Three strikes for McCarthy speakership bid + historic swearing-in ceremonies in Sacramento
Happy New Year! Good morning and welcome to the first A.M. Alert of 2023.
A HISTORIC DAY FOR THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT...
Gov. Gavin Newsom swore in two history-making justices to the California Supreme Court on Monday, highlighting their life stories as he works to elevate diverse viewpoints in the judicial system.
The ceremony marked Justice Patricia Guerrero’s promotion to chief justice and Kelli Evans swearing-in as an associate justice on the seven-member court. Guerrero, who joined the court in March as an associate justice, is the first Latina to serve as chief justice. Evans, a former civil rights attorney, will be the court’s first openly lesbian justice.
“I didn’t do it alone,” said Guerrero after the ceremony about her rise to the state’s highest court.
... AND FOR THE SACRAMENTO DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
Thien Ho, a former Vietnamese immigrant who worked his way up to become one of Sacramento’s toughest prosecutors, was sworn in Tuesday as Sacramento County’s 36th district attorney and the first person of color to hold the post.
Ho, who prosecuted Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist Joseph James DeAngelo — one of California’s largest and most complicated murder cases — was sworn in by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Carlton Davis at the Tsakopoulos Galleria in the main library downtown in front of 500 law enforcement officials, supporters and family members.
“You know, there used to be a wall at the D.A.’s office that had the pictures of the 35 previously elected D.A.s,” Ho said before the ceremony. “And I would stand there and I would look at them. “And each and every one of them — they were good prosecutors, good lawyers, and some became great judges — but none of them looked like me, and so this is a very historical day that I am cognizant of.”
THREE STRIKES FOR MCCARTHY SPEAKERSHIP BID
Rep. Kevin McCarthy failed to secure enough votes to become the next House Speaker on Tuesday after he lost support of his far-right colleagues. Members of the House Freedom Caucus — including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) — refused to back McCarthy’s bid after the November Red-Wave-that-wasn’t.
Gaetz and his fellow MAGA die-hards blame McCarthy for the GOP’s inability to win more House seats and flip the Senate last November. They also consider the former House minority leader too entrenched in the DC establishment.
“If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise,” Gaetz said on Tuesday.
The House voted three times (the first time in a century it’s taken the House more than one ballot) and McCarthy received 202 votes, just shy of the required 218 to be elected Speaker. Members of the House will try a fourth time today.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You get the news, it sinks in. You try to embrace it and then roll up your sleeves and say, ‘OK, what do we do about this?’ ... If you’re going to give me three years, I am going to do wonders with that. I can raise my children and see them off and know that my husband is set up and do all the things that we had planned to do when we were 62.”
- West Sacramento City Councilwoman Quirina Orozco, to The Sacramento Bee, on her Stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
Best of The Bee:
Another storm is headed straight for Sacramento today — follow along with the Bee’s coverage for important updates, via Michael McGough
The Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove is in danger of flooding on Wednesday. More than 1,000 inmates have been moved to other jails and prisons in the area as crews installed temporary dams around the detention center to protect it from flooding, via Rosalio Ahumada.
As California transitions away from fossil fuels in the years ahead to pursue aggressive climate goals, an increasing number of oil and gas workers across the state will be forced to put their skills to use elsewhere. A new analysis from the Gender Equity Policy Institute shows that about two out of three industry workers (about 59,200 people) will likely be able move into new jobs in other industries without any retraining, via Maggie Angst.