CA Republicans Voted to Eliminate R-1 Zoning, Too (And the Root Failure of Representation)

I have been telling people for the last few weeks that we do not have representative government at all in Sacramento, and not just because Democrats have a raging supermajority.

I submit that even if everyone was a Republican legislators in Sacramento, there would still be lots of bad legislation passed and forced onto the state.

The third-house money that runs Sacramento, the lobbyists and special interests, have an unrelenting chokehold on everything that happens in the state capitol.

Don't believe me?

Consider the sudden passage of SB 9 and SB 10, two pieces of legislation which all but eliminate single-family zoning limitations in local and county governments. As of this week, developers can now buy up single-family lots and put four homes on a lot that was zoned for only one home. This increase in potential housing stock will not bring down prices. In fact, since most of the developments are coming to high demand locations, it will just create more high-cost housing. And don't forget that more residents in high density areas just means more demand for fewer resources.

Republicans as well as Democrats voted for these assaults on local control.

YES.

Check out the final tally in the California State Senate for SB 9

Date

08/30/21

Result

(PASS)

Location

Senate Floor

Ayes Count

28

Noes Count

7

NVR Count

5

Motion

Unfinished Business SB9 Atkins et al. Concurrence

Ayes

Archuleta, Atkins, Becker, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dahle, Dodd, Durazo, Eggman, Gonzalez, Grove, Hertzberg, Hueso, Hurtado, Laird, Leyva, McGuire, Min, Nielsen, Pan, Portantino, Roth, Rubio, Skinner, Umberg, Wieckowski, Wiener

Noes

Bates, Borgeas, Glazer, Jones, Melendez, Ochoa Bogh, Wilk

NVR

Allen, Kamlager, Limón, Newman, Stern

And check out the final vote in the State Assembly:

Date

08/26/21

Result

(PASS)

Location

Assembly Floor

Ayes Count

45

Noes Count

19

NVR Count

15

Motion

SB 9 Atkins Senate Third Reading By Robert Rivas

Ayes

Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Berman, Calderon, Carrillo, Cervantes, Chiu, Cooley, Cooper, Megan Dahle, Flora, Fong, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson, Lorena Gonzalez, Gray, Grayson, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Lackey, Lee, Low, Mathis, Mayes, Medina, Mullin, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Salas, Stone, Ting, Valladares, Villapudua, Ward, Akilah Weber, Wicks, Wood, Rendon

Noes

Bauer-Kahan, Bigelow, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Daly, Davies, Frazier, Friedman, Gabriel, Irwin, Levine, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Petrie-Norris, Seyarto, Smith, Voepel, Waldron

NVR

Bennett, Bryan, Burke, Chau, Chen, Choi, Cunningham, Kiley, Maienschein, McCarty, Nguyen, Patterson, Luz Rivas, Blanca Rubio, Santiago

The bill passed the state assembly by only 45 votes! If every Republican had stood their ground and voted NO, the bill would have failed!

This is the second time that the Republican caucus in the State Assembly helped screw over voters. Seven Republicans! UNBELIEVABLE!

And what about SB 10?

Date

08/30/21

Result

(PASS)

Location

Senate Floor

Ayes Count

28

Noes Count

6

NVR Count

6

Motion

Unfinished Business SB10 Wiener et al. Concurrence

Ayes

Archuleta, Atkins, Borgeas, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dahle, Dodd, Durazo, Eggman, Glazer, Gonzalez, Grove, Hueso, Hurtado, Jones, Leyva, McGuire, Min, Nielsen, Ochoa Bogh, Pan, Roth, Rubio, Skinner, Umberg, Wieckowski, Wiener

Noes

Bates, Hertzberg, Kamlager, Laird, Portantino, Wilk

NVR

Allen, Becker, Limón, Melendez, Newman, Stern

And in the state assembly:

Date

08/23/21

Result

(PASS)

Location

Assembly Floor

Ayes Count

44

Noes Count

12

NVR Count

23

Motion

SB 10 Wiener Senate Third Reading By Chiu

Ayes

Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Berman, Calderon, Carrillo, Chau, Chiu, Cooley, Cooper, Cunningham, Megan Dahle, Flora, Fong, Gabriel, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson, Lorena Gonzalez, Grayson, Holden, Irwin, Kalra, Kiley, Lackey, Lee, Levine, Low, Mayes, Medina, Mullin, Patterson, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Ting, Villapudua, Ward, Akilah Weber, Wicks, Wood, Rendon

Noes

Bauer-Kahan, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Frazier, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Petrie-Norris, Salas, Seyarto, Stone, Voepel

NVR

Bennett, Bigelow, Bryan, Burke, Cervantes, Chen, Choi, Daly, Davies, Friedman, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Gray, Jones-Sawyer, Maienschein, Mathis, McCarty, Nguyen, Luz Rivas, Santiago, Smith, Valladares, Waldron

Seven state assembly Republicans voted to strip away local control from cities. Hell, even my corrupt, pro-pedo Democrat assemblyman Al Muratsuchi voted against both of these terrible bills! More libtard Democrat voted to protect local control than Republicans.

