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California voters approve Prop. 50, redrawing congressional maps to favor Democrats

November 6, 2025 By Maya C. Miller and Jeanne Kuang 4 Comments

In summary California voters overwhelmingly approved the governor’s ballot measure on Tuesday, endorsing newly drawn maps that favor Democrats.

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California voters on Tuesday passed a ballot measure to redraw the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats, a major victory for the party in a high-stakes national redistricting fight that could determine who controls the House of Representatives next year.

The Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. Early returns showed the measure leading with nearly 65% of the vote.

The maps voters approved with Proposition 50 make it likely that five of California’s GOP-held congressional seats could be won by Democrats in next year’s midterm elections. They also bolster the re-election chances of three Democrats currently holding office in now-competitive districts.

The passage is a triumph for Gov. Gavin Newsom, an early proponent of the gerrymandering plan whose backing set off a whirlwind summer map-drawing effort and quick passage through the Democratic-dominated state Legislature.

The campaign played out as a rebuke to President Donald Trump, and Newsom reaffirmed that message in a short speech at the Sacramento headquarters of the California Democratic Party.

“We stood tall and we stood firm in response to Donald Trump’s recklessness. Tonight, after poking the bear, this bear roared, with unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result,” Newsom said.

But he cautioned people to not let down their guard, warning that Trump will continue to intimidate people by deploying ICE and the Border Patrol in cities and to try to gain more congressional seats in other red states. Trump early Tuesday morning claimed without evidence the vote was “rigged” and vowed a “legal and criminal review” of the election.

After weeks of saying only that other Democratic-led states could consider redistricting in a similar way, Newsom explicitly called on Virginia, Maryland, New York, Illinois and Colorado to put up a show of force against Trump and help win back the House.

“I hope it’s dawning on people the sobriety of this moment, what’s at stake,” he said. “We can de facto end Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it … We all must contribute.”

Click here to read the full article in CalMatters

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: Newsom, Prop 50

The feds want to know more about the people on food stamps. How Newsom responded

October 21, 2025 By Phoebe Huss 1 Comment

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A law that allowed the sharing of limitless amounts of personal data across the state to find people eligible for CalFresh was rescinded this week.

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 593 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, a Democrat from Oakland, that forbids state and local departments from sharing sensitive personal data to increase food stamp enrollment.

But only a year ago, it was Wicks who introduced that same data sharing initiative, to get more people enrolled in CalFresh, the state’s federally funded food assistance program. Her bill from last year, Assembly Bill 518, granted state and local public entities involved in education, crime, employment, and other areas the authority to override all state privacy laws to share data about people who could potentially get CalFresh.

CalFresh is funded by the federal government, run by the state Department of Social Services and administered locally. Over 1 in 5 Californians are food insecure. About 5 million Californians are CalFresh recipients, and the state estimates almost 2 million more are eligible and haven’t signed up.

Around 200,000 college students in California receive CalFresh, according to the California Department of Social Services. All recipients must complete an application process many consider time-consuming and confusing.

Click here to read the full article in CalMatters

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: foodstamps, Newsom

Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs New Executive Order Going After ‘Ultra-Processed Foods’, Food Dyes

January 6, 2025 By Evan Symon Leave a Comment

‘Newsom has quite the history of trying to show up the Trump administration’

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new executive order on Friday aimed at directing state agencies to recommend potential actions to limit the potential harms associated with “ultra-processed foods” and food ingredients that could pose a health risk to individuals.

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For the past several years, California has significantly cracked down on different food ingredients and dyes because of alleged health risks. Most notably, this has included AB 418, a 2024 bill turned law authored by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Woodland Hills) that banned five common food additives in California. However, other actions have included a new law prohibiting California schools from selling foods containing synthetic food dye additives that have been linked to health harms, actions by Newsom to keep the sale ban of sodas in K-12 schools, restricting the amount of sugar in milk, and restricting anything caffeinated to be sold at schools before high school.

