This is the season for California lawmakers to travel across the globe, some to lush beachside resorts with schmoozing lobbyists, at no cost of their own.
A hand-selected group of elected officials spent the last few weeks traveling — gratis — to Hawaii, Vietnam and Taiwan to discuss big-picture policy ideas.
But these trips continue to be criticized as “junkets,” because they are funded and attended by special interest groups. Lawmakers were condemned when, during the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 10 legislators went to Maui, Hawaii, when travel was highly restricted.
“It’s not a good look,” said Sean McMorris, a program manager at Common Cause, which raises questions about trips bankrolled by special interest groups. He said that even when there are “rules and parameters” in place to limit lobbying activity, it’s “not easy” to monitor. “You’re kind of going on everyone’s word.”
Lobbying is more than “just speaking to a legislator about your policy goals,” he said. “It’s also about ingratiating yourself, creating goodwill and essentially, to some degree, creating an implicit obligation that I’ve done something for you. It’s sort of relationship building but, in politics, that relationship building is more suspect.”
This year, 12 officials traveled to Asia, including four state senators and five assemblymembers — most of whom sit on energy and transportation committees — and three state administration officials including Fiona Ma, the state treasurer. Together, they spent three weeks traveling to Taiwan and across northern and southern Vietnam, where they met with government officials, toured electric car plants and solar panel facilities and rode high-speed railways. They returned to California late Wednesday evening.
Another small group of lawmakers went on a four-day trip to Maui, starting last Monday, and stayed beachside at the Fairmont Kea Lani Hotel, a luxury hotel in Wailea, where the average room for five nights is around $4,000.
Dan Howle, executive director of the Independent Voter Project, a nonprofit that has hosted the Maui conference for 21 years, said they get a group discount which cuts the cost in half.
They spent the mornings on panels discussing topics ranging from healthcare, energy, technology and public safety. Lawmakers are free to roam around the rest of the day and sit poolside along with lobbyists.
“There’s so much animosity in Sacramento,” Howle said. “If we can get them away from the Capitol and to act normally, there’s a barrier that comes down that is hard to get in Sacramento.”
The financial backers of the Maui event ranged from a variety of special interests including healthcare, technology and law enforcement. Some major donors from years past include AT&T, the California Retailer’s Assn., Walmart, Pfizer and the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., according to donor disclosure forms that are available from the last three years.
Howle declined to say how many legislators attended the trip, or what donors or lobbyists were involved this year, but referred to public disclosure forms that will be made public next April.
Howle added that anybody who lobbies “is not invited back.”
“Clearly, having this type of exposure and seeing these things… a legislator will be more well rounded, more educated and able to make better decisions on behalf of their constituents,” said Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), who is termed out of the Legislature at the end of the month but had the chance to go to Asia after another lawmaker couldn’t attend. “We tend to say we’re the fourth biggest, the best economy in the world. But this is a big world we live in.”
The goal, Dodd said, is “to see what other countries have that move the needle.”
“Being in the Legislature is like drinking from a fire hose,” said Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) chair of the Transportation Committee and a member of a subcommittee on climate, energy and transportation.
Wilson said taking the time to step away from the Capitol and speak about policy lets them slow down and have more thoughtful discussions. “You get to have these deep conversations.“
Wilson said she hardly thinks of it as a vacation and was working from sunrise to sundown most days. The legislator also attended the Maui conference in 2022 and 2023, according to financial disclosure forms. She opted out of this year’s conference to attend the trip to Asia.
“You do too much work on those trips to call them junkets,” she said. “I don’t know if people go for their own vacation. I get a lot out of them. “