California Politics: Newsom’s war with a conservative school board

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it clear for the last year that he wants to lead Democrats across the country in bringing a tougher fight to conservatives, especially on culture war issues where he once said his party was “getting crushed” by Republicans.

Mostly Newsom has made good on that pledge by exporting his liberal rhetoric beyond California — airing television ads in Florida, renting billboards in states that restricted abortion, and traveling through the Deep South to launch a political action committee to help elect Democrats in red states.

But now Newsom seems to have found a conservative enclave right here in California where he can bring the fight as a culture warrior for the left: the Temecula Valley Unified School District, which educates 28,000 students in Riverside County.

The Temecula school board held a raucous nine-hour meeting this week over its decision to reject textbooks that include information about Harvey Milk, an influential gay-rights advocate whose position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors made him the first out gay man elected to public office in California.

Newsom plans to send textbooks that reference Milk to Temecula students in defiance of the board. It’s a fight that couldn’t be more perfect for Newsom, allowing him to lead the pushback against cultural conservatives while honoring the civil rights icon who was assassinated in the same City Hall where Newsom, as mayor, sanctioned same-sex marriages before they were legal.

Some parents who spoke in support of the school board’s conservative majority painted Newsom as a “tyrant” who “forces his rule” upon a district he knows nothing about, reports Times writer Mackenzie Mays. They called lessons about LGBTQ+ history “pornographic” and “obscene.” Without evidence, a school board member said the proposed instruction would promote pedophilia.

Newsom was so inspired to take on Temecula conservatives that he has publicly vowed to hold the school district accountable on the basis of a law that does not yet exist, Mays explains. He has rushed to craft legislation that, if passed, will give the state new power when it comes to textbooks — a direct response to the controversy in Temecula.

Read more about the California law Newsom has proposed and his battle with the Temecula school board in this article.

I’m Laurel Rosenhall, The Times’ Sacramento bureau chief, here with your guide to the week’s news in California politics.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein departs the U.S. Capitol on May 17.

(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

Feinstein family feud

Documents filed recently with San Francisco Superior Court reveal that Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her daughter are embroiled in legal battles with the adult children of the senator’s late husband and the people responsible for his trust.

They show that two issues are in dispute: 1. Money Feinstein wants from the trust to cover her medical bills, and 2. Control of a beach house near San Francisco.

Regarding the first issue, Feinstein filed a petition this week asking a court to make her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, a successor trustee of Richard Blum’s trust, arguing that the current trustees “have refused to make distributions to reimburse Senator Feinstein’s medical expenses.”

Blum, who died last year, was a wealthy financier and Katherine Feinstein’s stepfather. Katherine Feinstein, a former superior court judge and a current San Francisco fire commissioner, filed the petition on her mother’s behalf.

A lawyer for the trustees responded by saying that Blum’s trust “has never denied any disbursement to Senator Feinstein, let alone for medical expenses” and by saying he hopes Katherine Feinstein is not “engaging in some kind of misguided attempt to gain control over trust assets to which she is not entitled.”

Regarding the second issue, Katherine Feinstein alleged in a separate petition that her mother wants to sell a house she and Blum have owned in a gated community in Stinson Beach — a picturesque beach town north of San Francisco — but that one of the trustees wouldn’t execute the necessary steps allowing it to be sold. Feinstein’s daughter alleged in court documents that Blum’s three daughters don’t want to sell the home because it would reduce their inheritance when the senator dies and they “wish to make use of Stinson Beach during Senator Feinstein’s lifetime and after her death at her expense.”

There are more details in this article by political reporter Benjamin Oreskes so be sure to check it out.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), left, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine).

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associted Press, Andrew Harnik / Associated Press
)

The money race

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) swamped his rivals in the financial race to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), raising $8.2 million in recent months, Times political writer Seema Mehta reports.

Schiff collected roughly double the combined total raised by his top Democratic opponents — Reps. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) and Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) — in the same period.

Schiff’s windfall was fueled by his June censure by congressional Republicans over his role in investigating former GOP President Trump’s ties to Russia — a reprimand he repeatedly highlighted in his fundraising appeals.

A few highlights from our analysis of the newest campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission:

• Schiff’s haul far outpaced Porter, who raised $3.1 million in the second quarter of 2023.
• Lee received $1.1 million between April 1 and June 30.
• That’s the same amount raised by Democrat Lexi Reese, a Silicon Valley executive seeking the seat in her first run for public office, though Reese contributed about $284,000 of her own money to her campaign.

Another interesting money nugget — this one regarding the fight for the House:

Will Rollins, a Democrat hoping to flip the Inland Empire congressional seat held by GOP Rep. Ken Calvert of Corona, raised such a serious haul in the second quarter that it’s making national news.

The $890,000 Rollins raised was the second-biggest fundraising total among challengers to incumbents in competitive House districts across the country, according to an analysis by the National Journal. The only challenger who brought in more was Democrat Adam Frisch, who reported raising $2.6 million in his bid to oust GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

Rollins is running in one of a handful of hotly contested Southern California districts that could be pivotal to determining which party wins control of Congress next year.

Keeping up with California politics

Opinion: More money, same problems: My fellow California Democrats keep repeating this mistake
“Our failures are evidence that good intentions and lots of money are not enough to fix what ails the Golden State,” Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer of Orinda writes in this op-ed. “To make our progressive beliefs mean anything, the Legislature must ensure that the money we spend is actually improving the lives of the people we say we are committed to helping.”

California voters will be asked to reaffirm gay marriage protections on 2024 ballot
Californians will vote on a proposal to amend the state Constitution on the 2024 ballot to reaffirm gay marriage rights — a cautious move that comes amid national anxiety after recent rulings by the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court. Although there is no current threat to the legality of gay marriage, the Democratic-dominant state Legislature is seeking to remove language from California’s Constitution that still defines marriage as between a man and woman.

California lawmakers want answers after exit of Black Hollywood female executives
California lawmakers said the departures of high-profile Black female executives in Hollywood are a “troubling pattern,” especially because the state has extended its film and television tax credits. The Black Caucus said it’s planning to meet with the governor, film industry executives and labor partners to push studios to provide more data about their diversity efforts.

California Democrats reverse course after killing bill to stiffen penalties for child sex trafficking
After rejecting a proposal to stiffen penalties for repeat sex trafficking of minors, a decision that triggered bipartisan outrage in the state Capitol, California Democrats on a high-profile policy committee backpedaled following intervention by Gov. Gavin Newsom and new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).

Chabria: Support pedophiles or protect children? A false question roils California Legislature
Senate Bill 14 would make sex trafficking of a minor a serious felony, a designation that makes it eligible for California’s “three strikes” law — meaning 25 years to life when you hit that third qualifying crime. Though that sounds reasonable for selling a child for sex, Times columnist Anita Chabria writes, the devil is always in the details — and the proposal raised two major concerns for criminal justice reform advocates.

Opinion: Newsom says California’s anti-housing environmental law is ‘broken.’ So why won’t he fix it?
Newsom’s bold rhetoric about the California Environmental Quality Act implied that big reforms were in the offing. But a legislative package he pushed included only two incremental CEQA reforms, neither directed at housing, writes Chris Elmendorf, a professor at the UC Davis School of Law.

Want a night market in your neighborhood? This new bill could make it easier to start one
Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) plans to introduce legislation to make it easier for California cities and neighborhoods to host farmers markets and flea markets as well as night markets that take inspiration from the open-air food gatherings that are popular across Asia.