Californians for Good Governance

Update: The Newsom administration won’t say how much Kamala Harris’ CHP security detail is costing California taxpayers. We filed California Public Records Act requests solely seeking cost information, which have been denied 🧵… kcra.com/article/kamala-harr…

The best resistance is delivering results on the issues our residents care most about. sfstandard.com/opinion/2025/…

The Democrats can't even answer these basic questions: Who drew the maps, and who is funding it?!

"When I go to a restaurant, I don't need to meet the chef." Here's how California Assembly Elections Chair Gail Pellerin responded to repeated questions about who is responsible for CA's proposed Congressional maps. CALeg Democratic leaders refuse to say who exactly.

Democrats on the Assembly Election Committee are refusing to allow Republicans to see the public comments on the gerrymandering bills. Assemblymember Tangipa asked how they could vote on the bills before reviewing those comments. Assemblymember Marc Berman’s confusion in response to the question is so telling. Constituents? Why would we listen to them?

BREAKING: We’ve just filed an emergency lawsuit against the CA Legislature to STOP their unconstitutional redistricting power grab. They’ve failed to adhere to public transparency and notice requirements & broken more rules yesterday than I’ve ever seen. @dhillonlaw @suzettemartinez @TriTa4CA @SenStricklandCA

Right now each California legislator may introduce up to 35 bills per two-year session. That totals more than 2,000 bills introduced each year. This is far, far too many. Legislators don’t have time to read and understand each bill, so they rely on others to tell them how to vote. So they do the bidding of lobbyists and fail to fulfill their duty to their constituents. The high number of bills undermines the democratic process, which requires citizens to know what bills are being considered. Even if you make it your full-time job, you can’t keep up with it. Another problem is that each law spawns a slew of regulations, as well as potential lawsuits. These excessive regulations have a real cost and are one of the factors that makes life in California both expensive and dysfunctional. I say we bring the number down to 3 per two-year session, with 2 bonus bills if all they do is repeal an existing law. That would total 180-300 bills per year, which should be plenty to conduct the legitimate business of the state, if the legislators learn to focus on bills that actually matter.

Thank you, @ZavalaA for notifying me that I have an elections hearing as the VICE CHAIR of the committee…. So much for “transparency” when I didn’t even know until the media shared this information 🤦🏻‍♀️

A new study from the nonpartisan think tank NBER estimates that Gavin Newsom’s fast food minimum wage hike resulted in 18,000 jobs lost in California.

EXCLUSIVE: Taxpayer-Funded Nonprofit Behind the Anti-ICE Riots in Los Angeles. Over the past two days, ICE agents have conducted targeted operations across the Los Angeles region, detaining more than 40 suspected illegal aliens. These enforcement actions triggered large-scale demonstrations, some of which turned confrontational, with reports of vandalism, blocked traffic, and physical clashes with federal agents. The unrest has prompted questions about who is organizing and funding these protests. One of the organizations at the center of the resistance to ICE is the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), a Los Angeles nonprofit that has long provided legal and advocacy services to illegal aliens. CHIRLA is known for radical positions on immigration—for example, it led a campaign to abolish ICE in 2018. Yesterday afternoon, as clashes with federal law enforcement were heating up, CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas held a press conference during which she announced that the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network’s hotline had received more than 50 calls reporting ICE activity and sightings of “men in military garb.” LARRN is organized by a coalition of nonprofits, and CHIRLA plays a central role, using its main phone line as the hotline number. LARRN’s hotline is one of the communication systems that allows legal observers, volunteers, and other activists to be quickly dispatched to the scene of immigration enforcement actions. During her remarks, Salas referred to SEIU California President David Huerta as her “brother,” highlighting CHIRLA’s close ties to organized labor in California. Huerta had been arrested during one of the protests for blocking the path of an ICE vehicle, as shown by video footage released by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. Governor Gavin Newsom expressed his unequivocal support for Huerta, claiming he was only “witnessing” the action, while Essayli announced his intention to file criminal charges. For her part, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has defiantly opposed federal immigration enforcement in the city, stating on social media Friday, “We will not stand for this” and “No vamos a permitir estas acciones,” (“We are not going to permit these actions”). She added that her office would collaborate with community-based organizations that serve immigrants. She has a long relationship with CHIRLA and bragged last year about obtaining federal funding for CHIRLA’s programs. That grant is part of a broader stream of public dollars that the organization receives from government sources. In fact, according to a financial audit submitted to the state, the CHIRLA organization received nearly $34 million in revenue from government contracts during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, with 96% of that funding from the State of California. That figure marks a sharp increase from the prior year, when it received around $12 million in government contract revenue. Agencies contributing to CHIRLA’s funding during this period included the California Department of Social Services, the California Arts Council, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, and the Department of Homeland Security. Notably, as mentioned above, a DHS contract funded CHIRLA to provide citizenship instruction and naturalization services. With $100,000 remaining on CHIRLA’s contract, DHS froze the remaining funds in February. CHIRLA responded by suing. The court denied their motion for a preliminary injunction on May 29. This is one of two lawsuits CHIRLA filed against DHS this year. The other was dismissed for lack of standing and is on appeal. To sum up how this works: Your tax dollars fund an organization that organizes efforts to directly interfere with the federal government’s lawful exercise of authority. Then, through its lobbying arm, that organization helps get Democrats elected to office, who then repay the favor by ensuring increased funding. This is the nonprofit industrial complex at work.