This all led to Friday, when Newsom signed an executive order that continued to build on previous food, health, and school lunch laws of the past. According to the order, specific state entities will have to do the following:

Provide recommendations to the Governor’s Office regarding potential action to limit the harms associated with “ultra-processed foods” and food ingredients that pose a health risk to individuals.
Continue investigating the adverse health impacts of synthetic food dyes.
Recommend actions to reduce the purchase of soda, candy, other ultra-processed foods and/or foods with synthetic food dye or other additives.
Investigate the feasibility of requiring Medi-Cal Managed Care plans and California hospitals to use their Community Investment dollars and Community Benefit funds to enhance access to fresh, healthy foods, mitigate the impacts of “food deserts,” and otherwise promote public health at the local level.
Identify areas where California may adopt higher standards for healthy school meals than national standards.
Explore developing new standards and partnerships to further protect and expand universal school food programs.

“The food we eat shouldn’t make us sick with disease or lead to lifelong consequences,” said Newsom in a statement on Friday. “California has been a leader for years in creating healthy and delicious school meals, and removing harmful ingredients and chemicals from food. We’re going to work with the industry, consumers and experts to crack down on ultra-processed foods, and create a healthier future for every Californian.”

Newsom’s new Executive Order

His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, added, “Through today’s executive order, we’re making a decisive and transformative commitment to further California’s work to prioritize health and nutrition as fundamental building blocks for thriving communities. By connecting the dots between whole food, mental wellness, and strong cognition, we are creating an environment where every child has the opportunity to realize their full potential. This is a powerful move towards health, equity, and a California for ALL Kids.”

Click here to read the full article in the California Globe

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: Legislature, Newsom, processed food

Another bid to recall Newsom and rob voters

March 2, 2024 By Maark Barbaar 20 Comments

Sore losers’ 7th effort to oust him is a waste, and points to larger ill: Unending elections due to denial

Gov. Gavin Newsom at a press conference in the state capitol following the first COVID-19 death in California. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Gavin Newsom is hardly beyond reproach.

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California faces a massive budget deficit, which may be worse than the governor acknowledges. There’s been voluminous amounts of talk about but no end to the state’s housing and homelessness crises.

The time and energy Newsom devotes to boosting his national profile — traipsing around the country, running red-state ads promoting abortion rights — could be better spent at home. Instead of visiting Florida and Alabama, Newsom should take a tour of rural California, stopping in flyover places like Alturas, Sonora and Red Bluff.

It may not boost Newsom’s 2028 presidential prospects or win many converts. But it would acknowledge the disconnect their residents feel from the rest of the state, and show their concerns matter as much as those of Democrats in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

None of that, however, justifies the latest attempt to drive Newsom from office.

A group of Republicans involved in the failed 2021 recall effort announced this week that they’re trying again — marking the seventh attempt to short-circuit Newsom’s governorship.

It’s a waste of time and, potentially, a whole lot more taxpayer money. It should force lawmakers in Sacramento to finally make some badly needed fixes to the state’s broken recall process.

It’s also symptomatic of a larger ill.

For more than a generation, we’ve lived in the age of the permanent campaign. The line between governing and eyeing the next election has become indistinguishable — much to the chagrin of those who wish expedience and partisanship had less influence over lawmakers and their decisions.

But in recent years, the negative effects of the permanent campaign have been exceeded by something even more pernicious: the election without end.

Rather than admitting defeat, Donald Trump and his followers insist on relitigating the 2020 presidential contest. In Arizona, gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake and other Republicans pulled the same stunt after losing their statewide races, refusing to recognize the results.

(For those who insist those elections were stolen, here’s a suggestion: Get together with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy and discuss ways to prevent similar “fraud” in 2024. You’re welcome.)

Elections used to have winners and losers, with both sides acknowledging as much. Now those who don’t like the results simply refuse to accept the outcome, ignoring the will of voters.

In Oregon, that meant lawmakers boycotted the Legislature to deny majority Democrats a quorum. In Wisconsin, unhappy Republicans threatened to nullify a state Supreme Court election and impeach a liberal justice simply because their preferred candidate lost. (The legislators were finally shamed out of such a flagrantly undemocratic move.)

That mindset, that elections don’t count unless they turn out the way you wish, is evident in the renewed effort to recall Newsom.

