These Republican congressmen aren’t yet chipping in to the Prop. 50 fight
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
REPUBLICANS SPENDING FOR BATTLES ON MULTIPLE FRONTS
Last week we reported that most of California’s Republican members of congress had kicked six-figure sums to the ‘No on Proposition 50’ campaign aligned with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Not among them were Reps. Kevin Kiley, Tom McClintock, David Valadao and Darrell Issa.
Since that reporting, Valadao, who spent nearly $5 million defending his battleground Central Valley seat last year, has reported giving $100,000 to fight Prop. 50.
A spokesperson for McClintock said the congressman also planned to give but no donation had been reported as of Monday afternoon. If Prop. 50 passes, McClintock’s district would remain a safe Republican stronghold, becoming an even deeper shade of red.
Spokesperson Ellie Hockenbury said “there’s been an open communication” between McCarthy and the state’s Republican delegation about asking for support.
“Prop 50 not only directly impacts these members, but they also want to help keep fair representation in the state,” she said. “I can’t speak to contribution plans for any individual members, but they are all very supportive of the effort to stop (Gov. Gavin) Newsom’s partisan gerrymander.”
What other GOP Reps. have chipped in so far: Ken Calvert ($275k from his campaign and PAC); Jay Obernolte ($100k); Vince Fong ($100k); Young Kim ($100k) and Doug LaMalfa (nearly $100k following a donation reported over the weekend).
And Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio and friend of McCarthy, last week sent the Speaker Emeritus’ campaign $300,000.
Reps. Kiley and Issa did not respond to requests for comment and have not indicated what their plans would be should Prop. 50 pass next month.
Kiley had hoped to head off a nationwide redistricting war by introducing legislation to ban all mid-decade redistricting. Despite publicly pressuring Speaker Mike Johnson, Kiley’s bill has not gone anywhere.
– Nicole Nixon
WHILE YOU WERE OUT HAVING FUN THIS WEEKEND…
In case you missed it:
On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom put new regulations on pharmacy benefit managers, the insurance-middlemen that have been blamed for rising drug costs and for driving small pharmacies, like Ten Acres on Freeport Boulevard, to close.
He also gave the green light to lawmakers to spend unlimited campaign funds on security expenses for themselves, their families and their staff for the next three years. A previous $10,000 lifetime cap would be eliminated, and replaced with a $10,000 per year cap in 2029.
Newsom also issued some vetoes, including on a bill that would have made data centers be more transparent about their water use. In his veto message, the governor said he was “reluctant to impose rigid reporting requirements” on the sector without “understanding the full impact on businesses and the consumers of their technology.”
On Sunday, he passed a bill making it easier for parents worried about possible deportation to make alternate arrangements for their children. Over the course of its lifetime, the bill had become a target for the Christian right, for reasons you might not expect.
Early Monday, he passed a slate of legislation aiming to protect children online, including a bill to put warning labels on social media beginning in 2027, and to require companion chatbots to refer users to suicide crisis lines if they express suicidal ideation.
Newsom finished signing and vetoing the remaining bills on Monday evening.
CONTROVERSIAL BILL PASSES
With little fanfare, Newsom’s office on Saturday announced the governor signed Senate Bill 158, a measure that advocates said did not do enough to re-add protections to the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as CEQA.
SB 158 passed in the early morning of the last day of this year’s legislative calendar despite opposition from several Democratic senators.
The measure added some protections for certain natural land. But it did not remove or modify a CEQA exemption for manufacturing plants that Newsom had pushed through as part of this year’s budget process as part of an effort to speed up home building in the state.
SB 158 also attracted criticism because it included a section that said CEQA would apply to a project in a city with a population between 85,000 to 95,000, in a county with 440,000 to 455,000 people and that was located next to a historic state landmark.
Jordan Grimes, a resilience manager for the Greenbelt Alliance, an environmental organization, noted that the provision appeared to relate to a controversial apartment project near the Santa Barbara Mission, which is in the district of state Sen. Monique Limón, D-Goleta, the chamber’s incoming leader.
Limón, after it passed, said she was one of several people who provided feedback on the measure and that “there was never an intention to make this about any one specific thing.”
Environmental advocates are expected to continue to fight.
Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael, and other legislators, want to pass a measure that would narrow the exemption for manufacturing projects.
– Stephen Hobbs
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and commitment to making this long-awaited moment possible. May today’s historic achievement pave the way for a new dawn of peace across the Middle East.”
– Republican Central Valley Congressman Vince Fong
BEST OF THE BEE
- Trump fires federal workers in California as part of shutdown layoffs via William Melhado
- What CA Social Security & Medicare beneficiaries can expect as shutdown continues via David Lightman
- Newsom still mum on the celebrity food fight over PFAS on pans via Kate Wolffe
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 4:55 AM.
