California s Only Independent Lawmaker Supports Forming New Political Party By Daniela Pardo and Hannah Poukish Sacramento PUBLISHED 4:22 PM PT Feb. 18, 2021 PUBLISHED 4:22 PM PST Feb. 18, 2021
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. â Support for a third political party continues to grow across the country. According to a new Gallup poll, 62% of Americans believe a new political party should be formed.
Assemblymember Chard Mayes, I-Yucca Valley, said he understands this hunger for another political party option as the only Independent lawmaker in the California legislature.
What You Need To Know
Assemblymember Chad Mayes is in talks with dozens of former members of the GOP who want to start their own party
The panel tasked with redrawing the political boundaries for California s legislative Assembly and Senate districts, as well as the state s 53 congressional House seats, based on the 2020 census is revving up its work as it strives to send the final maps to the secretary of state in time for next year s elections. It is expected the Golden State will lose at least one congressional district when the census bureau releases the results from the decennial tally of the country s population this summer.
Most of the 14 members of the 2020 Citizens Redistricting Commission have begun holding town halls in their regions of the state to educate the public about its work and how they can get involved. People can submit their own district maps for the panel to consider via the website www.drawmycacommunity.org before it tackles drawing the new boundaries in the fall.
A group of California lawmakers announced a package of legislation today to bring necessary reforms and oversight to the Employment Development Department’s (EDD) unemployment insurance (UI) program. The bills would enact crucial oversight and consumer protection measures, ensure claimants get timely access to benefits, and address fraud.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been widespread reports of the trouble at the EDD. Millions of Californians have struggled to access the unemployment benefits they are legally entitled to, leaving many vulnerable without income or recourse during a pandemic and recession. Despite mass fraud prevention account freezes that harmed thousands of legitimate UI claimants, EDD has still fallen prey to rampant unemployment fraud, most egregiously coming out of California prisons.
Representatives from EDD and Bank of America addressed a State Assembly hearing to shed light on the scope of fraud within California s unemployment program.
Assembly Bill 74: From Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego). Provides claimants with the option to receive their unemployment payments (as well as disability and paid family leave) via direct deposit. Currently, California is only one of three states that do not provide direct deposit; instead, the state is contracted with Bank of America to send payments to a debit card. However, complaints have mounted that Bank of America has failed to protect its cardholders, leaving them vulnerable to fraud, and to having their accounts frozen by the bank if they detect suspicious activity leaving cardholders without access to their funds as they try to navigate the bank s appeals process.
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California Republican gubernatorial candidate and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (L), former Gov. Jerry Brown (R) and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (C) speak during a discussion on the future of California at the Women s Conference 2010 on Oct. 26, 2010 at the Long Beach Convention Center.
(Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)
There’s an old saying in politics that “you can’t beat somebody with nobody.” And at the statewide level, Republican candidates in California have pretty much been “nobodies” . at least nobody who can
win. There hasn t been a full-on competitive Republican candidate in California in a decade since Meg Whitman ran for governor, said Republican campaign consultant Rob Stutzman, harkening back to 2010 when the former eBay CEO challenged Jerry Brown before losing the governor’s race by 13 points.