Politics

Women make up nearly half of the California Legislature, setting a new record in Sacramento

Published

2 months ago

November 22, 2024

Women make up nearly half of the California Legislature, setting a new record in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO — Even in a state known for crafting first-in-the-nation progressive laws and leading on reproductive rights, men have long outnumbered women in the California Legislature.

The Capitol’s male-dominated culture was evident when hundreds of women spoke out about sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement. Then came the shocking image of a masked lawmaker carrying her newborn into the Assembly chambers during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic because she was denied a request to work remotely after giving birth.

It wasn’t until 1989 that a woman wore pants on the Senate floor, after a fed-up lawmaker defied the Capitol dress code on a cold day in Sacramento.

But now gender equality in California’s Capitol is nearer than ever, after voters elected a record number of women to the Legislature. When lawmakers are sworn in on Dec. 2, women will hold 59 of the Legislature’s 120 seats.

“They have an opportunity to exert power in a way that hasn’t been done before,” said Susannah Delano, executive director of Close the Gap California, which works to elect progressive women. “There’s a difference between lip service and good policy that is really vetted by the people who are going to be impacted, and women have a track record of powerful listening and inclusive, responsive solutions.”

The new record, with women holding 49% of legislative seats, marks a vast increase over the last decade. Women’s representation in the California Capitol is up from nearly 31% in 2020 and 25% in 2016, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. In 1980, just 9% of California state lawmakers were women.

For years, California has lagged behind other states — including Nevada, Arizona and Colorado — when it comes to legislative gender equity.

The change in Sacramento was fueled in part by major turnover in the Legislature this year, creating new opportunities for candidates to run without challenging an incumbent. More than a dozen of the newly elected women won seats held by men, many of who were forced out of office by term limits.

It comes after a majority of Californians voted for Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Trump and some are still reeling from the loss of what could have been America’s first female president.

Newcomer Sade Elhawray, a Democrat from South Los Angeles who is replacing termed-out Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, is among the record number of women who will meet for a special legislative session in Sacramento next month to devise new ways to shield the state from Trump’s federal agenda.

She pointed to Trump’s history of sexual misconduct allegations that include a jury finding him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, which Trump has described as a “made-up, fabricated story.”

“Women in the Legislature are really going to be on the front lines as we look to both hold Trump accountable and protect Californians from all the things that might happen. I think we have to suit up,” Elhawray said. “We still suffer from the evils of sexism in such a real way.”

While Democrats are praising the gender gains as a way to further secure liberal priorities such as abortion rights, Republicans are also celebrating.

Suzette Valladares, a former assembly member who is replacing termed out Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Saugus) for the Santa Clarita Valley Senate seat, said working moms like her are well positioned to address Californians’ escalating concerns over the cost of living because they are attuned to family budgets and child care fees.

“When I served in the Assembly, we had a women’s caucus that truly was bipartisan. We made a conscious effort to support each other’s bills,” she said. “I think it’s going to produce some amazing pieces of policy.”

It’s hard to say if the shakeup in the Legislature will produce tangible reforms. California has already passed equal pay laws that do more to close salary gaps between men and women than most states and is home to the most stringent sexual consent requirements.

But some priorities of the Legislative Women’s Caucus have stalled as California faced a multibillion dollar budget deficit, including a bill that would have expanded Medi-Cal coverage of diapers vetoed last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cited cost concerns.

Marva Diaz, a political strategist who mostly represents female candidates, said identity politics remain important to California campaigns despite the drubbing Democrats took nationally in this election, in part due to Trump’s strategy of appealing to young men.

“You recognize that you are different and that you are missing at certain tables. We need more women CEOs. We need more women in the business sector,” Diaz said. “I think that it’s going to take women in the Legislature in order to make that progress.”

The California Legislative Women’s Caucus was formed in 1985 and its founding members include Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, a trailblazing and powerful member of Congress, and Rose Ann Vuich, the first woman elected to the state Senate who was known to ring a bell each time her colleagues in the Capitol addressed members as “gentlemen.”

State Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) made history in 2018 when she became the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as the leader of California Senate. She was the first woman to lead both houses of the state Legislature, having also served as speaker of the Assembly.

Now, she’s one of three women who have declared a run for governor in 2026.

Only men have ever served as California governor. Atkins said it is overdue for voters to put a woman in the state’s highest office, and not just for representation purposes.

“I think it matters that there are women in this race. I actually think women govern differently,” Atkins said. “I think we think about the bigger picture.”

Politics

Video: How Trump Could Justify His Immigration Crackdown

Published

2 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

President-elect Donald Trump is likely to justify his plans to seal off the border with Mexico by citing a public health emergency from immigrants bringing disease into the United States. Now he just has to find one. New York Times White House Correspondent, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, explains.

Politics

Trump to be sentenced in New York criminal trial

Published

3 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

Trump to be sentenced in New York criminal trial

President-elect Trump is expected to be sentenced Friday after being found guilty on charges of falsifying business records stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s years-long investigation.

The president-elect is expected to attend his sentencing virtually, after fighting to block the process all the way up to the United States Supreme Court this week.

Judge Juan Merchan set Trump’s sentencing for Jan. 10—just ten days before he is set to be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.

TRUMP FILES MOTION TO STAY ‘UNLAWFUL SENTENCING’ IN NEW YORK CASE

Merchan, though, said he will not sentence the president-elect to prison.

From left to right: Judge Juan Merchan, former President Donald Trump, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Getty Images, AP Images)

Merchan wrote in his decision that he is not likely to “impose any sentence of incarceration,” but rather a sentence of an “unconditional discharge,” which means there would be no punishment imposed.

Trump filed an appeal to block sentencing from moving forward with the New York State Court of Appeals. That court rejected his request.

Trump also filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that it “immediately order a stay of pending criminal proceedings in the Supreme Court of New York County, New York, pending the final resolution of President Trump’s interlocutory appeal raising questions of Presidential immunity, including in this Court if necessary.”

“The Court should also enter, if necessary, a temporary administrative stay while it considers this stay application,” Trump’s filing requested.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg walks in the hallways of Manhattan Supreme Court

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrives at Daniel Penny’s trial following a lunch break at the Manhattan Supreme Criminal Court building in New York City on Monday, December 2, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

TRUMP FILES EMERGENCY PETITION TO SUPREME COURT TO PREVENT SENTENCING IN NY V. TRUMP

Trump’s attorneys also argued that New York prosecutors erroneously admitted extensive evidence relating to official presidential acts during trial, ignoring the high court’s ruling on presidential immunity.

The Supreme Court denied Trump’s emergency petition to block his sentencing from taking place on Friday, Jan. 10.

The Supreme Court, earlier this year, ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution related to official presidential acts.

But New York prosecutors argued that the high court “lacks jurisdiction” over the case.

JD Vance, Tom Cotton, John Barrasso, Donald Trump, Shelley Moore Capito, John Thune

Trump has previously explained a strategic component to his one-bill reconciliation approach. (Getty Images)

They also argued that the evidence they presented in the trial last year concerned “unofficial conduct that is not subject to any immunity.”

Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He pleaded not guilty to those charges. After a six-week-long, unprecedented trial for a former president and presidential candidate, a New York jury found the now-president-elect guilty on all counts.

Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and repeatedly railed against it as an example of “lawfare” promoted by Democrats in an effort to hurt his election efforts ahead of November.

Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.

Politics

Column: Trump shoots his mouth off as L.A. burns. His claims about fire hydrants don’t hold water

Published

3 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

Column: Trump shoots his mouth off as L.A. burns. His claims about fire hydrants don’t hold water

SACRAMENTO — OK, I admit it. I’m biased. I hate it when an opportunistic politician capitalizes on other people’s miseries and tries to score political points.

