An interview with Rendon + Republicans vow to throw out Trump + Another AB 5 lawsuit

Good morning, California, and happy Wednesday to all.

RENDON’S REQUIREMENTS

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, is (almost) ready for the new year.

Rendon, one of California’s top Democrats, has thought a bit about what 2020 will bring. His chamber, along with the entire state Legislature, has a lot on its agenda once session kicks off again Jan. 6. There’s PG&E’s problems, a seemingly never-ending housing affordability crisis, rampant homelessness and vulnerable Dem seats to be figured out.

Add in a bit of tidying up to a landmark labor law, Assembly Bill 5, and, well, things will be busy next year.

I called Rendon at his district office on Tuesday afternoon to get a glimpse into what his priorities, and his members’ ideas, will entail.

The highlights:

• On housing, Rendon said the Assembly will focus “a lot” on oversight and “making sure local agencies are doing what they are expected to do,” i.e. streamlining construction. And on that Senate Bill 50 hanging out in its chamber’s Appropriations Committee? Rendon said he wouldn’t comment on the pending legislation but signaled support for certain elements of state Sen. Scott Wiener’s signature 2019 legislation.

“I think there’s tremendous value in increasing housing density among certain corridors. The amount of light rail development in southern California is impressive,” he said, but its success depends on the the effort to “increase housing density along transit corridors.”

• A handful of lawmakers are already cooking up legislative remedies to PG&E’s bankruptcy and its liability in wildfires. Ideas to dismantle the utility and hand control to local governments, though, might be a hard sell for Rendon.

“My colleague Jim Wood, D-Santa Rosa, has expressed his concern about any local solution and its potential impact on that part of the state,” the speaker explained. “I think any solution that we choose has to focus on wildfire victims, has to focus on ratepayers and taxpayers and we want to make sure we do that rather than exclusively on stockholders.”

• Legislators left Sacramento this September split over AB 5, the labor law scheduled to take effect with the new year that will change how employers classify workers. Rendon famously endorsed the bill by decrying today’s “gig economy” as “f------g feudalism.” The law will force companies like Uber and Lyft, along with dozens of other businesses, to pay their workers with benefits like overtime and workers’ compensation. But the new law is already facing legal challenges and industries that didn’t make the cut in the first round of exemptions are prepping to battle for a carve out in 2020. Rendon’s thoughts? Don’t expect too much cleaning up.
  
  

“I think we have to look at things on a case by case basis. I’m more inclined to want to see more people become regular employees than anything,” he said.

• A couple of ideas Rendon supports are ones put on the back burner by the Legislature this year. He said he supports expanding Medi-Cal to undocumented seniors, which would build on the Capitol’s approval of covering those up to 25. He’s in favor of a student borrower bill of rights, “theoretically” similar to the one proposed in Assembly Bill 376, which stalled in Appropriations.
• Rendon said he won’t endorse candidates for safe Democratic seats. So he won’t weigh in on the upcoming family dynasty showdown in the race to fill Majority Leader Ian Calderon’s seat next year. Calderon’s stepmom and a third Rubio sister are vying for the post. But Rendon said efforts will go toward protecting vulnerable Democrats, like Assemblywomen Tasha Boerner Horvath, D-Encinitas and Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach.

“We’re going to be focused on storytelling,” Rendon said, not President Donald Trump.

“Donald trump is a real threat to California and democracy and the survival of the planet in general. It’s right for people to critique his actions and to stand up to him. But you can’t do that exclusively. Those efforts need to be balanced with what we’ve done in the state, in respect to balancing education and balancing health care and what these members have done in their district,” he said.

‘THIS IS ABOUT ELECTIONS’

California Republican strategist Mike Madrid has had enough of Trump.

And he’s not alone in his feelings of frustration and disappointment in his party’s White House leader.

“He should be removed from office for a whole host of reasons,” Madrid said in a telephone interview on Tuesday, after I asked him whether the president should be impeached. “Of course.”

