How Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes became Benedict Arnold to many California conservatives

In this Monday, July 17 photo, Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, left, leaves a Sacramento press conference with, from left, Gov. Jerry Brown, state Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto and Assemblyman Devon Mathis, R-Visalia. Mayes, Berryhill and Mathis voted with Democrats to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program to 2030.

GOP Jumps in Bed With Jerry Brown

(Press-Enterprise)  -  Pressure is mounting on Assemblyman Chad Mayes to step down as Assembly GOP leader after he helped Democrats extend an anti-pollution program loathed by conservatives who already feel marginalized in deep-blue California.

At a gathering at Riverside’s Mission Inn on Thursday, July 20, the Riverside County Republican Central Committee voted to ask Mayes, R-Yucca Valley, to explain his support for extending the state’s cap-and-trade program at the committee’s next meeting. Otherwise, the committee will ask Mayes to relinquish his leadership post.

“There’s a great deal of contention and anger right now with Republican voters,” said county GOP Chairman Jonathan Ingram.

To many thinking people there is little
difference between the parties.

Between cap-and-trade, which is estimated to raise gas prices by as much as 73 cents per gallon by 2031, and the legislature’s earlier passage of a 12-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase, “you’re looking at a substantial increase to working people,” said Ingram, a Murrieta councilman.

A high-ranking California Republican official also is calling for Mayes’ ouster. And Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, cited Mayes’ actions on cap-and-trade in announcing her resignation as assistant GOP leader Thursday.

The backlash erupted after Mayes and seven other GOP lawmakers, including Assemblyman Marc Steinorth of Rancho Cucamonga, voted for AB 398, which extends cap-and-trade to 2030. Cap-and-trade allows businesses to buy licenses to emit pollutants, with the number of licenses gradually declining in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Many Republicans see cap-and-trade as an over-regulating excuse for raising taxes that will boost already high gas prices and give Gov. Jerry Brown more money for high-speed rail, a project opposed by conservatives.

Mayes’ critics are incensed that he would not only vote for the bill, but encourage other Republicans to support cap-and-trade as well. After the bill passed, Mayes shared the stage with Democratic lawmakers at a Sacramento press conference.

Mayes, who was not available for comment Friday, has defended his vote, saying Republicans managed to get concessions from Democrats in exchange for GOP support of cap-and-trade, including the rollback of a fire prevention fee paid by property owners in rural areas.

“Today, we proved that Sacramento can rise above the partisan fray of our country to do right for all Californians,” Mayes said in a news release.

“This plan cleans up the environment for future generations and cuts the cost of taxes, fees and regulations by $16 billion a year for ordinary Californians. Protecting the earth and protecting your paycheck is no longer an either-or decision.”

Mayes, a former Yucca Valley mayor who was first elected to the Assembly in 2014, represents the Pass, San Jacinto, most of Hemet and desert communities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

With Democrats holding a supermajority in Sacramento, Mayes has been willing to work with them to further the GOP’s agenda. But that olive branch is considered a knife in the back to many conservative Californians who feel ignored if not powerless in a state where GOP voter registration has been declining for years.

Blowback started almost immediately, with self-described nationalist Joseph Turner on Tuesday denouncing Mayes’ cap-and-trade vote and accusing him of having an extramarital love affair with his predecessor, former Assembly GOP leader Kristin Olsen.

“It is time for an actual Republican to lead the Republican Party,” Turner wrote in a news release.

Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco lawyer and member of the Republican National Committee, took to social media to call for Mayes to be replaced as leader of the 80-member Assembly’s 25 Republicans.

“Many conservatives are rightly outraged at the Assembly Leader’s actions in not only voting for a bad bill on cap and trade, but also pressuring several of his colleagues to vote for the massive carbon tax scheme, and then taking a victory lap with the Democratic leadership and later comparing himself/his actions to Ronald Reagan,” Dhillon wrote on Facebook. “Nope.”

John Berry, a cabinet member with the Redlands Tea Party Patriots, said his group is considering pulling support for Republicans who voted for cap-and-trade.

“We’re just absolutely livid how (Mayes) sold out,” Berry said. “The whole idea that they’re going to sell us this whole nonsense about global warming and tank the economy (and expand government control over peoples’ lives), it’s as un-conservative as you can get.”

