Another Capitol COVID case + Enviros target moderate Dems+ Mandatory minimums + Affirmative action endorsement

Good morning! We’re counting down the days until the Legislature is back in session, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of news to share right now!

ANOTHER COVID CASE IN THE CAPITOL

via Hannah Wiley

When the Legislature was forced to recess for more than a month back in mid-March, it was at the start of the pandemic. Back then, California didn’t have enough tests, contact tracers, PPE equipment for health care workers or hospital beds in its system to properly wrangle COVID-19.

While members were supposed to be in their districts for just a few weeks, they ended up grounded for a month and a half. It was a mess.

Months later, things still seem pretty dire, despite early success under the nation’s first stay-at-home order in flattening the curve.

Hospitalization and ICU numbers, as well as the state’s positivity rate and overall positive case numbers, continue trending upward. The majority of the state has slid backwards into some semblance of a lockdown. Schools can’t physically reopen this fall.

Lawmakers once again are scheduled to return to Sacramento from a lengthened recess next week, with much legislative business to be done. This time, though, they don’t have the luxury of time to take another break.

Hundreds of bills need legislative approval. Budget details have to be worked out. COVID-19 emergency proposals require passing.

It’s going to be a tough month, even with members cutting bills and committees limiting hearings to a single meeting.

Remember that Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, had to delay their summer return after two Assembly members tested positive for the virus.

Keeping the Capitol COVID-free for the final four weeks of session, amid alarming statewide statistics, will prove challenging.

A Senate Rules memo sent to members and staff July 18 serves as a reminder of the balancing task ahead.

“We have learned that a Senate Rules employee has tested positive for COVID-19,” the letter said. “The employee was last in the Capitol on July 8, 2020. Individuals who had direct and extended contact with the employee have been notified. If you came into the Capitol through the South entrance on July 8, you may have had minimal, indirect, exposure to the employee.”

CAMPAIGN TARGETS SIX LAWMAKERS

The California League of Conservation Voters is going after six lawmakers that they argue are working to roll back environmental and health protections.

So who made the list?

Well, first there’s Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, whom the league argues has used his position as chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee to block or weaken legislation “that would have accelerated the deployment of zero-emission vehicles, expanded access to free and reduced transit fare, and increased equity in transportation planning.”

Then there’s Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, who “not only supported rollbacks and suspensions of important air quality and climate regulations but led legislative sign-on letters to encourage other legislators to support environmental rollbacks.”

Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, made the list as well, whose voting record “shows a clear alignment with the oil and gas industry rather than his own constituents” according to the league.

Also on the list is Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, who the league states “has historically the worst environmental voting record out of all members of the Assembly Democratic Caucus.”

It’s not all Democratic Assemblymen.

Also making the list is Sen. Andreas Borgeas, R-Fresno, who is “on his way to becoming one of the most anti-environment California Senators” and Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, who has “one of the worst environmental voting records in the entire California Senate.”

The league has launched a website, No Rollbacks, that details the league’s many grievances against those six lawmakers. The website officially launched Monday, ahead of the Legislature’s planned return to work next week.

ELIMINATING MANDATORY MINIMUMS

Via Mckenzie Hawkins...

With just six weeks until the Capitol closes for the year, California lawmakers are looking to strike mandatory minimum prison sentences for nonviolent criminals that have locked away drug offenders for years.

A bill authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco would eliminate sentencing requirements for nonviolent drug offenders, giving judges the option to choose probation — release into the community with court supervision — in lieu of incarceration.

The new legislation comes as lawmakers, facing a shortened summer session due to COVID-19 concerns in the Capitol, have been forced to cut bills — and as California and the country reckon with systemic racism in policing and imprisonment.

“Most people would agree that [mandatory minimums are] not appropriate,” Wiener said in a Monday press conference. “But here we are in California, in 2020, with mandatory prison or jail sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.”

The bill would empower judges to evaluate factors like family situations, mental health circumstances and possession amounts in making sentencing decisions. Incarceration — including current maximum sentences — would remain an option.

Bipartisan critics say that mandatory minimums — established in California in 1977 — are a harmful and expensive remnant of the failed war on drugs, which disproportionately affected Black and Latino communities and caused prison populations to skyrocket.

California has done away with some sentence enhancements, including an additional three years added to drug sentences for every prior drug conviction, eliminated in 2017, and one year added to any felony sentence — at judges’ discretion — for prior felony jail time, eliminated in 2019.

A-LIST ENDORSEMENT FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Via Matt Kristoffersen...

As affirmative action nears the November ballot, the campaign for Proposition 16 has collected a long list of star-studded endorsements.

Its latest: Bernice King, the daughter of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I endorse [Proposition 16], which will help create a stronger economic future for women & communities of color,” she wrote in a tweet Monday morning. “This is aligned with my father’s dream & work to eradicate injustice, including economic injustice.”

If passed, the initiative would repeal a controversial 1996 law that barred California public colleges, universities and hiring officials from making decisions based on race, sex and other factors.

Proponents consider the measure a big step for representation in the nation’s most diverse state. But some Republicans in the Legislature fear that affirmative action would mark a departure from hiring and admissions decisions made on merit.

King joins some of California’s most prominent political leaders in supporting Proposition 16 — including Sen. Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.These are not the actions of a democratic republic. @DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission. Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.”

- Strong words from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, via Twitter on the situation in Portland.

Best of the Bee:

• Millions of unemployed California residents are facing a sudden $600 drop in their jobless benefits at the end of the month, but Democratic plans would keep the money coming in as long as the economy remains in turmoil, via David Lightman.

• California hair and nail salons can operate outside under new guidance released by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office Monday afternoon, allowing many to do business as the coronavirus outbreak continues, via Dale Kasler and Andrew Sheeler.

• The Sacramento Black Lives Matter chapter is planning a protest near the house of the city manager Wednesday to demand his removal, via Vincent Moleski.