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.

Heritage Action: Stand Up to the Swamp, Stop the Loopholes

Fellow conservative,

Great news. A few days ago, the House passed a budget blueprint.

This was a critical step in moving forward on tax reform because it will prevent liberals from filibustering this decades-long effort.

But the work is just getting started.

Already special interests and K Street lobbyists like the National Association of Realtors are gearing up for a big fight to protect their corporate loopholes, ensure the the death tax remains on the books, and undermine the conservative framework proposed. We can't and we won't sit back and allow the swamp creatures to pick it apart.

Heritage Action is going to take on these menacing creatures to advance a conservative, pro-jobs tax reform plan. This is a rare opportunity to get tax reform done and put your hard-earned money back into your hands.

Would you join the fight to advance conservative tax reform by making a gift of any amount today?

This debate is going to continue to heat up. And the special interest groups and lobbyists have the money to back up their fight. So, I'm reaching out to you today to ask that you support our fight to advance conservative tax reform.

Thank you for all that you do for Heritage Action and our nation.

Sincerely, 

Michael Needham

Heritage Action for America 

Hawaii Hell No! Hawaii GOP Supports Tax Increase?! Stop Bullet Train Boondoggle-Special Session

BREAKING NEWS: Hawaii GOP Leader wants Democrats to HIKE EVERYONE'S TAXE$ NOW Aloha Republicans: In 2018, two men will appear on Hawaii's ballot for governor.  One,David Ige, will represent the Hawaii Democratic Party.  The other,Bob McDermott plans to be the standard-bearer of the Hawaii Republican Party. Several years ago,both menexplicitly pledged in writing to oppose tax increases on the people of Hawaii.  Each of them signed the ATR's Taxpayer Protection Pledgeand explicitly promised to"oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." This week, in a shockingcolumn for the liberal news website Civil Beat,self-proclaimed "RINO Bob" McDermott has begun leading the charge to encourage Democrats to call a special session of the state legislature in order toincrease taxes by $300+ million per year forever . . . or for as long as it takes to build the entire 34-mile heavy rail plan envisioned by rail fanatic Mufi Hannemannand HART's creator Charles Djou and then fund annual operations and maintenance of that money-losing 34-mile train wreck forever. Despite the liberal readership of Civil Beat, response to McDermott's most recent call in his ongoing public campaign for higher taxes and wasteful spending has beenoverwhelmingly scathing.  Check out theangry comments from readers.   One of these comes from Malosi Hamo, a frequent Civil Beat commenter, who writes:  "It is truly sad that Bob McDermott is proving by himself to be more of a DEMOCRAT these days, championing the Democratic cause forMORE TAXES so the Government can give usMORE STUFF! . . .McDermott is single-handedly proving (HIRA's Eric) Ryan correct (about RINO's taking over the GOP in Hawaii)!!" HIRA can't argue with that.  But while closet Democrat Bob McDermott's 2018 gubernatorial campaign is probably toast, the Hawaii GOP's sole candidate for governor ostensibly plans to burn down what's left of the Republican Party in the meantime by publicly endorsing and pursuing destructive Democrat policies.  Meanwhile liberal state party leaders, old and new, seem determined to help 'RINO Bob' achieve his objectiveby remaining completely silent.   TOTAL SILENCE ON THE CALL FOR BILLIONS IN NEW TAXES:  Where is the Hawaii GOP's new chairwoman Shirlene Ostrov ??   Where is the minority caucus leader Andria Tupola?  They must be as deaf, dumb and mute as Helen Keller.  So much for the speeches about "two strong women" that GOP delegates heard during the Kauai state convention two weeks ago.  Seriously,Helen Keller had more to say in 5 minutes than these faux GOP "leaders" have shown before or since Kauai. In the past few days alone, Hawaii Democrats have trashed Trump's proposed budget.  What do we hearfrom the overpriced GOP headquarters on Kapiolani? NOTHING.  Same goes for Trump's Obamacare reform, Trump's review of Obama's prohibition on fishing in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Trump's heavy vetting program for Middle Eastern immigrants, tourists, and refugees, et cetera.  Efforts to take on state and local Democrats over state and local issues have been nonexistent as well.  Ostrov and Tupola are merely 'two silent women' who would rather be doing something else than lead the GOP fight in Hawaii.   Worst of all, as far as island voters are concerned, billions of dollars of broken promises are no big deal and the official sloganof the Hawaii Republican Party is:  "What do we want?  Higher Taxes!  When do we want it?  