Like him or not, he has twice been elected governor. He decisively beat back the attempted 2021 recall; the 61.9% “no” vote precisely matched Newsom’s winning percentage in 2018 — meaning nearly $250 million was spent on a special election so voters could say, in effect, yep, we meant it when we chose this guy.

They chose Newsom again in 2022, when he cruised to reelection.

The GOP is in pathetic shape in California. That’s nothing new. It’s been nearly two decades since voters elected a Republican governor, the sui generis Arnold Schwarzenegger.

So now the strategy seems to be, if you can’t beat ’em, harass ’em.

And make some money in the process.

The San Francisco Standard reported that Rescue California, the campaign committee behind the 2021 recall election, is more than $1 million in debt. Fundraising for the latest effort could easily wipe away that debt and reap a hefty sum for organizers who profited nicely from the last go-round.

In the weeks and months after that costly, pointless election, lawmakers in Sacramento considered ways to overhaul the recall process, which has aged poorly since its conception more than a century ago.

Click here to read the full story in the LA Times

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California, Newsom, Recall

Walters: Newsom chides Ohio GOP for trying to change voting rules yet adopts the same tactics

December 4, 2023 By Dan Walters 1 Comment

After Ohio voters approved a state constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom chided Ohio’s Republicans for trying to change voting rules to thwart the abortion measure.

GOP political figures had placed a measure on an August election ballot that would have raised the minimum vote needed to pass an abortion rights amendment from a simple majority to 60%, but it had been defeated.

What happened – or rather didn’t happen – in August was pivotal to what happened three months later. The abortion rights amendment was passed with 56.6% of the votes cast. In other words, had the anti-abortion Republicans succeeded in raising the approval threshold to 60%, November’s measure would have failed.

“Here’s a tale of a party out of touch with the American people,” Newsom declared on X, formerly Twitter. “Ohio Republicans were so desperate to block abortion access they tried to change the rules in a special election and require 60% support to pass constitutional amendments. But they failed.

“Then, they tried to block a ballot initiative to protect abortion rights. They failed again. Now, they are claiming election interference and are even saying they will strip the Courts of power to overturn the will of voters. Spoiler: You’re going to fail, again. They really can’t seem to take a hint.”

Newsom’s crowing about Republican manipulation of voting rules was particularly noteworthy because he and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature are trying to do precisely the same thing to block a business-backed ballot measure that would make it more difficult to raise state and local taxes.

The tax measure is scheduled to appear on the November ballot next year. It would require voter approval of any new taxes passed by the Legislature and two-thirds voter approval for local taxes.

The California Constitution currently says that statewide ballot measures need only a simple majority of voters to approve. However, the Legislature has placed another constitutional amendment on the same ballot that, if passed, would require any measure to increase voting thresholds for taxes to reach the same thresholds themselves.

Thus, it would raise the voting requirement for the tax measure to two-thirds, making it much more difficult, or perhaps impossible, to pass.

It’s part of a multi-pronged drive by the tax measure’s opponents – Newsom, Democratic legislative leaders and public employee unions – to block it from appearing on the ballot or gaining approval.

Newsom, et al, have also filed a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court to remove the business-backed tax measure from the ballot, contending that it is not merely an amendment to the state constitution but rather a “revision.” The court has agreed to hear the case.

While constitutional amendments may be placed before voters either by initiative petition or legislative action, any revisions must be proposed by the Legislature through a constitutional revision commission or by calling a statewide constitutional convention.

Newsom, through a spokesperson, says he is challenging the validity of the tax measure because it would “effectively block the state’s ability to quickly respond to major challenges.”

Were the state Supreme Court to declare that the tax measure is a constitutional revision, it would be game over. However, the legal dividing line between a constitutional amendment and a revision is hazy, and the court might postpone the issue until after voters have spoken next November.

One can rationally debate the merits or negative aspects of making it more difficult to raise taxes, but trying to strangle such a measure before voters have their say, as occurred in Ohio and is now occurring in California, is troublesome.

Click here to read that the full article in CalMatters

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: California Politics, Newsom, Ohio

California spending billions to expand transitional kindergarten. How effective is the program?