What's going on here? Real estate and developer money is flowing freely into Democratic and Republican coffers. Same holds true for unions, both private and public sector. The passage of Jungle Top Two primaries gave these third-party interests more power than the political parties, as well. 

Let's face it: Political parties do not run Sacramento, and neither do voters. It's really sad, but this is where we are now. The special interests, the big time donors, the major corporations, they run this state. California is an aristocracy of special interests, not the public good.

The fact is that a state assembly district has over 400,000 residents. Can anyone really say that they are represented by ANYONE in Sacramento?

Today, a state senate district contains about 1 million residents! That is larger than the representation for a Congressional district! There is no way that any one voter can feel that their voice matters in Sacramento with such overwhelming numbers crowding into each district. No one is really represented in Sacramento anymore. Third-House money and special interests have all the power now. They can amass the money, they can blanket a district for their chosen candidate. and most voters will go along with whatever is fed to them because the advocates for everyday citizens do not have that kind of money to fight back.

This disparity in representation explains everything. There is no way that a common community of citizens can really band together and fight back against bad legislation as this point. The special interests call all the shots. Real estate agents and developers want lots of high density housing so they can make lots of money.

Labor unions want big contracts. The public sector unions run everything in Sacramento, too. It is so bad, and so blatantly, that when I confronted State Senator Ben Allen about making some form of school choice available, he told me plainly "The teachers union has to approve it."

They call the shots. They get to decide what passes and what does not pass in the state legislature. This whole corrupt process reveals fully how bad things have gotten in Sacramento and in the state of California as a whole, and why so many people are now just pulling up stakes and leaving the state entirely.

Where All Californians Go: Texas

I visited Houston, Texas earlier this year. The city is beautiful, clean, without tent cities of arrogant homeless crowding the sidewalks (that’s a allusion to the devil-possessed city of Los Angeles).

Houston is one of the bluest section of Texas? The Democrats can’t do much damage. Congressman John Culberson (who is picking up steam to ban sanctuary cities—finally!) represents a part of the city! The openly lesbian mayor Anise Parker tried to force San Francisco-style “non-discrimination” statutes on the city—which meant that men could enter women’s bathrooms, and bakeries would have to prepare wedding cakes for homosexual weddings, regardless of the conscience of the business owner.

But Texans are not San Franciscans, and even the residents in the city punched back at this immoral ordinance.

The Houston Five

The Houston Five—a team of pastors in the city—rallied the churches throughout the city and across the state. The mayor and her LGBT-bullying ilk tried to push confusing language. Twice the Houston team went to court to have the question written clearly and properly. Like the skewed polling and biased reporting during the Brexit campaign and the Presidential election, the press published poll after polling showing the “No” vote losing by double digits.

On Election Day, the ordinance lost by double-digits.

That was in 2015.

Today, with President-Elect Trump ready to assume power, blue states are doubling down on their liberal insanity, with no regard for the law, but full attention paid to George Soros and the left-wing special interest infiltrations into our country.

Texas is booming. Who knows what will happen in ten years, or even in six, as Texas gains three or four more House seats while California stagnates, or perhaps loses a Congressional seat for the first time in its history.

Late October was a warm 87 degrees from day to day. Not sure what to make of the weather, and not sure I could handle it.

I also met so many Californians in Texas.

They moved to the Lone Star State ten or twenty years ago. Even then, they could not afford their own home. The housing crisis has only gotten worse.

I ran into another friend of mine two weeks ago. Apparently, he had already moved to Texas nine months prior. He bought a home--large, welcome--for a mere $200,000. Incredible! He let his daughter live in the home owns in Torrance. If he wanted to, he could sell the California home for $700,000 easy.

Friends in Hermosa Beach could sell their home for twice that amount. They would still have money left over to invest after buying one (or two!) more homes if they wanted!

Californians are fleeing just about everything in California.

No jobs.

Crumbling infrastructure.

High costs of living.

Overpriced housing market.

Arrogant political class.

Millennials are fleeing Los Angeles. College graduates take jobs in other states, where economic growth is not measure in welfare payments.

Californians get wait to leave, it seems. If factors don't improve, I may be joining the Golden State flight to Texas very soon, too!