California Politics: Newsom’s win against Big Oil

SACRAMENTO —  “They’re ripping you off,” Gov. Gavin Newsom told Californians back in September, as he was running for reelection and gas prices topped $6 a gallon.

The California Democrat’s clarion call for a special legislative session to penalize oil companies culminated this week as the governor signed a new law that will force them to disclose more information to state regulators who could eventually impose a penalty for price-gouging.

It’s not exactly the policy Newsom said he wanted when he tweeted the “They’re ripping you off” video and called for taxing excessive petroleum profits. Lawmakers in his own party balked at that idea, with some saying in legislative hearings that they found no “smoking gun” confirming Newsom’s allegations of intentional price-gouging.

But the new law still gives Newsom a political victory over the oil industry, allowing him to position himself as a cutting-edge leader who scored a win against a politically powerful industry that many progressives view as a bogeyman.

“There’s a new sheriff in town in California, where we brought Big Oil to their knees,” Newsom said during this week’s bill-signing ceremony.

I’m Laurel Rosenhall, The Times’ Sacramento bureau chief, here to share the biggest stories this week in California politics:

Democrats divided over how to deal with fentanyl

As thousands of Californians die each year from drug overdoses fueled by fentanyl, a bitter fight has emerged in Sacramento over how lawmakers can hold dealers accountable without refilling state prisons and waging another war on drugs, reports Times staff writer Hannah Wiley.

On one side of the debate are Republicans and moderate Democrats calling for stronger criminal penalties for dealers who sell the deadly drug, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and contributed to nearly 6,000 overdose deaths in California in 2021.

On the other are left-leaning Democrats who’ve spent the last decade retooling the state’s penal code to favor treatment and rehabilitation over long prison sentences, and who are reluctant to embrace policies they fear could devastate Black and brown communities.

Wiley’s article takes you inside this disagreement, which reached a boiling point this week at the state Capitol. She watched Californians whose family members died from fentanyl overdoses pack a hearing room where Democrats voted down a bill that would require warning convicted fentanyl dealers that they could face homicide charges if they sell it again. And she interviewed the Democratic lawmaker who shelved several other bills to increase sentences for fentanyl dealers:

“I was around during the crack cocaine epidemic, and this is really very similar to the hysteria around crack cocaine,” said Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the Public Safety Committee.

He told Wiley that many of the bills he sidelined focused on “how can we fill up the prisons again” instead of a long-term solution to addiction.

Matt Capelouto of Riverside County, whose 20-year-old daughter died after taking a fentanyl pill that she bought from a dealer on Snapchat, had some choice words:

“What are the politicians of the Public Safety Committee, the people charged with protecting the lives and livelihoods of their constituents, actually doing? What are they doing about the drug dealers, the people responsible for knowingly jeopardizing the lives of the people they trade dollars for death to?” Capelouto said after the hearing.

“I’ll tell you what they’re doing,” he said. “Nothing.”

A bold move to repeal California’s travel ban

In a state Capitol dominated by Democrats, where expanding LGBTQ rights is a pillar of the agenda, this announcement from one of the most powerful lawmakers really surprised me:

Senate leader Toni Atkins — a San Diego Democrat who has blazed trails as a lesbian lawmaker and the first woman to lead both houses of the Legislature — said she wants California to repeal its ban on government-funded travel to states with anti-LGBTQ laws.

Atkins has introduced legislation to repeal the law she and her colleagues passed in 2016 with the encouragement of major gay-rights groups, who argued that an economic boycott by the state would “ensure that California tax dollars do not help finance discrimination beyond our borders.”

Instead, Atkins said she wants California to create a publicity campaign in red states that would encourage LGBTQ acceptance. Her bill would create a fund supported by private donors and possibly taxpayers that could pay for nonpartisan messages that discourage discrimination and help LGBTQ people feel less isolated.

“Polarization is not working,” Atkins said. “We need to adjust our strategy.”

