Here are some quick peeks on what’s happening in politics and government this week:
- Rick Caruso’s campaign for L.A. Mayor ran an advertisement on broadcast TV for well over a month slamming his opponent for making a speech in support of the Church of Scientology. Well, the Church of Scientology was not just displeased, they decided to let everyone know their thoughts on Caruso’s lead consultant, Ace Smith, who they refer to as a master manipulator and religious bigot. You can see the video they produced here.
- Grab your Speakership Bingo Card – game on! Or game over? The Assembly Democratic Caucus, including some newly elected members, met yesterday. Reports are that an agreement was made to have Assemblymember Robert Rivas take over in July.
- Governor Gavin Newsom announced high-level staff changes the day after the election. Executive Secretary Jim DeBoo is stepping down after two years on the job. Replacing him is long-time Sacramento insider and strategist Dana Williamson. The L.A. Times has more details here.
- If you are excited about seeing election results soon, we hate to burst your happiness bubble, but it may take some more time. Statewide, California still has 4,829,879 ballots left to process. While you wait for some type of finality, you can peruse the list of outstanding ballots by county and type.
- For those who can’t stand the wait for more election results, we offer a nifty set of charts and graphs from the California State Library’s California Research Bureau. The CRB has already compiled data of the new state legislative members and broken it down by gender and race/ethnicity. The 2023-2024 Legislature will not completely reflect the state population, but it’s getting closer.