Madrid’s disdain for the 45th commander in chief is not news. He’s made it public knowledge that his vision and passion for his party is distinct from those that are currently leading it in our nation’s capital.

What’s news is the Lincoln Project, a campaign organized by some of the top Republican and Independent consultants and strategists in the country to “defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box.”

Who — The group includes Madrid, George Conway, Reed Galen, Jennifer Horn, Steve Schmidt, Ron Steslow, John Weaver and Rick Wilson. Any of those people sound familiar? They should. Conway is a conservative attorney married to Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to Trump. Schmidt once worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Wilson wrote “Everything Trump Touches Dies.”

What — The group formally announced its plan to raise money for candidates who are “willing to defend the constitution,” Madrid said, and “actively work against Trump and this populist nationalism that has enveloped the party and is a threat to the country.”

Madrid said gone are the days when Republicans lament over members leaving the party, Assemblymen Chad Mayes and Brian Maienschein ditching the state GOP, or Texas moderate Rep. Will Hurd’s decision not to seek Congressional reelection.

“The 2020 general election, by every indication, will be about persuasion, with turnout expected to be at record highs,” some of the founding members wrote in a Tuesday New York Times opinion piece announcing their endeavor. “Our efforts are aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College, and congressional majorities that don’t enable or abet Mr. Trump’s violations of the Constitution, even if that means Democratic control of the Senate and an expanded Democratic majority in the House.”

Madrid said the team will split the work by regions, and he’ll spearhead California’s efforts.

“This is no longer a war of words,” he said. “It’s campaigns. This is about elections. It’s about getting people elected, and unelected.”

FOLLOW THE RULES

Assembly Speaker Rendon announced on Tuesday that he had appointed Sue Parker as the Assembly’s next chief clerk.

Parker’s appointment follows E. Dotson Wilson’s retirement in September, after he served 27 years overseeing the ins and outs of Assembly proceedings.

Parker is no stranger to the chamber, herself.

She’s been the assistant chief clerk for the Assembly since 2008, and has also worked in the house for nearly three decades.

“I expect Sue to continue as a chief clerk in the same strong, ethical mold as Dotson,” Rendon said, via press release. “Over the years, she has shown a deep understanding of the rules of the Assembly and an unsurpassed dedication to the institution.”

Rendon will “formally nominate” Parker once session kicks off in January, the announcement for the post read.

ANOTHER ONE

Via Sophia Bollag

Speaking of that labor bill supported by Rendon, written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, and backed by unions...

Two groups representing freelance journalists sued in the U.S. District Court for Central California on Tuesday to block the law, arguing that it threatens their ability to earn a living.

The American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Press Photographers Association allege the law treats freelance journalists different than writers who produce other types of speech, such as marketing copy.

“Treating journalists differently based solely on the content of their speech is flatly unconstitutional,” said Jim Manley, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing the journalists. “The government cannot single out journalists and deny them the freedom to work as freelancers.”

The law requires publishers to hire freelancers as employees if the writers are filing more than 35 articles or photos for the publications per year.

Truckers have also sued over the law, scheduled to take effect with the new year.

Legal experts predict AB 5 will generate a flurry of lawsuits, and possibly a measure on the November 2020 ballot. A coalition of gig economy companies including Uber, Lyft and Doordash are promoting a measure that would let them continue classifying their drivers as independent contractors while providing them some new rights.

Gonzalez has defended her bill as an opportunity for Californians to earn living wages and benefits by ending the exploitation of certain workers.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!” & “More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.”

- President Donald Trump, in a Tuesday letter written to House Speaker and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

Best of The Bee:

• PG&E Corp., trying to regain momentum in its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy from a stinging rejection from Gov. Gavin Newsom, has tweaked its plan to repay victims of the devastating Northern California wildfires, by Dale Kasler

• Next school year, it will be illegal for California middle schools to suspend students for disruptive behavior, by Andrew Sheeler

• A growing number of California state agencies are missing budget deadlines because of a $1 billion accounting program that has major problems remaining unaddressed despite its escalating cost, according to a new state audit, by Wes Venteicher