Lawmakers whose investments are at odds with their politics

Earlier this yr, after California politicians filed their annual disclosures about their private funds, journalists I work with in The Occasions’ Sacramento bureau started scrutinizing the reviews.

They contained some huge surprises:

Environmentalists with inventory in oil corporations. A vocal social media critic with lots of of hundreds of {dollars} invested within the house owners of Fb and YouTube. Union-backed Democrats creating wealth off the very corporations whose employee insurance policies they’ve criticized.

A 3rd of the members within the California Legislature collectively reported at the least $14 million price of investments on their most up-to-date monetary disclosures — however their shares don’t all the time align with their political values, a Occasions evaluation discovered.

That’s the opening passage of this exceptional article by Occasions reporters Mackenzie Mays, Queenie Wong, Hannah Wiley and Sandhya Kambhampati, who spent months poring over the investments reported in lawmakers’ monetary disclosures, analyzing their voting data on key insurance policies and questioning the officers on what they discovered.

It’s a deeply researched work of accountability journalism, and an article you’ll discover solely within the Los Angeles Occasions. In case you respect this type of rigorous protection of California politics, I hope you subscribe to The Occasions. Your subscriptions energy our watchdog journalism, in addition to all of the important election protection we’ve bought in retailer for 2024.

I’m Laurel Rosenhall, The Occasions’ Sacramento bureau chief, right here with the final California Politics e-newsletter of 2023. Glad holidays! We’ll be again in your inbox in January. Now right here’s the most important information of the week in Golden State politics:

Google’s lobbying skyrockets

Talking of watchdog journalism, tech coverage reporter Queenie Wong just lately dug into Google’s lobbying reviews and found that the search large spent a report quantity lobbying in California this yr.

Why? Primarily to fund an advert marketing campaign making an attempt to kill laws that might power Google, Fb and different massive on-line platforms to pay information publishers for articles displayed on their websites.

Google’s cost to a taxpayers group for the promoting made up many of the report $1.5 million the corporate spent lobbying in California from January to September, Wong reviews. Throughout the identical interval final yr, Google spent $187,434. The corporate spends a mean of about $257,000 per yr lobbying in California, in line with her assessment of knowledge from 2005-22.

The large surge displays the rising efforts by tech corporations to affect California lawmakers as they debate the way to defend younger individuals and journalists and different staff from the threats posed by social media websites, synthetic intelligence and different rising expertise.

Learn the complete article right here: Why Google’s lobbying in California skyrocketed this yr

Will Trump get dumped from the poll?

California Democrats are hoping a courtroom determination disqualifying former President Trump from the Colorado main poll will assist them strike him from California’s Republican main.

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat who’s working for governor in 2026, despatched a letter this week to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber urging her “to discover each authorized possibility” to take away Trump from the March 5 poll due to his function within the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt, writes politics reporter Noah Bierman.

“This determination is about honoring the rule of regulation in our nation and defending the basic pillars of democracy,” she wrote, citing the Colorado Supreme Courtroom’s 4-3 determination to exclude Trump from that state’s poll.

Although it’s anticipated that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom will wind up weighing in with a ruling that might impact many states, a number of — together with California — are going through a time crunch to get ballots ready for the March 5 main.

Weber, who oversees elections in California, already launched a preliminary checklist of possible candidates that features Trump. She plans to mail an authorized checklist of candidates to county elections officers Dec. 28 in order that they’ll start printing ballots. Though ballots might be amended later, altering them will get tougher — and dearer — because the election date attracts nearer, Bierman reviews.

Maintaining with California politics

Federal decide blocks new California regulation that might bar weapons in lots of public locations
A brand new California regulation that might bar licensed gun holders from carrying their firearms into an array of public locations is not going to go into full impact Jan. 1 as scheduled, after a federal decide blocked main components of it as unconstitutional Wednesday.

The wealthiest Californians are fleeing the state. Why that’s very dangerous information for the economic system
Despite the fact that California has skilled lopsided out-migration for many years, the monetary blow has been cushioned by the varieties of individuals transferring into the state: The newcomers had been typically higher educated and earned more cash than those that left. Now that long-standing development has reversed.

Rep. Grace Napolitano’s retirement units up battle for coveted San Gabriel Valley seat
The race to interchange retiring Democratic Rep. Grace F. Napolitano, who has represented swaths east and southeast of Los Angeles since Invoice Clinton was president, pits a rich outsider towards a roster of lesser-known, hometown candidates with deep ties to the San Gabriel Valley congressional district.

Nancy Pelosi endorses former Rep. Gil Cisneros in L.A.-area Home race
The endorsement is critical as a result of Pelosi not often picks favorites in Democratic primaries and Cisneros is one among 11 candidates who’ve filed to compete for the seat that has been held by Rep. Grace F. Napolitano for the final 25 years.

Skelton: In an eye-opener, most California Democrats don’t need U.S. siding with Israel
This simply appears startling, writes columnist George Skelton: California Democrats suppose overwhelmingly that America shouldn’t take sides within the horrific conflict in Gaza. However Republicans aspect strongly with Israel.

Barabak: Newsom for president? No thanks, say Nevada Democrats, who’ve a giant voice in 2024
In an alternate universe — one the place issues like cash, submitting deadlines and different practicalities don’t matter — there may be wishful speak of a late entry within the Democratic contest, a savior to swoop in and electrify the celebration with a jolt of vitality and keenness. Somebody like Gavin Newsom, writes columnist Mark Z. Barabak.