Who’s in and out in recall race + AB 5 challenge + Some Dems ‘just say no’ to Nancy Reagan honor
Good morning! Lara Korte here with the A.M. Alert. Andrew Sheeler is still enjoy some much-deserved time off, so you’re stuck with me for a while longer.
FIRST UP: RECALL RACE: TED GAINES, LARRY ELDER ARE IN, MARY CAREY IS OUT
...via Katherine Schwartz
Ted Gaines, a former senator from El Dorado Hills and current state Board of Equalization member, entered the race to replace Gavin Newsom this weekend. Another Republican, conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, is launching his campaign today in Norwalk at 10 a.m.
Do they have enough leverage to stand out in a crowded field that’s been campaigning for months?
Gaines, unlike Kevin Faulconer and John Cox, has served at the state level since 2006 — first as an assemblyman, then a state senator and now at the Board of Equalization.
Kevin Kiley, another newcomer to the race, serves as assemblyman for a district previously held by Gaines’s wife Beth. Kiley ran to replace Gaines in the Senate after Gaines was elected to the Board of Equalization in 2019, but lost that election.
Gaines represents 10 million people, extending eastern California from San Bernandino to Siskiyou, in the board’s 1st district. His campaign centers on fiscal responsibility, a natural fit with the tax administration work he does for the board. But even with a large constituency and a winning track record, name recognition has been an ongoing battle for recall candidates.
Elder may have an advantage in that category. A native of Los Angeles, Elder has been doing radio for nearly three decades. His current program, The Larry Elder show, is nationally syndicated.
All candidates have until Friday at 5 p.m. to officially get on the ballot. They must submit new paperwork with a $4,194.94 filing fee, or collect 7,000 voter signatures in lieu of the fee. Candidates must also submit five years’ worth of personal income tax returns, the first time for a gubernatorial race since Newsom signed the law in 2019.
Former adult film actress Mary Carey officially ended her bid for the state’s top spot this weekend. Carey also ran for governor in the recall against Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, where she came in 10th place with 11,000 votes. She announced her latest bid in April, with the campaign theme “Totally Recalled 2: Golden Our State Again.”
She told TMZ that she didn’t have enough time to get her paperwork and tax returns together ahead of Friday’s deadline. Carey said she struggled to gather signatures for her M.I.L.F. campaign, Moderates and Independents for Liberation and Freedom.
FIGHT OVER AB 5 CONTINUES
...via Jeong Park
California legislators are again looking to tweak Assembly Bill 5, nearly two years after it became law.
The Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement on Monday passed two bills that would extend certain industries’ exemptions to the state’s landmark labor law that requires businesses to give employment benefits to more workers.
AB 1561 would extend the existing exemptions for licensed manicurists and subcontractors in the construction trucking industry from 2022 to 2025. To qualify for the exemption, those workers would have to meet certain requirements. Manicurists, for instance, would have to set their own rates and be paid directly by their clients.
AB 1506 would extend the existing exemptions for newspaper carriers from 2022 to 2025. The bill would require newspaper publishers to provide data, such as how much they’re paying their carriers, to the state.
Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), who introduced AB 1506, said at Monday’s hearing that this year has “shown a lot more promise” in terms of the path forward for newspaper carriers. The bill could lay the groundwork for better working conditions for those workers, he said.
Still, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), who authored AB 5, called the exemption for newspaper carriers the “most intellectually dishonest... imaginable” in a tweet.
“Newspaper carriers are told when, where and how to do their job. They don’t negotiate their own pay. They work for the same company daily. Literally daily,” Gonzalez tweeted. “They are very low-paid, mainly immigrant, and have a low barrier to entry in the job, thus absolutely no leverage.”
Meanwhile, AB 5 faces another legal challenge. A Southern California resident recently filed a case in federal court, saying the law burdens political speech, the Ventura County Star reported Sunday.
Aaron Starr, an Oxnard resident, told the Star that campaign workers collecting signatures are classified as employees under AB 5, but not those selling household goods door to door. That limits one’s ability to hire campaign workers, Starr told the Star.
NANCY REAGAN RESOLUTION
A resolution introduced by Assemblywoman Suzette Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, would honor the former first lady, who would have been 100 years old on July 6, for a whole year.
Some Democrats say they’re not OK with that.
In the resolution, ACR 94, Valladares runs through a litany of reasons Nancy Reagan should be honored for her centennial birthday, including her work raising awareness of POW and MIA Vietnam soldiers, the Foster Grandparent Program, and her advocacy work for Alzheimer’s disease research.
But it also would honor Reagan for her work combating drug and alcohol abuse.
Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-San Jose, said it is “completely absurd to praise someone who escalated the war on drugs & let the AIDS crisis ravage the LGBTQ+ community.” Speaking on the Assembly floor, Lee said honoring Reagan would be counter to the body’s goal of reversing the problem of mass incarceration caused by the Reagans’ war on drugs.
“Nancy Reagan, of the great many things she did in her life, we have to recognize the consequences of her actions... things like advocating against the equal rights amendment... and the detrimental role she and President (Ronald) Reagan played in the AIDS crisis that ravaged our LGBTQ community in the 80s,” Lee said.
Programs like DARE, Lee says, led to ideas about drugs that in turn resulted in extreme sentencing for non-violent crimes and mass incarceration.
Lee’s protests seemed to fall on deaf ears, however. Members passed the resolution, 48-5.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Vegetation, homes, barns. ... We were all breathing that.”
– Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder recounting his memories of breathing smokey air after a new report Monday found the deadliest wildfire in California history spewed a toxic cocktail of air pollution that could be detected 150 miles away. Not great news considering California is on the brink of another devastating wildfire season.
Best of The Bee:
A Superior Sourt judge on Monday ruled that Newsom won’t be able to call himself a Democrat on the recall ballot. Will it make a difference? via Lara Korte
‘It tore my heart apart.’ Park rangers clear Rio Linda homeless camp due to fire danger. via Theresa Clift
Sacramento’s tree canopy reflects the city’s inequities. How a $250 million plan, introduced by U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento could help. via Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 4:55 AM with the headline "Who’s in and out in recall race + AB 5 challenge + Some Dems ‘just say no’ to Nancy Reagan honor."