the Assembly’s Transportation Committee, introduced a bill Tuesday that would add one sitting legislator from each house as a non-voting member to the bullet train’s existing nine member governing panel.

“It is the Legislature’s job to act in the interest of California’s residents and participate in conversations about a program of this size and complexity,” Frazier said in a written statement.

Four members of the existing California High Speed Rail Authority board of directors are appointed by legislators, with Gov. Jerry Brown appointing five of the directors.

Frazier’s bill comes at a particularly intense time for the train project. Last month, the agency’s top officials told lawmakers that the project could take longer than expected to complete, though potentially cost less. And while the $68-billion effort has always had critics in Republican circles in Sacramento, more questions are now being raised by Democratic legislators.

Frazier also announced on Tuesday that he’s scheduled an oversight hearing for March 28 on the rail agency’s new business plan.

Yesterday marked one step forward in what has been arduous negotiations to overhaul a tax on healthcare plans to help pay for Medi-Cal: the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown finally revealed its proposal (in the form of two identical bills).

But the proposal still has a high political bar to clear — a two-thirds vote in the Legislature, which requires Republican votes. To sway tax-averse GOP legislators, the opinions of health plans themselves will be crucial.

If they endorse, or don’t vociferously oppose, the proposal, it could assuage Republican worries that the tax package might lead to increased costs for consumers.

Here’s where some healthcare companies have landed so far:

• The California Assn. of Health Plans, the main trade association for the industry, is still evaluating the proposal. “Having the bill in print allows the process to move forward,” said spokeswoman Nicole Kasabian Evans.
• Kaiser Permanente is neutral, but struck a positive tone: “From what we’ve seen ... we believe this proposal is a balanced one that will not negatively impact our purchasers or members,” said Amy Thoma, a Kaiser spokeswoman. “We appreciate the efforts of the administration and legislature to ensure this proposal won’t impede our ability to provide high-quality, affordable healthcare to all.”
  
• The Local Health Plans of California, an association of 16 not-for-profit plans, backs the measure. Brianna Lierman, the group’s CEO, said the proposal is “fair and meets federal requirements.”
  
• Cigna released a letter last week, before the proposal was officially introduced, saying the current structure “creates substantial competitive market advantages for some California plans at the expense of others.” The company remains opposed.
  

Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, seated on left

(Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times )

Assemblyman Rocky Chavez abruptly announced he was dropping out of the U.S. Senate race at the beginning of a live debate among the Republican candidates in San Diego on Monday evening.

Chavez was scheduled to debate GOP rivals George “Duf” Sundhiem and Tom Del Becarro, both Bay Area attorneys. A gasp came from the audience at the KOGO-AM radio station when Chavez opened the debate with his decision.

Chavez, a former Marine colonel, said he decided to bow out to give one of the remaining Republicans in the race a better chance of surviving the June 7 primary and making it to the general election.

Under California’s top-two primary system, the two candidates who receive the most votes in June, regardless of party, will face off in the general election. All recent polls how showed the two Democratic candidates, state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana, leading by a wide margin.

Chavez said he will instead run for reelection to his Oceanside Assembly seat.

In case you missed this story from Rong-Gon Lin II and Rosanna Xia, four state lawmakers are pushing more funding for an earthquake early-warning system that has been stalled by a lack of money.

Two separate bills, SB 438 and AB 1346, were amended Monday to ask that $23 million from the state General Fund be made available.

“There’s no valid reason not to make this relatively small investment in an early-warning system that has the potential to save the lives of Californians,” state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) said in a statement urging others to support the measure.

Hill, Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced), who is carrying the bill in the Assembly, are calling for the repeal of a current state law that prohibits spending state general fund dollars on an earthquake early-warning system.

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(Lenny Ignelzi / Associated Press)

Radio talk show host Carl DeMaio, who organized tonight’s debate among the top three California Republicans running for U.S. Senate, landed his job at KOGO-AM (600) after a bizarre twist in his promising political career.

The former San Diego city councilman, known as a hard-charging Republican, had challenged Democratic Rep. Scott Peters in 2014, losing by just over 6,000 votes in a district closely split between Republicans and Democratic voters.

DeMaio blamed his narrow defeat on a crippling allegation by a former staff member who, as the election approached, accused the candidate of sexual harassment.