November 22, 2023 By Stephen Hobbs Leave a Comment

Two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on an ambitious plan to make a pre-kindergarten program available to California’s 4-year-olds for free.

That effort, already underway, is an attempt to reduce learning disparities and improve outcomes for the state’s children.

Education officials and close observers, however, are still grappling with essential questions: Just how effective is the program, known as transitional kindergarten, or TK, and for which children is it most beneficial?

Researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank, explored an early version of the program in the state in a recent study. Transitional kindergarten has been available for a decade in California, on a more limited basis.

The researchers found the pre-expansion version of transitional kindergarten led to earlier identifications of students with special education needs and those who were growing up learning a language other than English. At the same time, they discovered the program did not appear to improve test results for students in third and fourth grades more than other pre-kindergarten options.

Nonetheless, transitional kindergarten has support among education experts who urged caution against reading too much into the PPIC report.

Major shifts in the program have occurred in the years after the period studied, they noted. It also only involved five large districts in the state and the tests were taken years after the students left transitional kindergarten. Beyond that, childhood development can’t just be measured by test scores alone.

The PPIC authors also said their findings weren’t a sign that the program wasn’t helping students.

Still, the results not only raise some questions about the effectiveness of transitional kindergarten in California but also highlight another concern: Despite pledging to spend several billion dollars to expand the program, the state currently has no plans to formally evaluate its benefits before it becomes available to all 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year.

H. Alix Gallagher, director of strategic partnerships for Policy Analysis for California Education, a non-partisan research center, points to other unknowns.

“What do we mean when we say TK? Gallagher asked. “Because it’s not all the same, at all.”

For example, Gallagher added, districts can offer either half or full day instruction and be called transitional kindergarten. The benefits and experiences of each for students might not be the same. And the data collected by the state does not distinguish between those two options.

“We need more information about what kids are getting in TK,” Gallagher said, “in order to understand what program features are effective.”

Sarah Neville-Morgan, a deputy superintendent of public instruction for the California Department of Education, said the research from the PPIC and others helps the department refine and improve. Next year, the agency plans to release standards for transitional kindergarten that will identify skills children can develop while in it.

As for evaluating the program, Neville-Morgan said that is hard to do while it is still being rolled out.

“You actually have to wait until things are stable, fully implemented,” she said, ”to be able to look at true effectiveness.”

Catching up

Research has shown that early childhood education programs benefit students in the classroom and beyond. One study found California students who attended an early version of transitional kindergarten entered kindergarten with stronger math and literacy skills than those who didn’t. Less is known about the program’s longer-term benefits.

Head Start, which is federally funded, and the California State Preschool Program are among other pre-kindergarten options. Like those, transitional kindergarten is not mandatory. It is, however, the only program that will be available and free for all 4-year-olds.

One benefit of funding the program is that it provides access to a preschool option “in every corner of the state,” said Jessica Holmes, a chief deputy executive director with the State Board of Education, in an emailed statement. Elementary or unified school districts must offer transitional kindergarten. “While not every community has a Head Start or State Preschool program, they all have public schools and options to meet their needs.”

Deborah Stipek, an professor emerita at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, said the program is still developing and may look different once it is fully implemented.

“In a way,” Stipek said, “we created TK and now we’re catching up with all the policies that are needed to make it work effectively.”

The current expansion concerns Bruce Fuller, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Education.

“We don’t have real-time evidence as to whether this spending is really paying off for kids,” Fuller said.

That includes knowing more about how transitional kindergarten compares with other subsidized preschool options.

“Given the scope,” Fuller said, “it’s shocking that the administration is not carefully trying to commission an evaluation to see if there are short-term and immediate-term benefits to 4-year-olds.”

Holmes said the state is reviewing the transitional kindergarten program, and other preschool options, on an ongoing basis.

State education and social services agencies have formed a group of experts to analyze the quality of and access to all of the state’s preschool options, she added, including transitional kindergarten. The group plans to provide recommendations to the Legislature and Governor’s Office by March, Holmes said.

Neville-Morgan, from the education department, said the agency is hoping a long-term study of the program will eventually occur.

