What’s left of AB 5? + Latest election results + Reagan documentary series to air
Good morning! Here are the latest election results!
WHAT WE KNOW
Proposition 19, the proposal to give Californians over age 55 a property tax break if they buy a new home, has passed. The Associated Press has called it, with the measure leading 51% to 49%.
The AP also has called a trio of Assembly races we’ve been keeping our eyes on.
- In Assembly District 42, incumbent independent Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley has won re-election with 56% of the vote, while Republican Andrew Kotyuk has 44%.
- In Assembly District 55, incumbent Republican Phillip Chen won with 55% of the vote, while Democrat Andrew E. Rodriguez has 45%.
- In Assembly District 59, incumbent Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, has been declared the winner with 58% of the vote, while fellow Democrat Efren Martinez has 42%.
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
Here the one remaining ballot measure that hasn’t been called:
- Proposition 14, which would issue $5.5 billion in bonds for stem cell research. The measure is leading slightly, 51% to 49%.
As of Wednesday evening, the Associated Press had yet to call the following legislative races:
- In Assembly District 36, incumbent Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, has 54.6% of the vote, while Democrat Steve Fox has 45.4%
- In Assembly District 68, incumbent Assemblyman Steven Choi, R-Irvine, has 53.1% of the vote, while Democrat Melissa Fox has 46.9%.
- In Senate District 21, incumbent Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, is up with 50.6%, while Democratic challenger Kipp Mueller has 49.4% of the vote so far.
- In Senate District 23 in San Bernardino County, Republican Rosilicie Ochoa-Bogh has 51.9%, while Democrat Abigail Medina has 48.1% of the vote. They’re competing for an open seat held by Sen. Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga.
- In Senate District 29, Democratic challenger Josh Newman has 51.3% of the vote, while incumbent Sen. Ling Ling Chang, R-Diamond Bar, has 48.7%.
- In Senate District 37, Democratic challenger Dave Min has 51.2% of the vote, while incumbent Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, has 48.8%.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR AB 5?
Via Jeong Park...
California’s landmark labor law, Assembly Bill 5, isn’t going away anytime soon.
Despite the passage of Proposition 22, which exempts hundreds of thousands of gig drivers from the act that regulates who gets to be an independent contractor, supporters say they will protect what’s left.
“AB 5 still stands, and we’ll ensure it’s still defended by the state,” said Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, who chairs the Committee on Labor and Employment.
But Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, vows to repeal the law, saying he will introduce a bill in January to do so. If his bill won’t succeed, he said he may try to put AB 5 on the ballot in 2022.
“I think voters empathically rejected the premise of AB 5,” Kiley said. “If people are going to deny the efforts to repeal the rest of AB 5, they will have to answer why they are defying the will of the voters.”
The debate over the future of California independent contractors and employees, in other words, is far from over.
REAGANS GET THE SHOWTIME TREATMENT
California’s 33rd governor, and America’s 40th president, is the subject of a new documentary on Showtime this weekend.
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan are the stars of a new four-part documentary series called, appropriately enough, “The Reagans.”
The documentary is directed and executive produced by filmmaker and former Vanity Fair writer Matt Tyrnauer, whose previous work includes “Where’s My Roy Cohn?,” “Studio 54” and “Valentino: The Last Emperor.”
“Tyrnauer has long felt that the legacy of the Reagan presidency, Reagan the politician and Nancy Reagan as First Lady have been under-examined, and frequently misinterpreted, in part because of a very effective cadre of legacy-keepers — true believers determined to burnish the image of Reagan as a pure icon of the Right, and a kind of Modern GOP FDR,” according to a Showtime spokesperson. “This posthumous PR squad, with cooperation from the media, has been very effective of ‘washing’ away the uncomfortable truths about Reagan and his quest for power, his way of governing, and the ripple effects of his economic programs, and, especially, the impact of those policies on non-white, and lower-income populations.”
Part one, which looks at the rise of Reagan from movie star to governor of California, and how the Reagans “so expertly exploited to seize power,” airs at 8 p.m. on Sunday on Showtime.
You can watch the trailer for the documentary series here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It appears California is in fact the only state ordering lockdowns in the name of ‘equity.’ Others are doing the rational and decent thing by targeting resources to disparately impacted communities.”
- Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
A more efficient unemployment system? In the Biden administration, there’s new hope. But bigger, longer unemployment benefits? Uncertain, via David Lightman.
As the holidays approach and COVID-19 rates trend up in California, government health officials are urging residents to avoid activities where people easily spread the coronavirus, via Sophia Bollag.
Alex Lee may have just become the youngest legislator to sit in the California Assembly, but he still has to deal with his cat, Soba, interrupting Zoom conferences, via Ashley Wong.
This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 4:55 AM.