While Atkins said California’s travel ban had been successful in sending a message that the Golden State opposes LGBTQ discrimination, her move to repeal it is a tacit acknowledgment that the ban has not worked as intended.

Read more about the unintended consequences of California’s travel ban in this article I wrote.

Keeping up with California politics

Mark Ridley-Thomas found guilty in corruption case
Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of Los Angeles County’s most prominent politicians, was found guilty of federal corruption charges related to special benefits his son received at USC. The verdict marks a devastating fall for a man who for more than 30 years was a power broker in L.A. politics and a vocal advocate for civil rights and racial justice. Ridley-Thomas, 68, now faces the possibility of years in federal prison and the permanent ouster from his seat on the L.A. City Council.

Nathan Fletcher to resign from San Diego County Board of Supervisors
Nathan Fletcher — the Democratic San Diego County supervisor who was considered a shoo-in for the California Senate just a few days ago — announced his resignation hours after he acknowledged inappropriate behavior with a former transit system employee who accused him of kissing and groping her in a lawsuit filed in San Diego County Superior Court. The husband of Lorena Gonzalez, the former Assemblymember who now leads the California Labor Federation, Fletcher, denied the assault and harassment allegations and said he’d entered treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse.

What are California lawmakers doing to fix the housing crisis? A look at 2023’s new bills
Feeling political pressure to solve California’s severe housing shortage and ballooning homelessness, state lawmakers are pushing new bills to increase production of affordable homes and strengthen tenant protections against evictions and surging rents. This article explains the most notable housing bills to watch this year.

California’s reparations task force will leave setting payment amounts to Legislature
The leader of California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force said it won’t take a stance on how much the state should compensate Black residents, whom economists estimate may be owed more than $800 billion for decades of overpolicing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination.

Column: A father shot his daughters. A mom wants to know why her warning was ignored
California does a terrible job preventing domestic violence and protecting victims from abuse once it has occurred, writes Times columnist Anita Chabria. Because somehow putting “domestic” before “violence” makes us treat it as less deadly or harmful than a random attack by a stranger, though about three women are killed every day by an intimate acquaintance in the U.S.

California lawmakers tell Army Corps of Engineers to speed up Pajaro levee repairs
Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein, along with Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley Village) have urged federal officials to speed construction on a levee that failed earlier this month, flooding the small town, and to provide immediate emergency relief funds to shore up the damaged infrastructure.

Column: Gloria Molina’s farewell message to L.A.: Don’t be corrupt
Gloria Molina, described by Times columnist Gustavo Arellano as one of the most consequential politicians in Los Angeles history, has been at home holding court with some of L.A.’s most powerful people since announcing that she is dying of cancer. Arrellano paid her a visit and wrote this lovely dispatch.

Khanna endorses Barbara Lee for U.S. Senate
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) passed on running for Senate himself and instead will co-chair the campaign of his progressive congressional colleague, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland).

Newsom rolls back California drought restrictions after remarkably wet winter
On the heels of one of California’s wettest winters on record, Newsom announced that he will roll back some of the state’s most severe drought restrictions and dramatically increase water supplies for agencies serving 27 million people.

Skelton: Newsom denies the obvious: California is no longer in drought
Another drought will emerge soon enough. It always does, writes Times columnist George Skelton. But right now, the biggest threat this spring is flooding from rivers leaping their banks.

Can California put an end to corporate greenwashing?
Legislation by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) seeks to end false and misleading marketing that claims a company is environmentally friendly when it actually does little to combat climate change. Senate Bill 253 would require private companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenues that do business in California to publicly reveal their greenhouse gas emissions.

Editorial: The Board of Equal What? Let California voters decide whether to dump pointless elected positions
Two bills would put constitutional amendments on the 2024 ballot to do away with the Board of Equalization and the elected superintendent of public instruction. The Times editorial board urges lawmakers to support the bills so that voters can decide if the positions are necessary.