On Monday, I placed on every desk in the State Assembly a list of nearly 10,000 Californians opposed to AB 5. The legislator who authored that vicious law picked up the packet of names and literally threw it off the desk.
Before that, the Speaker of the Assembly ordered the Sergeant-At-Arms to confiscate all of the packets.
I passed them out again – but it wasn’t enough to convince legislators, who blithely killed my Amendment to reverse one of the most destructive laws in our history.
This is the same law – signed, championed, and mercilessly enforced by Gavin Newsom — that had Uber and Lyft within hours of leaving California last week. Tens of thousands have already lost their livelihoods to it.
It’s hard to imagine a more vivid illustration of the pathologies that grip our State Capitol: the abuse of power, the disregard for ordinary Californians, and the wrecking-ball approach to the sacred duties of public office.
There’s an election coming up. California has never been more in need of a major political realignment.