Newsom vs. Kiley + 2021 voter facts as a new election year begins
Good morning and welcome to the first A.M. Alert of 2022!
NEWSOM VS KILEY?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom took a rare jab at one of his loudest critics last week, when his office put out a statement suggesting that Rocklin Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley might need “a basic refresher course on how the legislature and a separate branch of government works,” as reported by KFBK News Radio.
That came after Kiley suggested that his criticism of Newsom was the reason he was booted from the vice chair position on the Assembly Education Committee. Assemblywoman Megan Dahle, R-Bieber, now holds that spot.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon’s office told ABC10 that the decision to remove Kiley was one of several procedural changes, and not retaliation.
Kiley responded to the Newsom barb on Twitter, writing, “Gavin Newsom just said I need a ‘refresher course on how the legislature and a separate branch of government works.’ This might be the most ironic statement a Governor has ever made.”
Kiley is publicly mulling his next political move, and has weighed making another run at Newsom in the 2022 gubernatorial election. Kiley was one of dozens of candidates to try and unseat Newsom during the recall election last fall. He came in sixth, picking up 3.5% of the total vote.
SECRETARY WEBER OFFERS A RECAP OF 2021
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Thursday released a recap of the year that was 2021 for California elections.
According to Weber’s office, 33 counties administered an election. Sixteen ballot initiatives qualified. Four special elections for state legislative seats were held. One referendum qualified. And there was one recall election.
“Despite the ongoing uncertainties of the pandemic over 12 million voters participated in the California Gubernatorial Recall Election — nearly 3.5 million more than participated in the 2003 recall election,” Weber’s office said in a statement.
California has slightly more than 22 million registered voters (as of Aug. 30, 2021), which is 88.87% of eligible voters, a state record, according to Weber’s office.
In the recall election, voters cast 12.8 million ballots, 3.4 million more than were cast in 2003’s recall election. That includes 11.7 million mail-in ballots, or 91.01% of all votes cast.
More than half of registered voters, 58%, turned out for the recall election.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“A common complaint I see related to homelessness is trash buildup, but please consider how much trash would pile up for a HOUSED person if there was not efficient garbage service. We can clean up our streets w/o sweeping away people.”
– Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-San Jose, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
Californians love their bacon. The Golden State accounts for 13% of the nation’s pork consumption, according to the California Pork Producers Association. But that appetite for pork is likely to get more expensive, via Andrew Sheeler and Benjy Egel.
Blackouts and green energy: Why California might slash subsidies for rooftop solar panels, via Dale Kasler.
California state retirees can breathe a little easier, as a new law directs the California Public Employees Retirement System to go after employers — not retirees — in cases where the pension system discovers errors in pension calculations, via Andrew Sheeler.