NOW!!" Now, stop and ask yourself the obvious questions:  Would a real, bona-fide GOP gubernatorial candidate push for billions and billions in permanently higher taxes to waste your money on and billions billions in wasteful spending?  Will embracingbillions in higher taxes for wasteful spending help toendear Republicans to the voters of Hawaii?  Can campaigning between now and 2018 on an identical vision as Democrats for an overtaxed Hawaii be better than offering a competing vision of a more affordable Hawaii?  Will Republican leaders denounce this RINO clown who rips his anti-tax pledge to shreds in an effort to destroy the Hawaii GOP?? [Answer Key:  No, No, No, No.]   When the 2018 GOP candidate for governor calls for a special session to hike taxes, party leaders must speak twice as loudly to go in the opposite direction.  Despite the delusion of RINO's like McDermott and his idols on the Democrat side of the aisle, there'snothing 'generous' about spending other people's money and there's nothing 'courageous' about confiscating it from them through higher taxes.  Tragically, party leaders like Ostrov, Tupola, Hellreich, and Saiki have expressed no disagreement with McDermott, probably because they don't disagree with him.  Heck, McDermott endorsed each one of them for state party office.  And here's why . . .   Anyone paying attention over the past few decades of decline for the state party understands that there is only one strategy which RINO party leaders believe in.  It's called being "candidate centric" and it explains several things:  (1) the weak Republicans we have in office; (2) the deafening silence of party leaders; (3) the unwillingness of voters to take Republicans seriously as an alternative.    The goal of liberals who continue to control the Hawaii GOP after decades of obvious political failure is to 'help' Republican candidates and incumbents by letting anybody say that he/she is Republican and take any position on any issue in order to out-Democrat Democrats.  The candidate centric approach 'empowers' anybody in office (or running for office) decide for himself or herself what it means to be a Republican by taking any position on any issue.  Tax increases are Republican.  Abortion on demand is Republican.  Wasteful spending is Republican.  Hawaii's shipping monopoly is Republican.  And so on, as long as either Bob McDermott or Lauren Cheape or Gene Ward or Jaci Agustin embrace Democrat policies.  Now these can be Republican policies too.  ANYTHING GOES!!!  And Shirlene Ostrov's puppetmaster Pat Saiki has explicitly said so on television . . .     So when our party's candidate for governor in 2018, Bob McDermott, goes unchallenged while calling for a permanent tax hike of hundreds of millions of dollars per year forever, Shirlene Ostrov and her puppetmasters Miriam Hellreich and Pat Saiki are merely implementing their longstanding RINO vision for our party of being "candidate centric" by refusing to fight for tax cuts insteadand refusing to isolate McDermott as a high-taxing, big-spending former Democrat merely pretending to be a Republican so he can avoid the long line at Democrat HQ and be a big fish in our small GOP pond.  WARNING:  Future GOP candidates with genuine Republican leanings have no reason to step forward if the party acts like it doesn't have their back by at least pretending to be remotely conservative.  Giving McDermott a huge pass will backfire badly.   Yes, taken to its logical conclusion, watching our party's standard-bearer for 2018 push for billions in taxes (and going unchallengedby party leaders) is exactly what "candidate centric" looks like. RINO's want the Hawaii GOP to continue being the party that believes in nothing.  So, by now, if you still don't believe that Saiki and Hellreich are still keeping the Hawaii Republican Party on the sidelines so that RINO's and Democrats can win, you'll probably never believe it.     SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE???:   You know things have gotten really bad when Crazy Tom Berg threatened before sunrise yesterday to run against RINO Bob McDermott. So, when Helen Keller and Tom Berg do more to stop McDermott from burning down the Hawaii GOP than the 'leadership team' of new and recycled old party leaders, 2018 already appears quite bleak. Look out, Democrats.  Here come our 2017-19 party leaders.  Or not. Fellow Republicans, if you don't want the downward trend to continue, help HIRA pressure the officers of the Hawaii GOP toabandon "candidate centric" stupidity.  It's time we stood for something and fought like crazy to save Hawaii from the destructive policies of the Democrats.  All the issues are on our side, depending which 'side' one is really on.  It's time that Republicans laid down the gauntlet and made the case to get rid of Democrats; not make the Democrat case for them. Thanks and God Bless Hawaii. Mahalo, ERIC RYAN President, Hawaii Republican Assembly (HIRA) Chairman, HIRA Action SuperPAC