Scott Wiener’s challenger + Can Newsom speed up climate plans? + Jerry Brown campaigns
Good morning and happy Monday!
A CONVERSATION WITH JACKIE FIELDER
Via Hannah Wiley...
Senate District 11 candidate Jackie Fielder doesn’t think incumbent Sen. Scott Wiener is liberal enough to represent San Francisco.
It’s an interesting claim, considering Wiener has written a slew of criminal justice reform measures, passed legislation to expand jury pools and, most recently, was targeted with death threats and anti-semitic messages after he wrote an LGBTQ equality bill that landed him in the center of a QAnon conspiracy theory.
Comparatively, though, Fielder said Wiener is too moderate of a candidate to adequately represent California’s or, really, the nation’s deepest blue enclave. What San Franciscans need in an elected official, Fielder said, is someone like her, a soon-to-be 26-year-old queer woman of color with roots in community activism.
“While he may be considered progressive in the state Legislature, he’s not considered that here in his own district,” Fielder said during a recent interview with The Sacramento Bee. “Across the country, we’re seeing candidates from marginalized backgrounds, but also young people taking up the mantle. They’re beholden to humans, not corporations and other special interests.”
Fielder pointed to real estate and police representatives donating to Wiener’s campaign as evidence to her claim. (Wiener did pledge in June to donate law enforcement contributions to nonprofits serving at-risk youth.)
“I refuse to take a penny from police and law enforcement unions,” Fielder said, adding that she’s also, since “day one,” refused to accept cash from real estate representatives, charter school advocates and billionaires.
Wiener and Fielder have similar ambitions for their city, including building more housing, protecting tenants and preserving the culture of a city now run by a tech-giant economy that’s increased cost of living prices and pushed native San Franciscans from their neighborhoods.
The two candidates just have different visions for how to achieve their goals.
For example, Wiener time and again has written housing production bills that aim to dismantle single-family zoning restrictions. Fielder said that approach doesn’t do enough to address affordable housing.
Wiener secured 55% of the vote during the March primary, and Fielder snagged about 33%.
Still, the young, indigenous candidate, who also graduated in four years with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Stanford, has caught headlines in recent months for her earnest campaign and policy proposals, which include an Indigenous Wildfire Task Force.
Fielder also pointed to endorsements from Black Lives Matter leaders and local unions as evidence of her city’s excitement for fresh representation.
“I’ve been really excited to get more support over the summer,” Fielder said. “We’re feeling as good as one can feel challenging an incumbent during a pandemic and wildfire situation.”
In response, Jack Persons, Wiener’s campaign manager, pointed to the senator’s perfect score with the ACLU as evidence of his standing as one of the Legislature’s “most progressive members.”
“He leads on many of our community’s top progressive priorities,” Persons said, “including criminal justice reform, net neutrality, clean energy, immigrant and LGBTQ rights, expanded mental health and addiction treatment, and expanding homeless services and housing. He knows how to pass tough progressive legislation and he works tirelessly on behalf of our community.”
Persons also added Wiener has been endorsed by California powerhouses like Gov. Gavin Newsom, Equality California and SEIU, and his legislative track record proves he’s not beholden to the real estate or police industries.
THE COST OF CLIMATE CHANGE PREVENTION
Via Dale Kasler...
When Gov. Gavin Newsom declared recently that “we have to step up our game” and accelerate California’s fight against climate change, it triggered a question in Chris Rufer’s mind:
How much will this cost?
Rufer is the founder of The Morning Star Co. of Woodland, one of the world’s largest tomato processors. Under California’s climate-change initiative known as cap-and-trade, Morning Star has to spend about $2 million a year buying carbon emission credits — the right to spew greenhouse gases at its processing plants in Williams, Los Banos and Santa Nella.
If California raised the price of carbon credits, it would mean higher production costs — and price hikes for consumers of tomato paste, diced tomatoes and other Morning Star goods. The state could “make it so bad that we have to decrease production,” said Rufer, who once filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the cap-and-trade program.
Rufer’s reaction underscores the challenges that Newsom faces as he ramps up an array of new climate-change initiatives for California, as a rampage of wildfires never before seen in modern times overtakes the state.
Fighting climate change costs money. Companies like Morning Star pay billions of dollars a year for emissions credits. Motorists spend an estimated 30 cents a gallon extra at the pump because of restrictions on greenhouse gases.
Are they willing to spend any more?
Newsom hasn’t yet detailed what he wants to do. But a higher price on carbon could create “political liabilities” for Newsom in a state mired in a difficult recession because of the COVID-19 economic shutdown, said Chris Busch, research director at Energy Innovation LLC, a San Francisco policy and research firm.
Polls show Californians overwhelmingly favor the state’s climate initiatives; more than three-quarters of them want the state to take a leadership role on the world stage, according to a July survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.
But when it comes to paying for a green California, the results are mixed. Only about half are willing to pay more for electricity to reduce global warming, for instance. Californians pay about 50% more than the average American for each kilowatt-hour of electricity they use. But their monthly bills are actually 13% below the average because usage is so low.
Still, Newsom is coming under pressure from some in the environmental community to go bold on a variety of fronts. For instance, the state estimates that 8% of all new vehicle sales in 2025 will be electric or plug-in hybrids. A trio of groups — the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the California Environmental Justice Alliance — is urging Newsom to make it 100% by 2030.
JERRY BROWN TO JOIN ROUNDTABLE
California’s 34th and 39th governor is set to join a roundtable discussion Monday hosted by the Nevada State Democratic Party.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown is set to appear as a special guest speaker at the event featuring a handful of climate change activists.
“Our guests will discuss the disastrous environmental ramifications of Donald Trump’s presidency and how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can get America back on track towards a sustainable future,” according to a statement released by the organizers.
The event starts at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. You can register to watch the event by visiting here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Still no report from the Governor’s strike team that’s supposed to identify why people can’t get their unemployment benefits. How much longer will people have to wait?”
- Sen. Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
The devastating North Complex burning in Northern California is now the fifth-largest wildfire in recorded state history, fire officials say, via Michael McGough.
A new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday allows more undocumented immigrants to receive a state tax credit worth hundreds of dollars, via Kim Bojórquez.
Unemployment fell again in California last month, state officials announced Friday, but the economy has still recovered only one-third of the jobs that were lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, via Dale Kasler.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 4:55 AM.