Vote for single payer or else + CA Dems go virtual + CA unemployment remains high

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert.

PROGRESSIVES: VOTE FOR SINGLE-PAYER, OR NO ENDORSEMENT

Via Lara Korte...

Today’s the day: Assembly members this afternoon will vote on Assembly Bill 1400, the legislation authored by Assemblyman Ash Kalra that would eliminate private healthcare in California and replace it with a state-owned single payer system — the first of its kind in the nation.

It sailed through the appropriations committee earlier month with a party-line vote of 11-3. The last time Democrats tried to pass a single-payer bill, in 2017, Speaker Anthony Rendon shelved it, declaring it was “woefully incomplete.”

Now, five years later, Rendon is letting single-payer healthcare go to the floor for a vote. But some are still wary that Democrats will back away from supporting a bill that would need to be funded, in part, by an increase in taxes on people making more than $49,900.

Amar Shergill, chair of the California Democrats Progressive Caucus, vowed last week to halt the party endorsement of any Democratic Assembly member who doesn’t vote in favor of AB 1400 today.

“In the final days of a bill, there has to be an accountability project,” Shergill told The Sacramento Bee. “And that’s what this is about.”

The vote on the bill comes days before the California Democratic Party begins its endorsement process on Feb. 5. Candidates need 70% of delegate support during pre-endorsement, or 60% of delegate support during the March convention, to be endorsed by the party.

Shergill said he’s confident there are plenty of districts where at least 40% of delegates would pull their support from a candidate who didn’t support AB 1400.

“For those members that are considering voting against labor, voting against the party, and voting against the people of California, they shouldn’t expect to be endorsed by a party that is on the other side of them,” he said.

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS STAY VIRTUAL

Speaking of the California Democratic Party convention, it will once again be held in a digital-only format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The party announced that the 2022 State Convention will be a virtual-only event in a series of tweets on Friday morning.

“CADEM is transitioning the 2022 State Convention to a virtual-only event on March 4-6, 2022. The last two years have taught us that the manner in which we connect with one another — either in-person or virtually — is less important than the power of the connections we build,” the party wrote in a tweet. “With so much at stake in 2022, the collective power of California Democrats will be vital to holding the House, expanding strong majorities in the State Legislature, and keeping statewide Democratic leadership in place.”

You can register for the convention by visiting cdpconvention.org.

CALIFORNIA UNEMPLOYMENT REMAINS THE HIGHEST IN THE NATION

Via David Lightman...

California got good and bad news on employment last month. Its jobless rate was still the nation’s highest, but its job gains outpaced those of every other state.

California’s unemployment rate in December was 6.5%. That still topped every state, inching out runner-up Nevada at 6.4%, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The national rate in December was 3.9%. Seventeen states had higher rates. Nebraska’s rate was the lowest, at 1.7%.

California employment has been up partly because its leisure and hospitality sector has been slower to come back. That sector, though, gained 15,000 jobs last month, mostly in food service and drinking places.

But the state did gain 50,700 jobs last month, the best showing in the nation, topping Texas’ 50,000. And California’s unemployment rate was down from 7% in November and 9.3% a year earlier.

Virtually every part of the economy showed job gains. Leisure and hospitality topped the list, followed by professional and business services, which added 12,000 jobs, and education and health services, which added 7,600.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If all I had to sacrifice to guarantee quality healthcare to all, to stop seeing loved ones depend on GoFundMe for life saving care, was my elected title — well that’d be a sacrifice worth making.”

- Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-San Jose, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• Vice President Kamala Harris has a new assignment: helping President Joe Biden select the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, via Francesca Chambers and David Lightman.

• Dueling TV ads. The threat of ballot initiatives. Intervention by the governor and a public call to action from California’s celebrity ex-governor. In a matter of weeks, a complicated, wonkish proposal over the price of solar energy has spawned a classic California political dogfight, via Dale Kasler.

• It’s official: Call it Cal Poly Humboldt, via Andrew Sheeler.

This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 4:55 AM.