September 3, 2020 On Monday August 31, the Legislature adjourned for final recess, marking the end of the 2019-2020 legislative session. As we have detailed in previous updates, the 2020 legislative year has been the strangest in modern times.  The COVID-19 pandemic has forced legislators out of the Capitol twice this year, both in the…

The 2020 legislative year has been the strangest in modern times.  The COVID-19 pandemic has forced legislators out of the Capitol twice this year, once between March and mid-May and once for two weeks at the end of July when two Assemblymembers contracted the virus. The unanticipated recesses have injected a dose of chaos into…

No one ever said being the Governor of California was easy, but things were looking pretty good for Governor Newsom when he took office in 2019.  His fellow Democrats held some of their largest majorities in the Legislature in history with well over 2/3 of the Senate and Assembly in their control.  Newsom also inherited…

The state’s Director of Public Health, Dr. Sonia Angell, resigned Sunday after a week of embarrassing revelations for the Governor’s Administration. During his July 3 press conference, Governor Newsom pointed out a 21% weekly drop in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and described it as a positive signs for the state’s efforts to combat the spread of…

Governor Newsom has walked a political tightrope since March when he issued a first-in-the-nation order for Californian’s to shelter in place.  The shelter in place order was highly effective at reducing the rate at which COVID-19 spread in California.  At the same time, it brought economic devastation on a level that pales in comparison to…

California continues to face challenges on many fronts related to COVID-19. As you know, roughly 9,000 new cases of COVID-19 pop up every day. The state has set record death rates four times this week. While the Governor continues to grapple with the spread of the virus, he is facing political challenges on a number of other fronts. …

On March 19, California became the first state to issue a statewide shelter in place order.  The shelter in place order proved to be an effective tool to slow the spread of COVID-19.  In fact, California bent the curve so successfully that Governor Newsom confidently sent hundreds of ventilators to the east coast and began…

On Monday, Governor Newsom and legislative leadership announced that they had reached agreement on a state budget.   As you know, the Legislature adopted its own version of a budget last Monday to meet its constitutional deadline to do so by June 15.  In adopting their “legislative budget,” the Legislature rejected the Governor’s proposed $14 billion…