Seven months after the election, that ex-staff member, Todd Bosnich, admitted he made the whole thing up.

Bosnich in June of last year told a federal judge that he lied when he said he had gotten an anonymous email threatening that he would never work in politics again if he revealed that he had been sexually harassed by DeMaio. Bosnich pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstruction of justice by lying to the FBI about the email and was sentenced to five years’ probation.

He admitted he sent the email himself through a dummy Yahoo account and then took the email to the Peters campaign, which turned it over to San Diego police.

DeMaio, who also lost a race for mayor in 2012, now hosts an afternoon talk show on KOGO-AM (600), which will livestream tonight’s debate at www.KOGO.com. DeMaio also has joined forces with former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed in a 2018 ballot initiative campaign to place new limits on pensions for government employees.

DeMaio will moderate tonight’s one-hour debate between Assemblyman Rocky Chavez of Oceanside, Palo Alto attorney George “Duf” Sundheim and Walnut Creek attorney Tom Del Becarro. Both Sundheim and Del Becarro are former chairmen of the California Republican Party.

When California voters cast ballots on June 7 for the state’s presidential primary, there will be 43 names from which to choose.

At least, that’s how it’s looking as of now.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla released his list of “generally recognized” presidential candidates, a reflection of California’s unique rules that gives its top elections official some discretion on who gets included.

Among Republicans, all seven of the candidates on the stage this past weekend in New Hampshire are included, plus Carly Fiorina and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. It does not include those who have either dropped out or suspended their campaigns.

For Democrats, the list is much longer than just Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It includes San Diego businessman Rocky De La Fuente and five other lesser known challengers.

And the ballot will include a bevy of presidential candidates for the Green, American Independent, Libertarian, and Peace and Freedom parties.

While election law allows a presidential candidate to also get on the ballot by circulating nomination papers, it also explicitly allows the secretary of state discretion to decide which candidates are “generally recognized throughout the United States or California.”

Things can change, and the law allows Padilla to add names to the list of presidential hopefuls until April 1. But he can’t remove names from the list unless a candidate formally asks him to do so.

Both women will assume their posts on March 7, when Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) takes over as Assembly speaker.

Some California lawmakers are dividing their time between their home state and Nevada these days as they try to give presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a boost ahead of the Silver State’s Democratic caucus on Feb. 20.

On Saturday, Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) led a caravan of California lawmakers and dozens of volunteers with the task of getting Nevadans to participate in the caucus and support Clinton. The Senate leader also appeared with former President Bill Clinton at a get-out-the-vote rally in Las Vegas.

De León tweeted from Reno and Las Vegas, where he was joined by Democratic Sens. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles and Ben Allen of Santa Monica and Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Echo Park).

“Hillary Clinton knows how to fight and win, and I believe that with her as president, California will have an effective and tireless partner in Washington who will fight to do at the national level what we have done here on the state level,” de León said in a statement.

An Orange County man pleaded guilty Friday to illegally laundering campaign contributions for state Sen. Janet Nguyen’s 2012 campaign for an Orange County supervisor seat.

The investigation — conducted jointly by the Fair Political Practices Commission and the Orange County district attorney’s office — found that Son Truong Nguyen reimbursed a total of $13,000 to campaign contributors, obscuring the true source of the funds.

Nguyen, of Fountain Valley, was convicted of 10 counts of unlawful contributions, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to three years’ probation and 40 hours of community service; he will also have to pay a $20,000 fine to resolve the investigation by the state’s ethics agency.

The investigation did not lead to any charges for Sen. Nguyen, who served as supervisor until her election to the Senate in 2014.

Jay Wierenga, an FPPC spokesman, said “there was insufficient evidence to prove [Sen.] Nguyen knew of or was aware of the laundered funds.”

Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz has agreed to travel to Porter Ranch to visit the site of the ongoing Aliso Canyon natural gas leak, Sen. Barbara Boxer’s office announced Friday afternoon.

There is not a scheduled date for the visit, which Moniz agreed to in a phone call with the California senator Friday.

“After our conversation today, I am very grateful that Secretary Moniz will visit Aliso Canyon and step up his personal involvement in this issue,” Boxer said in a statement.

A state official said Thursday that the leak at Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility, which has spewed natural gas for more than 100 days and had caused thousands to evacuate, could be plugged at the earliest within a week.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Boxer want Moniz to lead a review by federal agencies of how the leak happened and how state and federal officials responded.

