Newsom and Dahle to debate + AB 257 referendum campaign launched + Parent group wants answers
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
NEWSOM, DAHLE TO DEBATE IN OCTOBER
For weeks, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been playing “will he, won’t he” with his Republican gubernatorial opponent, State Sen. Brian Dahle, over the question of a debate. But it appears as if both sides have come to an agreement, and a debate is happening in late October.
According to KCRA, Dahle confirmed that a debate will happen on either Oct. 23 or Oct. 25, depending on what the two campaigns are able to nail down.
It’s unclear how the debate will be broadcast. As KCRA reported, the 2018 debate between then Lt. Gov. Newsom and Republican candidate John Cox was played over the radio.
The California Republican Party has been particularly aggressive in seeking debates in not just the governor’s race, but also the races for attorney general and state controller.
“Quit taking California voters for granted and agree to meet Nathan Hochman and Lanhee Chen on the debate stage. If you’re so confident that the Democrat policies that led our state to the top of all the wrong lists is the best path forward, then why are you afraid to defend your position under the spotlight?” said California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson in a statement last week.
OPPONENTS OF AB 257 VOW TO BRING A REFERENDUM ON LAW
Newsom may have signed AB 257 into law, creating a state council to set minimum standards for wages and working condiitions in the fast food sector, but opponents aren’t giving up.
The International Franchise Association, the National Restaurant Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have teamed up to form the Save Local Restaurants Coalition, which will work to circulate petitions to put a referendum on the ballot and give voters the final say.
“If AB 257 stands, you can be sure that this will be the first of many efforts to impose on businesses of all kinds European-style sectoral bargaining complete with government-created boards dictating how small businesses operate and how employees work,” said Neil Bradley of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Opponents of the law argue that it will lead to higher prices at restaurants and also to restaurants being forced to shutter.
“AB 257 not only harms California’s quick service restaurants and local franchisees, but also the very workers it claims to protect. Proponents of this legislation have indicated that similar efforts are headed for other states and industries, and now is the time to stop this bill before the harm spreads,” the coalition said in a statement.
PARENTS GROUP DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION FROM SEN. PORTANTINO
Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, wields a lot of power as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. For example,, a bill to empower prosecutors to go after the social media industry was quietly killed without a public vote after the tech industry lobbied against it.
Now, a parents group is demanding an explanation for why that bill, AB 2408, never made it to the governor’s desk.
“While we applaud the governor’s action to sign (AB 2273, a bill to require social media companies to protect children’s privacy), the reality is that the governor also should have been signing AB 2408 into law. But he couldn’t do that, because you appear singlehandedly to have killed that bipartisan legislation behind closed doors, without a vote, when the bill had received zero no votes from your colleagues, without requesting even a single amendment to the bill, within days of you attending an invitation-only Big Tech-sponsored event at an elite Napa Valley Winery,” the Parents Television and Media Council wrote in an open letter to Portantino.
While the letter demands an explanation for why, it goes on to say that regardless of the reason, “the optics of your action border on deplorable.”
Portantino isn’t the only one to earn the parent group’s opprobrium.
Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, also was identified in the letter as having a hand in killing AB 2408. The parents group mentioned a CalMatters story tying Low to the Foundation for California’s Technology and Innovation Economy, a shadowy nonprofit that hosted a posh Napa policy conference which Portantino attended days before AB 2408 died
“So the optics are bad. Really bad,” the letter reads.
You can read the letter for yourself by visiting here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Governor Newsom will do absolutely anything for a headline. The national press should keep that in mind when deciding if his stunts are really newsworthy.”
- Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, via Twitter.
Best of The Bee:
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of environmental bills Friday, touting them as California’s most aggressive effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, via Stephen Hobbs.
Two years after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a ban on the sale of most flavored tobacco products, Californians will get their say, in a referendum vote this November, via Andrew Sheeler.
Social media companies will soon be required to design their products with the best interests of child users in mind under Assembly Bill 2273, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday, via Andrew Sheeler.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called Thursday for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to fly several immigrant families to Martha’s Vineyard, via Jenavieve Hatch.