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Yaroslavsky on Newsom’s Chance to Reshape State Politics

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Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the Hill about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opportunity to reshape California’s political hierarchy with his selections to fill high-level vacancies in government. In addition to choosing someone to fill Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ seat in the U.S. Senate, Newsom must replace California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who was nominated as U.S. health and human services secretary in the Biden administration. Once the governor selects their successors, additional powerful posts in state government could open up. “There are a considerable number of possibilities for filling constitutional offices that no governor in the history of the state has had,” Yaroslavsky said, noting that Newsom’s choices will leave an imprint on both state and national politics. “It’s an unprecedented opportunity and responsibility that has fallen in the governor’s lap.”

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Peterson on Becerra’s Impact on California’s Progressive Agenda

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Public Policy Professor Mark Peterson spoke with Kaiser Health News about prospects that California’s health care agenda will grow more progressive once the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, is elevated to the nation’s top health care post. In his three decades of political experience, Becerra has been a strong advocate of health-care reforms including a state-level single-payer system, environmental justice and protecting immigrants’ access to safety-net care. Many California Democrats believe his selection as the next U.S. secretary of health and human services will give them a strong federal ally who will help make the state a laboratory for progressive ideas. Should Becerra back a progressive health agenda in California, similar proposals could follow in other states, Peterson said. “California has pushed the envelope on health care beyond where other states are,” he said. “And that gives more capacity for California sensibilities and ideas to get into the mix in Washington.”

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Diaz on California’s Neglect of the Latino Electorate

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Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the New York Times about California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s deliberations in filling the Senate seat held by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Choosing a Latino for the powerful post would help reverse California’s history of neglecting the influential constituency, Diaz said. Latinos make up 40% of the state’s population, yet its voters have never elected a Latino senator or governor. In addition, the state’s voters have supported anti-immigrant policies such as Proposition 187, which has been blamed for creating a nativist road map for other states. “If we’re being honest with ourselves, California has a role to play in the invisibility of Latinos,” Diaz added in a New York Times newsletter. Going forward, she said, Newsom has the opportunity to turn the tide by elevating a powerful “Latino figurehead” who could help grow a bench of Latino leaders around the country.

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Blumenberg Discusses Inequity of Flat Rate Auto Insurance

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Evelyn Blumenberg, director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and professor of urban planning, answers a question on WalletHub about the different types of rates charged to California drivers. She notes that lower-income drivers tend to benefit from pay-per-mile auto insurance because they travel fewer miles, on average. But, when charged a flat rate for insurance, “their rates are significantly higher per mile than those of higher-income drivers.” Blumenberg has also answered questions previously on the consumer-oriented website.

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Wachs on Tempered Hopes for State’s High-Speed Rail Project

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A Los Angeles Times article on prospects that California’s troubled high-speed rail project could find new life under a Biden administration cited Martin Wachs, professor emeritus of urban planning. The project, initially designed to connect Los Angeles and the Bay Area with trains running at 220 mph, has faced a massive funding shortfall and difficulty acquiring needed land, among other challenges. While President-elect Joe Biden is a self-professed train fanatic, an imminent federal bailout of the high-speed rail project is unlikely. “Prospects for some financial participation by the federal government are better than they were, but it is easy to overestimate them,” said Wachs, a lead researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin. “There could be a few billion dollars, but it would not eliminate the need for the state to put the project on a sound financial footing.”

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Torres-Gil on California’s Plan to Address Aging

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Professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy Fernando Torres-Gil spoke to Senior Living Foresight about a new California report on government responses to aging. The article summarized two government-initiated efforts: a federal report, prepared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that suggests improving funding, infrastructure and access to personal protective equipment in nursing homes; and a report by the Stakeholders Committee for the California Master Plan for Aging, which Torres-Gil summarized. The California report calls for improving long-term care services and support systems, ending poverty, and ensuring affordable housing and equity of resources for all, regardless of individual circumstances. The report notes the impact of ageism, ableism and systemic racism — exacerbated by COVID-19 — on older adults and people with disabilities, especially in Black, Native American and Latino communities. “We are leading the nation,” Torres-Gil said of the statewide efforts. “We can show that there is no need to be afraid of diversity.”

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‘We Set Our Destiny,’ Becerra Says of Fellow Californians

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California Attorney General Xavier Becerra weighed in on the Golden State’s place in a deeply divided nation during a conversation with UCLA Luskin Dean Gary Segura just hours after polls closed in the 2020 election. As they awaited final results in the presidential race, Becerra told viewers that California’s unique role as an engine of innovation and economic growth transcends any election or individual politician. “Regardless of what happens around us, we set our destiny,” he said. Hosted by the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and Town Hall in partnership with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Nov. 4 dialogue touched on Becerra’s role battling the Trump administration on health care, immigration, climate change and scores of other issues. To date, the state has sued the federal government 104 times, Becerra said. “We go to court against Donald Trump not because it’s easy or it’s fun,” he said. “We go to court because we must protect our people, our values and our resources.” Of urgent concern is safeguarding the environment, he said, noting, “We have lost four years in addressing the climate crisis, and Mother Nature is not going to give us those years back.” As the state’s top law enforcement officer, Becerra called for more police training, accountability and transparency but noted, “Let’s not make it look like it’s a simple thing like ‘defunding police.’ ” He added, “I respect the work that’s done every day by men and women in uniform. I will go after those who have engaged in improper conduct in that uniform.” 

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Katz on California’s Spotty Voting Rights History

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Alisa Belinkoff Katz, associate director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that laid out California’s spotty history when it comes to free access to the ballot box. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the state systematically discriminated against groups including Chinese immigrants and the working poor, she wrote. By 1960, the state had veered away from tactics such as arduous registration requirements, literacy tests and voter roll purges and entered a more inclusive era. While California now offers early voting, vote by mail, internet registration, same-day registration, a “motor voter” program and other policies designed to encourage voting, “the California electorate remains older, whiter and wealthier than the population at large,” wrote Katz, lead author of a recent study on the evolution of voter access in the state. “Until our democracy gives voice to all segments of society, we still have work to do.”

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Peterson on Regulating Dialysis Clinics

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Public Policy Professor Mark Peterson spoke to CalMatters about what’s at stake with Proposition 23, which would require dialysis centers to have at least one licensed physician on site during operating hours as well as requiring clinics to report dialysis-related infection data to the state and obtain state permission before closing a site or reducing services. Many Californians will vote on Proposition 23 despite having little or no experience with kidney failure or dialysis treatment. “It’s a highly technical issue in a realm that gets into … very specific clinical concerns about the nature of care,” Peterson said. “That is not something that any of us in the general public are trained in.” Opponents of Prop. 23 say the driving force behind the initiative is not patient care but rather a labor union’s desire to organize dialysis workers. Peterson suggested that regulating dialysis clinics might be better addressed through active deliberation in the state Legislature.

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Pierce Investigates Failing California Water Systems

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Greg Pierce, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, spoke to Bay City News about the lack of access to clean drinking water in rural regions of California. Roughly 1 million residents rely on failing water systems with contaminated drinking water. According to Pierce, “about 90% of California’s public water system violations occur in systems serving less than 500 service connections, underscoring the inherent risk of small size and lack of capacity.” Smaller systems have less revenue and often fail to provide necessary system maintenance and repairs. Pierce is leading a Center for Innovation team seeking to identify all of the small community systems and private wells that need help meeting drinking water standards. The State Water Resources Control Board has identified more than 300 systems that are out of compliance and will use the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, established last year, to upgrade and consolidate smaller water systems.

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