“It would have to happen through the budget process,” she said, “and that isn’t something that we have right now.”

In the meantime, E’Leva Gibson, an assistant superintendent for early learning and care at the Sacramento City Unified School District, is looking for more information.

While calling transitional kindergarten a “wonderful thing” Gibson also wants to know how to make it better and how to best measure students’ progress once they leave the program.

Click here to read the full article in the Sacramento Bee Via Yahoo News

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: education, first partner, Newsom

The Intensifying Newsom–DeSantis Rivalry

July 3, 2023 By Madeline Kearns 8 Comments

A 2024 general election between the two of them — as hypothetical as that is — would be a fascinating battle in the nation’s culture wars.

Last Fourth of July weekend, Gavin Newsom ran ads in Florida urging “all of you living in Florida to join the fight. Or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.”

The rivalry between the governor of California and the governor of Florida, who each have four more years in office, has become increasingly fraught in recent months. Newsom has called Ron DeSantis a “small, pathetic man” for sending migrants to California, which he describes as “kidnapping.” DeSantis has been similarly personal. On the Mark Levin Show, the Florida governor suggested Newsom’s “obsession” with the Sunshine State might stem from the fact that his in-laws “moved from California to Florida during our administration, and they left during his administration.”

A few weeks ago, on Fox News, Sean Hannity asked Newsom if he would agree to a two-hour debate with DeSantis. “Make it three,” Newsom replied. “I would do it one day’s notice with no notes. I look forward to that.”

DeSantis said Newsom should stop “pussyfooting” around and throw his hat in the ring to “challenge Joe.” Newsom insists that he supports Biden entirely and has no intention of running for president.

A 2024 general election between the two of them — as hypothetical as that is — would be a fascinating battle in the nation’s culture wars. Both men are more ideological than either Biden or Trump. And in terms of strategy, Newsom and DeSantis are more similar than they’d like to think.

Consider their handling of corporations when they come under the influence of their political enemies. When Disney, under pressure from LGBT activists, proclaimed its aim to defeat DeSantis’s education-reform bill, the governor moved to strip the corporation of its 56-year-old “independent special district” status. Similarly, when Walgreens, in response to the Dobbs ruling, decided not to dispense the abortion drug mifepristone in certain states, Newsom suspended the state’s multimillion-dollar contract with the company.

“We stand for the protection of our children,” DeSantis said. “We will fight those who seek to rob them of their innocence. And on that point, there will be no compromise.”

Newsom justified his actions in the same terms: “California will not stand by as corporations cave to extremists and cut off critical access to reproductive care and freedom.”

With immigration, DeSantis has gone on the offensive — busing and flying migrants to blue states, including California. Newsom has acted with similar aggression on other culture-war issues. The transgender “sanctuary” bill he signed into law encourages children to come to California from out of state to receive trans drugs and surgeries. And trans isn’t the only tourism on offer. Newsom also funded a billboard campaign in other states, encouraging women to come to California to end their pregnancies. One ad promoting abortion even used a Bible verse.

Both Newsom and DeSantis are generally quick on their feet. Both present themselves as family men. And both have spoken about their faith-based values. DeSantis is a practicing Catholic. Newsom is definitely not, though he has spoken about the important “Jesuit values” he picked up while in college at Santa Clara University.

Their political differences are perhaps most obvious in their contrasting responses to the pandemic. And it’s on this that DeSantis could do serious damage to Newsom in any televised debate. In 2021, a year after Newsom’s first shutdown, masks were still mandated, indoor dining was limited, and schoolchildren were ordered to get the Covid vaccine (which was later walked back) in California. Meanwhile, Florida had no restrictions and banned private employers from mandating Covid vaccines.

According to the February PPIC Statewide Survey, 58 percent of California adults approve of Newsom’s handling of his job. However, it’s not clear that would carry over to the national level. In March, a Quinnipiac University poll of registered California voters found that 70 percent of voters, including 54 percent of Democrats, felt that Newsom shouldn’t run in 2024.

