Meet the handful of lawmakers who actually vote “no”

For the record: A story in this issue of WhatMatters contained a number of erroneous characterizations and conclusions based on an incorrect interpretation of campaign finance data. Read the full correction.

Almost no one in the California Legislature actually votes “no” on bills. 

They choose an easy way out, electing to not cast a vote at all. There’s even a term for it: “laying off.”

Not Anamarie Ávila Farías, a Democratic assemblymember from Concord. She’s one of three Democrats that our reporter Ryan Sabalow identified who regularly recorded “no” votes this year. She was joined by Jasmeet Bains and Robert Garcia.

• Ávila Farías: “I feel that people sent me to Sacramento to make hard decisions, and I have to answer to the voters, and laying off a bill is not showing up to represent my constituents.”

Our Digital Democracy database tracks every vote in the Legislature. That allowed us to discover that the average Democratic lawmaker missed close to 100 votes on bills this year. Republicans are even worse. The minority party’s 30 lawmakers missed an average of nearly 400 votes this year.

As Ryan writes: 

It’s extremely difficult for the public to know if these non-votes were because a lawmaker had an excused absence or if they just dodged tough decisions.

Dig deeper: Last year, we showed how Democrats used “laying off” to kill bills without having to vote against them.

From CalMatters data reporter Jeremia Kimelman:

The battle over Prop. 50 is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive ballot measures in recent state history. The official campaigns supporting and opposing the measure reported raising more than $140 million dollars by early October.

The support camp, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, raised more than $99 million with about 10% coming from donors who gave less than $100, largely through the House Majority PAC.

The groups opposing the redistricting measure raised $41 million so far, almost all of it from two donors: Republican leaders in Congress and billionaire Charles Munger, Jr. Less than one percent, or $8,300, was contributed from donors who gave less than $100.

Check out our voter guide to help you decide how to vote on Prop. 50

The Legislature passed a bill this year that would’ve allowed cities and counties to spend up to 10 percent of their state housing money on sober homeless housing. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom, however, has vetoed the bill. 

The bill’s author, San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney, said he wanted to avoid forcing people who are trying to stay sober into “housing where drug use is allowed, and that puts their recovery and their lives at risk.”

As reporter Marisa Kendall writes, the bill would have tweaked California’s “housing first” strategy, which seeks to avoid programs that put up barriers to housing — such as requiring people to stay clean or participate in treatment. 

From Marisa:

The governor said the bill was unnecessary and would have created a “duplicative and costly new statutory category” for recovery housing. “Recent guidance” already allows cities and counties to spend state homelessness funds on sober housing, Newsom said in his veto message.

• Three of the four California counties empowered to inspect federal immigration detention facilities have not done so, and the fourth has conducted only basic reviews of food this year, records obtained by CalMatters show.

• Check out our new video on two new California laws that aim to make immigration agents easier to identify as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal.