In summary
California attorney general candidate Anne Marie Schubert secured a key endorsement from powerful law enforcement groups.
CalMatters is dedicated to explaining how state government impacts our lives. Your support helps us produce journalism that makes a difference. Donate now.
What do the June recall election of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the ongoing effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón have to do with California’s state attorney general race?
A lot, according to attorney general candidate and Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who on Tuesday secured a key endorsement from powerful law enforcement groups. Schubert, a longtime Republican who re-registered as an independent in 2018, has also received the lion’s share of law enforcement contributions in the attorney general race so far.
- Schubert: “Do I think the current attorney general has a very different ideology than I do? Absolutely. If you think what’s happening in Los Angeles and San Francisco is good for California, he comes from the same ideological background.”
- Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office declined to comment on the endorsement, CalMatters’ Ben Christopher reports.
The comments mark Schubert’s latest attempt to connect Bonta — who was appointed to the position by fellow Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom — to controversial policies enacted by progressive prosecutors Gascón and Boudin. Gascón last week walked back some of those policies in the most striking example yet of prominent California Democrats adopting tougher strategies as polls show deep voter concern about rising crime.
2022 Election
Your guide to the 2022 general election in California
Schubert’s remarks also underscore one of the biggest challenges facing incumbent Democrats as they head into the 2022 elections: Squaring the perception shared by 78% of registered California voters that crime has increased over the past year with statistics that paint a more complicated picture.
- Boudin alluded to that difficulty in a defensive Monday interview with the New York Times Magazine. “The data speaks for itself, but … the way that people feel matters too,” he said. “After the pandemic, for reasons that have nothing to do with my policies, the financial district is empty. So the number of homeless people hasn’t increased significantly, but that population … is more visible in ways that make people who have access to social media, who donate to political campaigns, who have access to reporters at The San Francisco Chronicle or Examiner feel less safe.”
- In Los Angeles, the effort to recall Gascón is serving as a proxy for mayoral candidates’ positions on crime and homelessness. Billionaire developer Rick Caruso on Monday became the second Democratic contender to endorse removing Gascón from office. He also donated $50,000 to the recall campaign, arguing, “We need to reduce crime. We need to make our city safer.”
Meanwhile, crime continues to make headlines in California. The state was shaken Monday night when a 39-year-old man who was under a restraining order and not supposed to have a gun fatally shot his three young daughters, a chaperone and himself during a supervised visit at a Sacramento-area church. The man, David Fidel Mora Rojas, had also been arrested five days earlier in Merced County for drunk driving, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
- The horrific incident illustrates the consequences of California’s chronic inability to disarm abusers despite its strict gun control laws, as CalMatters’ Robert Lewis reported in his stunning series, “Outgunned.”
A message from our Sponsor
The coronavirus bottom line: As of Monday, California had 8,382,656 confirmed cases (+0.02% from previous day) and 84,712 deaths (+0.01% from previous day), according to state data. CalMatters is also tracking coronavirus hospitalizations by county.
California has administered 71,632,009 vaccine doses, and 73.8% of eligible Californians are fully vaccinated.
A message from our Sponsor
Other stories you should know
1. COVID data shifts — again
When the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its masking guidance last week and said that nearly half of Californians live in high-risk counties, it was apparently relying on data more than a month old. In reality, only a small number of counties fall into that category, local health officials told CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang and Ana B. Ibarra. At stake: Whether counties considered high risk should follow CDC guidelines and keep universal masking requirements in place, or follow the state’s lead in removing almost all mask rules — including for unvaccinated employees in indoor workplaces.
- A shift already appears to be underway: Santa Clara County health officials announced plans Tuesday to let the county’s indoor mask mandate expire today, and Los Angeles County’s is poised to end Friday. Los Angeles County also plans to lift some vaccine-or-test and inoculation requirements to enter certain businesses.
- The constant back-and-forth has prompted criticism from Republican lawmakers. “It’s not the science that has changed, it’s the political science that has changed,” state Sen. Melissa Melendez of Lake Elsinore said after California unveiled plans Monday to lift the statewide school mask mandate on March 12.
But masks are hardly the only contentious pandemic policy dividing Californians. A vaccine working group of state lawmakers has introduced an aggressive slate of COVID-related bills that, if adopted, would make California an outlier among states — and give it the country’s strictest COVID regulations, CalMatters’ Elizabeth Aguilera reports.
2. Dispatch from the California Capitol
Gov. Newsom has added his voice to the chorus of lawmakers calling on California to impose financial sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine — and has increased the urgency of that request. In a late Monday letter to the leaders of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the University of California Retirement System — public pension funds that together hold Russian investments worth some $1.5 billion — Newsom demanded they “immediately restrict Russian access to California’s capital and investments.” He also directed the funds to “immediately assess risk to the retirees of our state” and inform him within the next 10 days of additional safeguards that California could put in place to protect its investments. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday tweeted her support of Newsom’s proposal.
- Theresa Taylor, president of CalPERS’ board of directors, told the Sacramento Bee on Monday that she expects the board to discuss divesting from Russia at its next meeting on March 14-16.