The Senate added an amendment ordering that review to energy legislation earlier in the week, but the bill stalled Thursday.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget team reports more than half of the money earmarked by lawmakers to combat the effects of California’s drought has been either spent or set in motion for spending, some two years after the governor’s formal drought declaration.

In a letter delivered to legislative leaders, Brown’s staff tallies some $1.8 billion in spending commitments through the end of the current fiscal year. Most of that is on long-term actions, while $628 million has been committed to more immediate needs — from immediate drought relief to drinking water supplies to groundwater monitoring.

The report, a requirement under last summer’s budget agreement, concludes that a full 92% of the short-term water projects have been identified for financial help.

In all, the drought funding effort totals $3.7 billion. The money comes from a variety of sources, including general fund tax dollars and bond money approved by voters in 2014 as Proposition 1.

It’s early, but political markers continue to be planted for what is expected to be California’s wide-open, hotly contested 2018 governor’s race.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the only candidate officially in the race and raising money at this point, in October launched a ballot initiative to toughen the state’s already strict gun laws, and a month later backed an initiative to legalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana in California.

On Friday, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is expected to jump into the race in the near future, would say only that he would “be honored to serve again.”

He did, however, provide a glimpse of what the focus of a gubernatorial campaign could be – education, poverty and Californians he says have been left behind in the “new economy.” The Democrat has been on a “listening tour” up and down the state for the last month, spending most of that time in impoverished Central Valley towns flattened by the recession and water crisis.

“If the challenge before us is to restore the luster of the California dream, then I think we need to focus on the areas left behind,” Villaraigosa told The Times.

An October Field Poll found 42% of registered voters said they were inclined to support Villaraigosa; 41% supported Newsom; and 36% supported Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

An internal poll conducted for the Newsom campaign released last week found — surprise, surprise — the lieutenant governor far ahead of the field.

Did we mention it’s way early?

Ten members of California’s congressional delegation warned the California Coastal Commission on Friday not to fire Executive Director John Lester.

In a letter led by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), the members wrote Lester has balanced “economic opportunity, access, and conservation for the benefit of all Californians.”

“We are concerned that firing the Executive Director of the Coastal Commission will threaten the non-partisan nature of the Commission’s work and endanger the very laws that have been so successfully upheld over the past decades,” the letter states. “We are concerned about any actions that would politicize Commission staff and subsequently risk the legacy and validity of the Commission.”

Lester’s detractors have said the push to remove him is due to his job performance. His supporters say he is being ousted by pro-development forces.

Lester’s employment will be considered at a public meeting of the commission Wednesday in Morro Bay.

The nine other Democrats who signed the letter were Reps. Julia Brownley (Westlake Village), John Garamendi (Walnut Grove), Sam Farr (Carmel), Janice Hahn (Los Angeles), Michael Honda (San Jose), Jared Huffman (San Rafael), Ted Lieu (Torrance), Zoe Lofgren (San Jose) and Adam Schiff (Burbank).

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In 1911, California’s constitution was amended to create a state railroad commission, an entity that over time added more and more duties and ultimately was renamed the California Public Utilities Commission.

Now, after several years of scandal and criticism, a bipartisan group of legislators wants to abolish the quasi-independent agency.

On this week’s episode of the California Politics Podcast, our reporter roundtable analyzes the new proposal to do away with the CPUC. We also take a look at campaign fundraising in the race for the U.S. Senate and other 2016 electoral efforts.

You can subscribe to the free podcast via iTunes.

Like millions of Americans, California’s delegation is planning to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, but they are divided on whether the Denver Broncos or the Carolina Panthers will win.

The game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.

Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk) said she has to cheer for the Broncos.

“If I say other than Broncos, my daughter-in-law will have kittens, she’s been a Broncos fan for decades,” she said.

Many members said that they want to watch a close game and that it’d be nice to see Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning win what might be his last Super Bowl.

Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) said he expects the Panthers have a better chance, but “I’m kind of an underdog fan. I’d like to see Manning go out with a Super Bowl,” Costa said.

As a 49ers fan, Costa said he’s more excited about rekindling a rivalry with the forthcoming Los Angeles Rams.

Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) said it would be exciting to see Manning win, but “I think the Panthers are tough to beat.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) said he’s backed the Panthers since before the playoffs, so “I’m going to stick with them, although my heart is telling me it would be nice if Peyton won on his way out.”

Carolina Panters Quarterback Cam Newton smiles during a game.

(Chris Keane / Associated Press)

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) first grumbled that the 49ers should have made it to the Super Bowl being played in their stadium.

“If I was betting with my wallet, I’d bet the Panthers, but I’d probably be sentimentally for Peyton Manning,” LaMalfa said. “The Broncos will show pretty well, but I still think the Panthers are probably going to, by the fourth quarter, overwhelm them.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) said it might upset Oakland Raiders fans, but he’s rooting for the Broncos too.

“I just like Peyton Manning. How can you not admire just a good guy like that?” he said.

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) said he thinks the Carolina Panthers will win. Why?

“They’re favored. I don’t watch football that much,” he said.

Some members haven’t picked sides, or don’t plan to watch.

Rep. Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) said he didn’t know enough to pick a team.

“Carolina’s going to be tough, but I don’t know,” Cook said. “It’s hard to guess, and I’m not a betting man.”

Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) said she normally doesn’t pick a team until after the game starts.

“I usually figure who I’m going to cheer for depending upon some silly little thing,” Davis said.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) said she doesn’t much care who plays. She’s going to make carne asada tacos, salsa and chicken wings for the fans in her house and then she’ll head out shopping.

As for the guy who represents the district where the game is being played? Michael Honda (D-San Jose) says his focus is on security.

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Rep. Darrell Issa will kick off his bid for a ninth term with a $25 per-person campaign event Feb. 20.

The Vista Republican serves on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees. He’s perhaps best known to Californians for bankrolling the recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003. He emerged on the national stage for repeatedly challenging the Obama administration from his role as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Issa, who annually is ranked the richest member of Congress, made most of his fortune in the 1990s while leading Directed Electronics Inc., a Vista-based manufacturer of vehicle antitheft devices that he created.

Issa started the calendar year with $3.8 million in the bank, according to his most recent campaign finance report. Douglas Applegate, the only Democrat who has announced a bid for the seat, started 2016 with $11,554 in cash on hand.

Issa’s event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Vista Entertainment Center.

There were nine candidates on stage — some had filed paperwork to run for office, some had not, and a few just had a website. At any rate, the hopefuls looking to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) all had their say at a debate at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Thursday night.

It was the first time the public got to hear from all the candidates in the hot race that is attracting a flood of financial contributions from celebrities and political action committees to the top contenders. But for the most part the crowd got engaged with other, lesser-known candidates.

Democrat William Ostrander, the executive director of a nonprofit working to remove the influence of money in politics, got the college crowd going early with his populist message, including calling for a 0.2% tax on financial transactions on Wall Street.

“Help me change the system,” he said.

Republican financial planner Matt Kokkonen got big applause attacking Obamacare while Jeff Oshins, a homeland security analyst, who talked mainly about reducing student debt, got laughs with a lighthearted demeanor and general aloofness.

Oshins, a former congressional staffer, said he would go to Washington, D.C., and confront his colleagues to work harder. “I don’t care, I’ll fight the ...,” he said, to a roar of laughter from a few hundred people in the crowd. (Anyone there was skipping the Democratic presidential debate, which happened at the same time.)

Democratic Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal, who has Capps’ endorsement and a large fundraising advantage, focused on his immigrant roots, raising the federal minimum wage and his support for President Obama’s call for free community college.

Twenty-seven-year-old Republican businessman Justin Fareed, who has turned heads with his large fundraising haul, asked Carbajal how the nation could fund “free college” without increasing the national debt. Carbajal did not respond.

Fareed talked about decreasing the nation’s spending and debt, but also was questioned directly by Oshins about whether he would sign a pledge to never increase taxes. That time, Fareed did not respond.

Democratic Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider remained mostly out of the fray, instead offering a defense of Planned Parenthood and taking federal action to stop the “epidemic of sexual assaults and rapes.”

She also made a subtle dig at her fellow Democrat Carbajal, who has received wide party establishment support, saying she was an independent decision maker who would not be a “yes man.”

Republican state Assemblyman K.H. “Katcho” Achadjian of San Luis Obispo billed himself as bipartisan and someone who could get things done.

In his closing speech, he pulled out a framed copy of a newspaper editorial calling him a “champion of consensus.”