Click here to read the full article in the National Review

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: desantis, Gavin Newsom, Newsom

Newsom Proposes U.S. 28th Amendment on Gun Control

June 10, 2023 By Phil Willon and Taryn Luna 7 Comments

UC law dean calls the governor’s plan ‘terrible’

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called for a U.S. constitutional amendment on gun control that would ban assault weapons and mandate background checks and waiting periods for purchasing firearms, a proposal that has little chance of passing in a nation deeply divided on the issue.

For Newsom’s proposed 28th Amendment to be considered, legislatures in two-thirds of the states must vote in favor of a constitutional convention. Republicans currently control more than half of the nation’s state legislatures, some of which have recently taken action to reduce gun restrictions.

Newsom’s announcement is likely to be politically popular among national Democrats and in California, which has some of the toughest gun control restrictions in the nation. It could further the liberal governor’s efforts to expand his political influence on some of the most pivotal and controversial issues facing the country.

The proposal comes after Newsom in March launched a federal political action committee, dubbed the Campaign for Democracy, which he said he created to boost Democrats before the 2024 election and push back on Republican leaders who “ban books,” “kidnap migrants” and “stoke racism.”

Newsom’s proposed amendment on gun restrictions, which he announced Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show, would outlaw the civilian purchase of assault weapons, raise the federal minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, mandate universal background checks for gun purchases and institute a “reasonable waiting” period for all gun purchases.

“The 28th Amendment will enshrine in the Constitution common sense gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, independents, and gun owners overwhelmingly support — while leaving the 2nd Amendment unchanged and respecting America’s gun-owning tradition,” Newsom said in a statement Thursday morning.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the school of law at UC Berkeley, called Newsom’s plan a “terrible idea.”

Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, an amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of Congress or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures. None of the 27 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed in a constitutional convention under that process.

“To me, what’s really frightening about it is we’ve never had a constitutional convention under that procedure of Article V,” Chemerinsky said.

“No one knows would it be limited to just the 2nd Amendment, or could it do anything? Could they do abortion or rewrite the Constitution? How is it going to be constituted? What are its rules?”

Chemerinsky said calls for constitutional conventions from conservatives have gained traction over the years, including a proposal to mandate a balanced federal budget. He said a balanced budget would devastate social programs, and liberals have argued against it by saying a constitutional convention is unprecedented and dangerous.

By endorsing the process for gun control, Newsom is eroding that argument, he said.

Chemerinksy also made the case that it’s unnecessary. Newsom’s gun control proposals could be carried out by state legislatures or Congress and would not violate the 2nd Amendment, he said. If Congress or lawmakers don’t have the political will to enact the measures through legislation, he said, they won’t do so through a constitutional amendment.

“That’s why I think that Newsom is making a huge mistake in calling for a constitutional convention,” Chemerinsky said. “It’s incredibly unlikely, because I can’t imagine two-thirds of the states calling for this and three-quarters of the states approving changing the 2nd Amendment when you’ve got a majority of states controlled by Republican legislatures, and it’s dangerous to be opening the door to giving credence to the idea of a constitutional convention.”

Newsom’s aides said the governor is calling for a constitutional convention after federal courts struck down several of California’s gun control measures. While rejecting the state’s 30-year ban on assault rifles in 2021, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez compared the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to a Swiss Army knife and called it “good for both home and battle.”

“If judges are taking radical approaches, the only recourse is to change the actual Constitution,” said Anthony York, a spokesperson for Newsom.

But Chemerinsky pointed out that none of the changes Newsom is proposing have been addressed by the Supreme Court yet.

“So maybe the Supreme Court will say these things violate the 2nd Amendment, but it hasn’t happened yet,” said Chemerinsky, who predicted the high court would at the least continue to allow background checks.

Newsom said he is working with the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature to make California the first state to call for the constitutional convention.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) did not comment Thursday. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) commended Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward), the lawmaker who intends to draft California’s resolution to carry out Newsom’s plan.

The governor intends to travel to other states to make the pitch over the summer, his aides said.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher accused Newsom of chasing the national spotlight.

“Newsom’s proposal is a poorly thought out, attention-seeking stunt from a governor desperate to distract from his ever-growing record of failure,” Gallagher tweeted.

Click here to read the full article in LA Times

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California Politics, guns, Newsom