Abolish the death penalty? + An addition to the FPPC + Bill to ban faithless electors

Good morning and happy Tuesday! Let’s get straight into the news.

LAWMAKER LEADS EFFORT TO OVERTURN DEATH PENALTY

Should California end the death penalty?

California Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Marin County, on Monday announced that he and other lawmakers have introduced a constitutional amendment to do so.

ACA 2 would prohibit prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and would require re-sentencing for people on death row.

California has the largest death row in the nation, with 724 condemned prisoners. Yet, since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1978, the state has executed just 13 people. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on the death penalty, ordering San Quentin State Prison to close its execution chamber.

“California’s death penalty is a failed relic of a failed criminal justice system,” Levine said in a statement. “The death penalty does not deter serious crime, has been overly applied to minorities and has proven to be an expensive and flawed exercise in justice.”

Levine’s office pointed out that 13 people incarcerated on California’s death row have died of COVID-19.

Nineteen states have abolished the death penalty. If ACA 2 passes out of the Legislature, which requires a two-thirds vote, it would go before the voters in the 2024 general election to decide whether to make California No. 20.

FORMER GOP LAWMAKER APPOINTED TO FPPC

California State Controller Betty Yee on Monday announced she is appointing former Assemblywoman Catharine B. Baker to serve on the Fair Political Practices Commission, California’s election watchdog.

Baker, an East Bay Republican who served in the Assembly from 2014 to 2018, will serve a four-year term beginning Feb. 1.

She currently practices election law and serves as special counsel at the firm Hoge Fenton. She replaces Allison R. Hayward on the five-member independent, nonpartisan commission.

BIPARTISAN CALL TO RECLASSIFY RESTAURANTS

Nine Senate Republicans and two Democrats have signed a letter calling on Gov. Newsom to re-classify restaurants as essential businesses that can stay open during lockdowns.

The group consists of Republicans Patricia C. Bates, Shannon Grove, Andreas Borgeas, Brian Dahle, Brian Jones, Melissa Melendez, Jim Nielsen, Rosilicie Ochoa-Bogh and Scott Wilk, as well as Democrats Melissa Hurtado and Monique Limón.

“We urge you in the strongest terms to reclassify restaurants as essential businesses, and adopt the industry’s protocols that would allow restaurants to operate safely. The future of thousands of restaurants, their employees and the unique character of our local communities are dependent on the survival of this industry,” the letter to Newsom says.

The letter cites data from the California Restaurant Association, which shows 60% of California restaurants are owned by people of color, while half are owned or co-owned by women. In 2019, the industry provided more than 1.8 million jobs.

“This equates to approximately 11% of employment in the state. Closed restaurants means jobs lost, missed rent, mortgage and car payments and a lot of unemployment checks,” the letter reads.

REPLACE BECERRA WITH ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER, GROUP ASKS

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s replacement should be an Asian Pacific Islander, according to the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, which put out a letter to Newsom Monday.

The letter, signed by Caucus Chair Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, points out that Asian Pacific Islanders are among the fastest growing racial and ethnic groups in the state, while the group has a long history going back to the founding of California.

“Unfortunately, this history includes being the only racial group to be legally banned from immigrating to America, to be incarcerated during World War II and to be underrepresented in the leadership of California and the United States even today,” the letter says.

The letter suggests Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland; Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco; Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose; and U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles.

And State Controller Betty Yee or State Treasurer Fiona Ma should replace Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate, the group says in the letter.

NO FAITHLESS ELECTORS, LAWMAKERS SAYS

Finally, California’s electors made history on Monday when they cast their 55 votes for Joe Biden to be president and Kamala Harris to be vice president. But what if they hadn’t?

California Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, has introduced a bill that would ensure electors’ ballots go to the winner of the majority of California’s votes for president and vice president, preventing so-called “faithless electors.”

While nearly three dozen states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books barring faithless electors, many do not have an enforcement mechanism in place, according to Dodd’s office.

Dodd’s bill, which has yet to be given a number, would void a faithless elector’s vote if they voted for another candidate and immediately replace them with an alternate who would cast a ballot for the winning candidate.

“The reality is, we saw what could happen in an election and I think it’s important that we have policies in place that really make sense that will protect the will of the voting public,” Dodd said in a telephone interview.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Today, California joined the rest of the nation in taking a giant step towards a brighter future for all Americans. We took a step towards making life better for working families; we chose to restore hope in the American dream; we demonstrated that we are committed to restoring and repairing our democracy. As we transition into a brighter future with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, it’ll take all of us to come together and heal the soul of our nation. In solidarity, the California Democratic Party is ready to take this final step to build back better with the rest of our nation.”

- California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks, one of the 55 California electors to vote for Biden, in a statement.

Best of the Bee:

• A state prison watchdog says the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been delaying employee investigations that lead to firings and other discipline, driving up the state’s costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, via Andrew Sheeler.

• Fact check: Mitch McConnell says Democrats want to create a ‘slush fund’ for Gavin Newsom, via David Lightman.

• The House Intelligence Committee’s work has typically operated mostly behind closed doors, and leaders of the committee don’t tend to be household names. That has changed in 2020 — and it shows in the fundraising power of Reps. Adam Schiff and Devin Nunes, via Kate Irby.