California Republicans are getting under the Democrats’ skin. That’s good for democracy | Opinion
State Senator Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, has a provocative bill before the California Legislature that he knows is going nowhere. except under the increasingly thin skin of Sacramento’s Democrats.
Niello wants to strip California air regulators of their power to pass new rules and force lawmakers to pass them instead, such as publicly controversial measures that would likely raise the price of gasoline.
Niello has a real point here. It’s easy for the ruling party to make changes in the regulatory shadows. His proposal for accountability, to require public votes of new air regulations by the Democrats in the Legislature, would require a level of political courage they may not actually possess. And Niello doesn’t mind politely calling this to question.
“I have come to learn how to crash and burn with my grace and dignity intact,” said Niello, one of the Sacramento area’s political veterans on the Republican side of the aisle. “That’s what this bill is.”
Niello and his fellow legislative Republicans are on a roll these days.
On the Democratic side of the aisle, a supermajority of Democrats find themselves splintered. They collectively stand for nothing because they have no united agenda. Instead, there is a lot of Democratic freelancing, some advancing an agenda on affordability, others seeking reparations, others immigration and health care.
Republicans, meanwhile, are advancing an affordability agenda of their own. And because the Democrats don’t ever let the other party inside the tent to advance new policies and pass a budget, Republicans are left to maneuver from the outside.
Some Sacramento Republicans who have opted for a vocal approach to interrupt Democrats amid their discord and are clearly getting some political payback. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, has removed several Republicans from key committee positions for what, by all outward appearances, is retaliation for speaking their minds.
“This is about politics,” said Rivas’ counterpart, Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher of Nicolaus. “Pure and simple. They don’t like us calling them out.”
Here is a dirty little political secret of Sacramento. There is actually a political center that some on both sides actually believe in. But this hidden common ground is rarely revealed because the Democrats wrongly prefer to play solely in their own increasingly dysfunctional playground and basically never try the bipartisan route.
Take, for example, Gov. Gavin Newsom. Recently he implemented an emergency declaration to waive the California Environmental Quality Act to speed up “critical forest management projects.”
Yet that is exactly what Assemblyman Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, has been trying to do in recent years with bills to speed up the construction of escape routes from urban-wildland interfaces. Yet when this Republican has just as worthy an idea in legislation, the Democrats kill it.
Newsom, it seems, is only interested in engaging with Republicans when it serves his public relations interests via his new podcast, which promises a bipartisan lineup. That’s social media fakery that contradicts how Newsom for years has governed.
As for Niello and his Senate Bill 474, technically, he is seeking to end the California Air Resources Board’s ability to pass new regulations and force the Legislature to pass the proposals instead. Realistically, he is hoping to start a legislative conversation about “a completely unelected body that passes regulations that have significant impacts on people’s every-day lives.”
The bill has been referred to the Senate’s Environmental Quality Committee. No hearing date has been set.
“In the highly unlikely event it gets out of the Senate, I wouldn’t get a hearing in the Assembly,” Niello said. “Because the Assembly does that.” He’s sadly right.
California’s legislative Republicans by and large are not passionate centrists. But they are having notable successes right now by tapping into the every-day concerns of Californians and challenging how Democrats govern. And if that drives them crazy, the minority party, with sharp representatives like Niello, is deftly performing its role and doing a valuable service for California.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California Republicans are getting under the Democrats’ skin. That’s good for democracy | Opinion."