By Carl DeMaio – December 3, 2024

As promised, here’s a quick blow-by-blow account of what happened yesterday on our first day in the CA State Legislature, our first fights against Newsom and the CA Democrats, and what we need to do in the coming weeks to go on the offensive:

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• Democrats’ Abuse of Power on Day 1: Democrats passed their Rules package stripping Republicans in the minority of their rights to have their bills heard – and just like Nancy Pelosi did with the sham J6 committee, they told us they will determine which Republicans serve on which committees!
• Force Politicians to Read the Bills First: Of course, the Democrats Rules package was 73 pages long and they refused to give the text of it until moments before the meeting began. I want to thank my Republican colleagues for uniting to support my motion to recess the legislature for an hour to force politicians to read the bill in its entirety first before voting on it!
• Newsom’s Anti-Trump Stunt: As expected, Gavin Newsom showed up to grandstand that he was “protecting Californian’s civil rights” by demanding millions in taxpayer funds to cover frivolous lawsuits to thwart Trump’s agenda and to hiring free lawyers for illegal immigrants.
• Turning the Tables on Newsom: I beat Newsom to the punch at his own Special Session by introducing the first bill proposal called the “Punish Politicians for Unconstitutional Actions Act of 2025” that penalizes the Governor and state legislators with a massive 25% cut in pay every time one of their laws or mandates are invalidated by the courts for violating our civil rights. The Democrats weren’t prepared to consider ANY bills – so they adjourned the meeting quickly with no action at all, even on Newsom’s proposals.

I’m a realist and know that we won’t be winning any votes soon – but my goal is to help the handful of Republicans we have inside the state legislature to unite with me as they did on Day 1 and fight more aggressively.

Carl DeMaio is a California Assemblymember

Assemblyman DeMaio also has a YouTube.com channel with videos at: Reform California.