California’s homeless and mental health crises spur bipartisan cooperation

When California lawmakers passed a set of bills back in September to put on the ballot Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to boost funding for mental health treatment, my colleague Taryn Luna and I had a conversation about the unusual debate we had just witnessed on the Senate floor.

I shouldn’t even call it a debate — what we saw from lawmakers who are usually divided along party lines was a chorus of agreement, one of the biggest bipartisan kumbaya moments we’d seen in a while.

One senator who spoke out in favor of Newsom’s plan is an outspoken Donald Trump supporter who co-chaired the committee that led the failed 2021 recall effort against the governor, Luna reports in a new article about the measure known as Proposition 1 on the March ballot.

“It’s not very often that I agree with the governor, I mean, let’s just be honest,” Republican Sen. Shannon Grove told Luna in an interview. “But this is something that I feel we really need to do, because the bottom line is there are people on the street that desperately need this help.”

Grove’s support for Proposition 1 is emblematic of a shift in California politics, Luna reports: To solve a dire homelessness and mental health crisis, Republicans and Democrats are leaving their ideological corners and stepping into an unfamiliar bipartisan middle ground. In a deeply divided nation, the measure offers a rare glimpse of compromise on a policy led by one of the most politically polarizing figures in America.

Read the full article here: ‘Universal frustration’: In California, a crisis so dire Republicans and Democrats are working together

I’m Laurel Rosenhall, The Times’ Sacramento bureau chief, and here’s the week’s biggest news in California politics.

Election season is ramping up

(Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times)

With ballots getting mailed to voters next week, California’s primary election season is kicking into full gear. We’ve got you covered.

Today we’re publishing a slew of voter guides to help you sift through the candidates and issues on your ballot. They include information on:

• U.S. Senate and House races for the most competitive Southern California primaries
• California legislative races for numerous L.A.-area seats
• L.A. City Council, LAUSD school board and L.A. County races
• How to vote in California’s March primary

Here are The Times’ latest news articles on California’s upcoming election:

• Steve Garvey touts ‘family values’ in his Senate bid. Some of his kids tell another story
  As the Republican front-runner in the race for a California U.S. Senate seat, Steve Garvey has avoided detailed policy positions, instead relying on his name recognition and clean-cut image as a former first baseman for the Dodgers and Padres. But the reality of Garvey’s life is more complex.
  
• Schiff’s latest ad boosts Republican Senate rival Steve Garvey. Rep. Katie Porter hates it
  Republican Senate contender and former baseball All-Star Steve Garvey is getting a campaign boost from an unlikely source — Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a top rival in the race for the seat once held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Schiff’s campaign released a new ad portraying Garvey, a political novice considered a long shot to win the seat, as his greatest competitor in a close 2024 Senate race that features two other top Democrats: Reps. Katie Porter of Irvine and Barbara Lee of Oakland.
  
• Two Democrats battle to keep Katie Porter’s Orange County U.S. House seat blue
  For Democrats, both in Orange County and nationally, the stakes are high. The 47th Congressional District is one of four Orange County-based districts that are expected to be among the nation’s most competitive in this election as Republicans and Democrats fight for control of the House.
  
• Steve Garvey lags behind Democrats in California Senate race fundraising
  Campaign finance reports made public Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission show that Republican Steve Garvey raised about $610,000 last year from about 4,500 donors and political action committees. The top Democrats raised millions during the same time period.

Democrats push abortion rights in liberal Bay Area

Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning for abortion rights across the country this year.

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

Vice President Kamala Harris brought her abortion rights tour to California this week, elevating the issue in a left-leaning state as Democrats nationwide warn that Republicans could enact a federal ban on the procedure if they win Congress and the White House in this year’s elections.

Times reporter Mackenzie Mays was on the ground for Harris’ event in San Jose that also included California Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, a show of force as Democrats continue to remind voters of the fallout from the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

Harris applauded California for having some of the nation’s strongest abortion access protections but rallied voters to remain “vigilant” and to take the issue seriously in congressional races in November.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” said Harris, who has also traveled to Virginia and Wisconsin to rally for reproductive rights ahead of the election. “Let’s understand: None of us can afford to sit back and think, ‘Thank God we’re in California.’”

The vice president’s visit to the liberal Bay Area comes as Democrats hammer the issue in campaigns to flip some of the state’s Republican-held districts in order to gain control of the House of Representatives. With several potential toss-up districts, California is considered pivotal to the Democratic Party’s goal.

Read more here: Vice president brings abortion rights tour to California as Democrats fight for House control

Keeping up with California politics

California lawmakers unveiled 14 reparations bills. None of them call for cash payments
The California Legislative Black Caucus outlined the first set of reparations for the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved in the United States, with proposals that include a call for the state to issue a formal apology, to prohibit involuntary servitude in prisons and to return property seized by governments under race-based eminent domain. The caucus is not yet calling for cash payments.

The first female vice president is from California. Could she help elect the state’s first female governor?
It’s too soon to know whether California’s next governor will be a woman, with the race still two years away. But Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Sacramento highlighted the possibility, after the nation’s first female vice president spent time with two women aiming to become California’s first female governor.

Tribal leaders cite problems with California’s Feather Alert for Native people who go missing
Since California began a system a year ago to send alerts when Native people go missing, authorities have issued just two of the five Feather Alerts requested. The denials have fueled concerns in Native communities that the system meant to help locate missing Indigenous people is not working as intended.

California banned a slur from geographic place names. Fresno County won’t let go
Native American residents in Fresno County won removal of the word “squaw” from the name of an unincorporated town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. But now Fresno County leaders are fighting the name change with a measure on the March ballot asking voters to determine just who has the right to name — and rename — communities and geographic features in the county.

To protect kids, California might require chronological feeds on social media
Social media companies design their feeds to be as gripping as possible, with complicated algorithms shuffling posts and ads into a never-ending stream of entertainment. A new California bill would require companies to shut off those algorithms by default for users under 18, and implement other mandated tweaks that lawmakers say would reduce the negative mental health effects of social media on children.

Sip, sip, hooray! New bill would allow drinking on public streets in designated areas
Imagine a California where you can buy a beer at your favorite bar or restaurant, take it outside and drink it on the street with a friend. That could soon be a reality, if state and local officials clear the way. A bill proposed by California Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would allow the consumption of alcohol on public streets in designated zones.