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One of the most talked-about initiative campaigns of the 2016 election cycle received clearance Thursday afternoon to begin gathering voter signatures: the effort to extend temporary taxes on California’s highest-income earners.

The proposal, backed by a coalition of organized labor and healthcare groups, would keep those higher tax rates on the books an additional 12 years, expiring in 2030 instead of 2018.

The initiative is a modified version of 2012’s Proposition 30, a sales and income tax increase promoted at the time by Gov. Jerry Brown as necessary to help balance the state’s budget. The new version keeps the 1% to 3% hike in income tax rates on the most wealthy, while ditching the more unpopular sales tax provision.

A report from the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office projects the tax extension should bring in around $7.5 billion a year, depending on the stock market investments of California’s most wealthy.

The initiative reflects several political compromises. The first agreement was on how to divvy up the tax dollars, a deal that resulted in a politically powerful alliance between the California Teachers Assn., the Service Employees International Union, the California Hospital Assn. and the California Medical Assn.

But their original plan hit a major roadblock last month, when Brown announced the initiative had a “fatal flaw” by exempting the new tax revenues from the state’s new rainy-day budget fund. The initiative’s backers then went back and eliminated that provision of their proposal.

A day after the leader of California’s state Senate made it clear he’s backing Hillary Clinton in the race for president, 18 of his Democratic colleagues in the Legislature’s upper house have followed suit.

Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) made the announcement on behalf of the group in a written statement.

He said the Democratic legislators’ endorsement of Clinton “underscores her unwavering strength as a progressive leader on issues such as immigration reform, clean renewable energy, job creation and gender pay equity.”

The announcement came just a few hours before Thursday’s debate between Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and one day after the CNN town hall event in which Clinton defended her progressive bona fides in advance of next Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

The full group of endorsers includes Sens. Marty Block (D-San Diego), Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge), Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose), Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont), Ben Hueso (D-Logan Heights), Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino), Isadore Hall (D-Compton), Bill Monning (D-Carmel), Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), Lois Wolk (D-Davis), Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), and Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles).

California, as political watchers know, has historically been good to the Clintons, starting with former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 win in the state and stretching to Hillary Clinton’s defeat of Barack Obama in the state’s 2008 primary. A recent statewide public poll showed 55% of those surveyed have a favorable impression of her — higher than any other presidential candidate.

After a state audit last year excoriated the Central Basin Municipal Water District for poor management, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) is looking to overhaul the district’s operations.

Lara has introduced a bill that would authorize the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to appoint two additional members to the district’s board. It also would promote competitive bidding by limiting when the district could use single-source contracts and requiring quarterly reports on its contracting.

The result, Lara said, would be increased transparency and better cost controls for the district.

“Quite frankly, the Central Basin Municipal Water District continues to be plagued with problems,” Lara said in an interview. “The board’s poor leadership and decision-making really impacts the ability to meet its responsibilities.”

In response to last year’s audit, district officials said the agency already has taken steps to better its operations, such as establishing an ethics policy and imposing better financial controls.

But Lara said the agency’s self-improvement has fallen short.

“I welcome the Central Basin’s efforts to reform themselves, but I think we’ve given them enough time,” he said.

The billionaire environmentalist’s group, NextGen Climate, sent out an email Thursday, in advance of next week’s public hearing to determine the fate of Executive Director Charles Lester.

Lester’s detractors have said the push for his removal is due to his job performance. His supporters say he is being ousted by pro-development forces.

In the email, Steyer sides with the latter interpretation. He warns that the commission is “under pressure from special interests who would develop precious coastline and limit public access to beaches.”

The email includes a link to an online petition, which calls efforts to remove Lester “a threat to our fragile 1,100-mile coastline.”

It’s early, so that’s still to be seen, but California’s 24th congressional district is shaping up to be an interesting race.

Javier Panzar went digging through the year-end campaign finance filings and found that major PACs, members of Congress and celebrities are all pouring money into the race to influence who will replace retiring Democratic Rep. Lois Capps.

One candidate has the money and endorsement advantage, but this is no standard two-person race.

Panzar will be covering a debate among the crowded field of candidates tonight, so keep an eye on this space and follow him on Twitter.

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California’s revamped term limits for legislators have already changed the ebb and flow of politics in Sacramento. And they may ultimately help the legislative branch of government regain some of its lost power, says the incoming leader of the Assembly.

Assembly Speaker-elect Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) stopped by The Times’ Statehouse bureau on Wednesday for an informal chat about the year ahead. And he agreed that the ability to serve in Sacramento longer could be a potential game-changer.

“There’s a culture,” he said of things in recent years, “of the Legislature being secondary to the governor.”

More from Rendon’s visit is in our daily Essential Politics newsletter, which you can sign up to have delivered to your in-box every morning.

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(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

When Assemblyman Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) takes over as speaker in March, he’ll pick up a raft of new duties and responsibilities. But there’s one thing he won’t be doing: carrying his own legislation.

Rendon, in a meeting with The Times’ Sacramento bureau Wednesday, said he does not plan to author bills as speaker — a decision, he said, that is both “symbolic” and “functional.”

“It’s a new era. I want to empower [committee] chairs, I want to empower members,” Rendon said. “I want them to know that, to a large extent, the goal of the speaker is to make sure the caucus’ priorities get out.”

The move is a departure from those of recent legislative leaders. Current Speaker Toni Atkins (D-Los Angeles) has carried a number of bills, including last year’s law to close loopholes in the state’s ban on ivory sales and an unsuccessful proposal to increase affordable housing. Her predecessor, John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles), authored legislation to expand Medi-Cal and create the Middle Class Scholarship fund.

Senate leaders also have put their name to major legislation. The sweeping climate change legislation carried by Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) set off the fiercest legislative battle in the Capitol last year.

Just because Rendon doesn’t plan to author any bills doesn’t mean he’ll refrain from arm-twisting — or “speakerizing” in Capitol parlance — to advance his policy priorities.

“If the speaker speakerizes a bill on the [Assembly] floor, that’s as impactful as whoever’s name is on top of it,” Rendon said. “I’m going to continue to make sure the good bills get off our floor.”

There may be bigger individual players in the world of lobbying in Sacramento, but when it comes to broad industry sectors, the most money spent to lobby state government comes from local government.

Cities, counties, special districts and their advocacy organizations are tops. In final numbers reported this week for 2015, the government sector accounted for $45.9 million in lobbying activity. That outpaces the health industry ($44 million), manufacturing ($22.6 million) and oil and gas companies ($22.4 million).

A closer look finds Los Angeles County as the biggest government spender lobbying in the first year of the legislative session, with total expenses of more than $1.5 million. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was close behind, at almost $1.4 million in lobbying costs.

Southern California actually accounted for the five highest amounts spent by government to lobby government. Rounding out the biggest players were San Diego County ($1.4 million), Orange County ($1.2 million) and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ($1.17 million).

Assemblywoman Young Kim (R-Fullerton), left, accompanies Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Nicolaus), second from left, in Northern California.

California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton welcomes delegates to the 2014 state convention.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

The latest campaign finance reports show that the money mismatch continues between the state’s two major political parties, as the California Democratic Party has almost four times as much cash for the year ahead as does the California Republican Party.

In newly filed documents, Democrats report raising more than $4.3 million in the last three months of 2015. They ended the year with some $13.3 million in the bank.

Republicans, meanwhile, raised only about $1.9 million in the final quarter of 2015, and reported $3.45 million of cash on hand as of Dec. 31.

While the numbers are another example of Democratic dominance, it’s worth noting that GOP finances are now much stronger than they were a few years ago. Just three months before selecting former state Sen. Jim Brulte as its chairman in March 2013, the state Republican Party reported only about $155,000 in cash on hand. Under Brulte’s leadership, the party has spent less on operations and narrowed its focus to target only a handful of key races.

Still, the disparity means Democrats have substantially more resources for legislative races across the state as the 2016 election cycle begins.

Reps. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) and Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) filed separate pieces of legislation Tuesday requiring the Department of Transportation to set safety standards for natural gas storage facilities.

The Department’s Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) regulates transportation of natural gas and has the authority to regulate gas storage as well, but has mostly left that to state officials.

Knight said he expects his legislation to be heard by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure later this month. President Obama and Vice President Biden assured Sherman last week that they would push the agency to issue the regulations without congressional action. Sherman said Tuesday that he filed the bill as a backup to their promise.

In the Federal Register Tuesday, the agency urged gas companies to use industry “best practices” to ensure storage facilities are safe.