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GOP bought off to approve Brown's Cap and Trade

The Incredible Vanishing GOP

• The "Conservative" GOP refused to put an initiative on the ballot in 2016 to kill the corrupt bullet train. With no issue for Republicans to campaign on Democrats won a super-majority in the legislature.
• Now the "Conservative" GOP cuts a deal with Brown on Cap and Trade telling the public the deal might help kill the bullet train in way out in the year 2024.  Pure Bullshit.

(Sacramento Bee)  -  To get Republicans and business groups on board to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program, Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders in the Legislature agreed to several provisions:

▪ Suspending the state’s six-year-old fee paid by some 800,000 rural property owners for fire prevention. Republicans, who represent many of the areas where the fee is charged, have been trying to get rid of it for years through the courts and legislation. On average, property owners pay about $117 a year.

▪  Extending through 2030 an existing sales tax break for manufacturers and research and development companies.

Eliminating sales and use tax that energy companies pay on purchases for renewable energy projects, such as solar, biomass and wind energy.

▪  A constitutional amendment that would require a one-time, two-thirds vote in 2024 to re-set spending of the cap-a-trade revenues. Republicans see this as a future way to cut off funding for high-speed rail, a project most of their members detest.

Brown and leaders also agreed on a couple things to help assuage liberal Democrats:

▪  Assembly Bill 617, a companion bill by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, was added to the package to help poor communities that advocates say are disproportionately hurt by air pollution. Most environmental justice organizations, however, say it does not go far enough.

▪  Brown, who has been at odds with liberal lawmakers over ongoing funding and his demand for streamlined environmental review to build housing, has agreed to work toward a deal.

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Stockton to pay men not to shoot each other?

(KCRA)  -  Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs condemned the violence in the city over the weekend and is considering a couple different ways to combat crime, including one that pays people not to commit crimes.

There were four homicides in Stockton between Monday and Wednesday night, bringing the total number of killings in the city to more than 24.

Tubbs released a statement Wednesday night after the string of violence.

"All life is sacred and even one homicide is too many ... overall, crime continues to trend downward but we must remain vigilant," Tubbs said.

The city is exploring a couple options in the hopes of curbing the number of violent crimes in the city.

The first option is out of Detroit called Project Greenlight. In this situation, live cameras would be set up inside and outside of businesses in Stockton, and the cameras would be monitored in real-time from the police headquarters.

The second option is more controversial out of the Bay Area. Richmond's Advance Peace uses taxpayer dollars to pay men with firearm history to not shoot guns.

In exchange, the men can participate in adult fellowship, mentorships and job opportunity programs.

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California’s top Republican won’t be running for governor

The Worthless Republican Party

• In 2014 the only candidate for Governor the GOP could put up was an Obama supporter.
• In 2016 the GOP refused to put an initiative on the ballot to defund the corrupt bullet train to nowhere.  With no platform to run on the GOP paid the price by giving Leftists a super majority in the state legislature.
• And in 2016 the GOP failed to even run a candidate for U.S. Senate allowing a Democrat vs Democrat general election.

(Sacramento Bee)  -  San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said Friday he will serve the remainder of his term, dashing the hopes of many Republicans who viewed him as their strongest contender in next year’s governor’s race.

“I’m honored that so many across our state are strongly encouraging me to run for governor,” he said in a statement ahead of the holiday weekend. “However, my first commitment is to San Diego.”

Faulconer had long maintained that he wouldn’t run for governor, despite popping up in polls as the leading Republican contender to advance beyond next June’s primary.

He faced increasingly vocal calls from fellow Republicans in recent weeks to formally shut the door on the prospect. During that time, supporters launched a full-court press to try to draw him into the race, using polling to argue that a divided Democratic field would help him to a November runoff against one of the Democrats. Many saw him as a moderate Republican who could appeal to the state electorate’s fiscal conservatism while not alienating Democrats on social issues and environmental polices.

His confirmation likely increases the chances that former Assemblyman David Hadley of Manhattan Beach enters the crowded governor’s race. Businessman John Cox of northern San Diego County and conservative Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach previously announced their runs, raising fears among the GOP that they would scatter the GOP vote and allow two Democrats to slip into the runoff.

While the field remains unsettled, the front-runner in polls and fundraising is Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Others include former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Treasurer John Chiang and ex-state schools chief Delaine Eastin.

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