In other state government news: As CalMatters’ Sameea Kamal reports, Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Tuesday backtracked on her plan to require ballots and other voter materials to be translated into fewer languages for the 2022 election. The about-face — which comes a week after Sameea reported on advocates’ concerns about the possible disenfranchisement of millions of California voters who speak limited English — expands the number of languages from 10 back to 27 for 2022 election materials, starting with the June 7 primary.
- Weber: “Because reduced language assistance has the potential to disenfranchise voters who may not receive voting materials in the appropriate language, I exercised my discretionary authority to reinstate the language determination levels from 2017 and 2020.”
3. California’s homelessness Catch-22
As California jurisdictions last week started tallying their homeless populations for the first time since the pandemic began two years ago, several encampments went up in flames — including one in San Francisco that killed a woman and prompted Newsom to condemn the “unconscionable status quo,” and another in Sacramento just blocks away from where the state’s top housing official was speaking with CalMatters’ Manuela Tobias about California’s unprecedented investment in homelessness.
- Lourdes Castro Ramírez, secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency: “We’re building the system, building the capacity, building the data, and communities are rising to the occasion. I know people are really frustrated because they feel like they don’t see that change. But I don’t think you can see change that is going to be long-lasting overnight.”
The blazing encampments underscore the difficulty of making a dent in California’s entrenched homelessness crisis: Although the state is pouring billions of dollars into the issue, most researchers expect the new tallies to show an increase in the homeless population. Exacerbating the problem: California’s lack of data about the effectiveness of its homeless programs.
- Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, a Los Angeles Democrat: “We’re stuck. We’re releasing this funding to be able to help address the issue, but in return, the data is not coming back fast enough for the Legislature to be able to make an informed decision as to, are we going to put more dollars into something, and does it work?”
4. Third year of drought is inevitable
Most of California just experienced its driest January and February on record, and the state is all but certain to endure a third year of drought, state water officials said Tuesday after finding that water content in the Sierra Nevada snowpack — which provides about a third of California’s water supply — was at 68% of its historical average for that date. With the rainy season drawing to a close and not much precipitation in the forecast, the drought is “here to stay,” said Sean de Guzman, manager of snow surveys and water supply forecasting for the state Department of Water Resources.
To help put California’s drought crisis in perspective, consider this series of sobering statistics, in the words of the Mercury News’ Paul Rogers:
- Nobody alive today has seen weather in Northern California this dry during what historically are two of the wettest months each year.
- Downtown San Francisco received just 0.65 inches of rain over the past two months — less than the diameter of a dime, and the lowest level since weather records began there in 1849 during the Gold Rush.
- San Jose had just 0.01 inches in January and February, an amount that’s equal to the thickness of a fingernail.
CalMatters commentary
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: With poor standing among California voters and now dealing with the death of her husband, Sen. Dianne Feinstein must decide whether to seek a sixth term in 2024.
Vote to reduce plastic waste: The Legislature has tried and failed over several years to comprehensively mandate reductions in single-use plastics. But California voters have an opportunity this November to vote for the changes we urgently need, argues Assemblymember Cristina Garcia, a Bell Gardens Democrat.
Seed funding needed for major water recycling project: Sacramento policymakers have a historic opportunity to support a local supply project that would produce enough high-quality water for 500,000 families a year, writes Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Other things worth your time
California consultants can charge secret bounties for influence. // Sacramento Bee
Sens. Padilla, Feinstein miss Biden’s State of the Union. // Los Angeles Times
California Bar investigating Trump lawyer for ethic breaches. // Associated Press
After criticism, California bar’s working group will focus on sandbox and trim membership ranks. // ABA Journal
Silicon Valley faces pressure to redesign children’s online experience. // Wall Street Journal
California has the lowest literacy rate of any state. // Capitol Weekly
California made a historic investment in school counselors. Is it enough? // EdSource
Judge rules Campos can’t call himself a ‘civil rights attorney’ in Assembly runoff election. // San Francisco Standard
Santa Clara University announces history-making new president. // Mercury News
Head of Oakland police union blames staffing crisis on City Council’s ‘anti-police rhetoric.’ // San Francisco Chronicle
As fentanyl ravages San Francisco, there’s been a sudden shift in the debate over a rehab method emphasizing abstinence. // San Francisco Chronicle
A formerly homeless Oaklander’s fight against illegal dumping. // San Francisco Chronicle
City Attorney subpoenas docs in probe of Recology’s ties to SF agency. // San Francisco Standard
How 18-wheeler trucks from the LA port ended up on a tiny street. // Los Angeles Times
High speed rail’s Bay Area link could cost $19 billion. // Mercury News
What can be done to keep California’s utility bills from getting even higher? // San Diego Union-Tribune
PG&E cited after deploying ‘heli-saw’ in San Mateo County park. // NBC Bay Area
California climate action plans stick to boilerplate solutions, new study says. // CapRadio
Houston oil company sues over California pipeline link. // Associated Press
Caldor Fire survivors say FEMA did little to help those who lost homes. // Los Angeles Times
Costa Mesa couple barely escape Ukraine with days-old newborn. // Los Angeles Times
Fremont ranked as the happiest city in America. // Mercury News
See you tomorrow.
Tips, insight or feedback? Email emily@calmatters.org.
Follow me on Twitter: @emily_hoeven
Subscribe to CalMatters newsletters here.
Follow CalMatters on Facebook and Twitter.
CalMatters is now available in Spanish on Twitter, Facebook and RSS.