I’m especially biased when it’s a president-elect who shoots off his mouth without regard for facts and blames a governor for fire hydrants running dry.

Not that Democrat Gavin Newsom is a perfect governor. But his California water policies had no more to do with Pacific Palisades hydrants drying up during a firestorm than did Republican Donald Trump’s turning on sprinklers at his golf course.

News reporters shouldn’t allow personal biases to seep into their stories, as Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has reminded us. Reporters have long strived to not do so and mostly succeeded. But I’m not a reporter. I’m a columnist who analyzes and opines. And yes, I’m biased — but on issues, not politics.

It has always been my view that liberals, moderates and conservatives all have good and bad ideas. Neither party has a monopoly on truth and justice — except in relating to Trump.

I wanted to give Trump the benefit of the doubt and watch whether he really intended — as promised — to be a president for all Americans. But the guy just can’t help himself.

When Trump blamed Newsom for water hydrants going dry as Pacific Palisades burned, it wasn’t something people should dismiss as just another Trumpism.

Here was a president-elect mouthing off and showing his ignorance in a barrage of vindictiveness and insensitivity as thousands of people fled for their lives and hundreds of homes blazed into ashes.

Yes, I’m biased against anyone who’s that uncivil, especially when he disrespects facts or — worse — is a pathological liar.

So, let’s recap what Trump did.

As scores of hydrants went dry while fire crews battled flames in Pacific Palisades, the president-elect instinctively went on social media to point the finger at his left coast political adversary, the Democrat he tastelessly derides as Gov. “Newscum.”

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from the north to flow daily into many parts of California, including the parts that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump asserted.

“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt … but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid.

“I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California. He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster.”

True drivel, putting it politely.

First, what was this so-called water restoration declaration?

“There’s no such document,” responded Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s communications director. “That is pure fiction.”

Trump probably was referring to his policy differences with Newsom on water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmlands in the San Joaquin Valley. In his first presidency, Trump wanted to drain more fresh water from the delta for irrigation in the valley. But both Govs. Jerry Brown and Newsom took a more centrist approach, striving for a balance between farms and fish.

Second, it’s not the demise of the tiny smelt — the Republicans’ favorite target — that’s so concerning to many conservationists. It’s the rapid decline of iconic salmon that previously provided world-class recreational angling in the delta and fed a healthy commercial fishery on the coast. Salmon fishing seasons have been closed recently to save what’s left of the fish.

Third, despite Trump’s claptrap, plenty of fresh delta water is being pumped south to fill fire hydrants and the tanks of firefighting aircraft. Hundreds of millions of gallons of water flow daily down the California Aqueduct. Major Southland reservoirs are at historically high levels. Anyway, much of L.A.’s water doesn’t even come from the Delta. It flows from the Owens Valley and the Colorado River.

Fourth, the hydrants went dry simply because there were too many fires to fight, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power explained. Storage tanks went dry.

“We pushed the system to the extreme,” Janisse Quinones, DWP chief executive and chief engineer, said. “Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight.”

Yes, I’m biased against politicians who make up stuff.

But you’ve got to listen to Trump because he could follow through on what he’s bellowing about.

For example, Trump vowed during the presidential campaign to deny Newsom federal money to fight wildfires unless the governor diverted more water to farms.

That apparently wasn’t an idle threat.

Trump initially refused to approve federal wildfire aid in 2018 until a staffer pointed out that Orange County, a beneficiary, was home to many voters who supported him, Politico reported. And in 2020, the Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected an aid request during several California wildfires until Republicans appealed to Trump.

So, what’s Trump going to be like when he actually becomes president again and is wielding real power, not just running off at the mouth?

Will he try to annex Greenland? Seize the Panama Canal? When a reporter asked him whether he’d commit to not using “military or economic coercion” to achieve these goals, he immediately answered: “No.”

Will he keep calling Canada our “51st state?”

Yep. I’m biased against such immature and dangerous political leaders.