Newsom’s ‘huge cash advantage’ + Free the artists + Parents want their kids back in school
Good morning, happy Monday and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
RECALL WATCH
Last week, Team Newsom officially launched their offense campaign, “Stop The Republican Recall.” Within the first 48 hours, the campaign raked in more than $538,000 from online donors.
Most of the donations were $100 or less and 95% came from inside California. Even though out-of-state donors made up 5% of donations, money to help Newsom fight the recall came from all 50 states, the campaign reported.
Unlike a normal governor’s race, in a recall, there are no contribution limits for the incumbent, as The Bee’s Sophia Bollag reports today. Because the recall election is technically treated as a ballot measure, donors who want to support Newsom are not subject to the normal $32,400 individual donation limit.
It could mean an incredible cash advantage for Team Newsom in the coming months.
“Assuming this thing qualifies, Gov. Newsom will have a huge cash advantage to fight the recall because there are no contribution limits for the recall question,” said Marty Wilson, who oversaw finances on Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign to replace Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
LAWMAKER TAKES ON RECORD LABELS
First she took on rideshare companies. Now she’s taking on record labels and studios.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, has introduced AB 1385, a bill her office says is intended to remove studio and label contract restrictions that prohibit artists from performing.
“The landscape of the entertainment industry has dramatically changed, yet companies still benefit from outdated laws that allow them to wield an overwhelming amount of control over artists,” Gonzalez said in a statement “No worker should ever be bound to an unreasonable contract that holds them back from making decisions about their own livelihood. It’s time we changed the law to reflect a new reality for creators. I introduced the FAIR Act to simply ensure artists are empowered to freely practice their craft and pursue a career doing what they love.”
The bill is intended to address an exception to the so-called “Seven-Year Statute” that prevents most employers from trapping employees in long-term contracts; record labels are exempt from that law, according to Gonzalez’s office.
Gonzalez partnered with SAG-AFTRA, the Music Artists Coalition, the Black Music Action Coalition and the Songwriters of North America to introduce the bill.
“Streaming has been an unprecedented bonanza for the record labels, but not so for artists,” said Irving Azoff, founder of the Music Artists Coalition. “It is unfair that the only Californians excluded from the protection of the Seven Year Statute are recording artists. We ask our record label partners and members of the California Legislature to join us and support this important initiative. We must protect artists and modernize this archaic law.”
REOPEN SCHOOLS, PARENT GROUPS SAY
Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s updated guidlines stating that students can safely distance at three feet apart, the group Reopen California Schools reiterated its call for the governor to do just that.
“We demand Governor Newsom mandate all K-12 schools in counties with an average daily case rate less than 14.2 per 100K residents offer in-person instruction five days a week, at least five hours a day, by April 5. We also ask that counties with a case rate less than 25 be allowed to open their schools full-time, and once they go below 14.2, be mandated to open within two weeks. To be clear, we are not demanding schools no longer offer distance learning to those families who choose, but we do understand their distance learning models may change. California has been lacking real leadership at the state level in reopening its schools. It’s high-time our children are put first,” said group founder Jonathan Zachreson in a statement.
That group isn’t alone in calling on the governor to reopen schools.
Megan Bacigalupi of OpenSchoolsCA wrote a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly, urging them to follow the CDC’s guidance.
“We have heard you both for months stress the need to follow the science, and we agree. Now science is telling us 3 feet is just as safe as 6 feet, paving the way for many more children to get back into their classrooms this spring. You must take this action urgently to ensure as many California students as possible have that opportunity,” she wrote in the letter.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We have utterly failed public school kids in California. We care about the interests of the adults, the teachers, but not of the kids. Every Democrat holding office in Calfornia is complicit. They all have lock jaw, counting their CTA money, while teachers unions call the shots.”
- Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
California will open vaccine eligibility to all residents and abandon its vaccine priority tiers in early May, when supply will have increased enough to inoculate a wider swathe of the population, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, via Sophia Bollag.
Whether you support or oppose the recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom, this much is certain: Orrin Heatlie has no place in California politics, by the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board.