🍊 🇺🇸 OC Conservative Brief - 3.31.23

Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to your weekly edition of the OC Conservative Brief, your run down of Orange County's local politics from a conservative perspective. If you like what you read, please make sure to subscribe and forward to your friends.

This week, we've got an initial rundown of how OC's Washington politicians are reacting to the bombshell Trump indictment and some news about the county's top COVID official leaving his post. But first, let's talk about Newsom's fight against "Big Oil" and which Orange County politicians he conned into voting for it...

GAVIN NEWSOM'S OIL WAR... Governor Gavin Newsom's crusade for a "windfall profits" tax on oil companies suffered a setback last month after some Democrats balked at the unintended consequences an earnings cap or a profit tax could have on gas prices.

This week, Newsom blitzkrieged Sacramento Democrats into voting for his Plan B. The bill, known as Senate Bill X 1-2, requires energy companies operating in California to routinely hand over troves of market data to regulators at the California Energy Commission, who will then decide whether to cap or penalize oil refiners after analyzing the data.

The watered down plan was apparently adequate enough to mollify the concerns of some Democrats, like OC Democrat state Sen. David Min, who said last month he saw no "smoking gun" of oil industry profiteering but nevertheless wanted "transparency."

• The final vote wasn't even close: the bill passed 58-19 in the Assembly and 30-8 in the Senate.

We'll dive into the substance of this law in a moment, but first...how did our Orange County lawmakers vote? Every Republican in Sacramento voted no. The situation is bleaker for Orange County's Democrats, who all voted for Newsom's bill, save for one who abstained (the OC Register wrote an article on Sharon Quirk-Silva's abstention).

So, what to make of this bill? Democrats are correct that gas prices in California are higher than the rest of the country, but there's one thing this bill doesn't do...and that's make gas prices cheaper.

The California Energy Commission (CEA) - the same regulatory body Democrats have now tasked with imposing penalties - has already analyzed why gas prices are so high. In a report issued last fall, the CEA blamed, among other things, an "isolated market," a cleaner "special gasoline recipe" required by law, "environmental program costs" and "taxes."

Ironically, this bill does nothing to address any of that, which shows how fundamentally unserious Sacramento Democrats are about high gas prices. At best, it makes the state even more hostile to an oil industry we desperately need to do more business here. At worst, it empowers regulators to distort the market with penalties that will drive the price of gas up even higher.

• Read further: The Orange County Register's editorial board slammed the bill, writing "it appears California lawmakers are doing everything in their power to increase the pain on Californians while pretending they’re standing up for them."

And that's the thing...this isn't about lowering gas prices. It's (partially) about Gavin Newsom's presidential aspirations. Newsom spent a ton of his political capital on SBX1-2. Now it's a line item in his resume so he can brag to Democrat voters in other states about fighting the oil industry when he runs for president.

• Case in point: the latest headline from Politico is literally "How Gavin Newsom 'Beat Big Oil'".

• Pay even closer attention: It's no coincidence that the day after the bill passed, Newsom launched his new nation-wide "Campaign For Democracy" PAC and announced he will be touring red states to fight "authoritarianism." (Which is all the more ironic given that California currently bans state-funded travel to those states).

Bottom line... Few voters have sympathy for the oil companies. They will start asking questions, however, when the cost of gasoline spikes up from severe market distortions imposed by economically illiterate Sacramento politicians. Shame on the Democrats who made it possible...and especially the Orange County Democrats (like Irvine's Cottie Petrie-Norris) who voted for it while masquerading as business-friendly moderates.

We'll wrap up this topic with the below video from OC Republican Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, who voted no, succinctly explaining all the problems with the bill.

OC POLS RESPOND TO TRUMP INDICTMENT... The big bombshell last night: President Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan. We won't get into the politics of this now (I shared my initial reaction on Twitter last night) and there have been no shortage of takes in the media, but how are Orange County's DC politicians responding?

As of 8:15am this morning, only Democrat Reps. Katie Porter and Mike Levin had weighed in on Twitter:

• Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA47): "No one is above the law."

• Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA49): "Like any American who is indicted, Donald Trump deserves every protection provided by the Constitution, and due process under the law. As that process unfolds, let us neither celebrate nor further divide. And let us remember that Justice benefits us all. No one is above the law."

Levin's was notably more cautious than Porter's (remember, Porter is retiring to run for Senate, but Levin is one of the most vulnerable Democrat incumbents running for re-election next year), which led one DC journalist to wonder if perhaps the politics of the Trump indictment won't play out so favorably to Democrats in swing districts.

Democrat state Sen. David Min (SD-37), who is running to replace Katie Porter, slammed House Republicans this morning as "outrageous" for "interfering in a local criminal case without even knowing what the charges or evidence are."

Meanwhile, no tweeted reactions yet from Republican Reps. Michelle Steel or Young Kim, or Republican candidate Scott Baugh who is running for Katie Porter's seat, but the OC GOP did weigh in with a lengthy statement:

END OF A COVID ERA... Dr. Clayton Chau, who led Orange County's response to the coronavirus during much the pandemic, announced he will be resigning his position as OC Health Care Agency director.

Chau's predecessor, Dr. Nichole Quick, resigned in May 2020 after she issued a county-wide mask order that generated massive backlash from the public, the county Board of Supervisors, and even the county sheriff who announced he would not enforce it. (She was also given a security detail after receiving credible death threats).

Chau rescinded the mask mandate and allowed more businesses to reopen shortly after he took over, in a move that attracted headlines from the LA Times and even CNN. Chau said he wanted the county's requirements to be in line with the state's, but just weeks later, Newsom announced a state-wide mask mandate that trumped Orange County's guidance.

Chau still generated plenty of opposition, though he eventually won the respect of the conservative-leaning Orange County Board of Supervisors. According to Chau, he stood out among other public health officials in California for questioning the wisdom of blanket lockdowns and masking orders. As the OC Register wrote at the time:

• "Chau said other county health leaders across the state see him as one of the 'odd health officers' because he has questioned California’s 'blanket' lockdown guidance and implored state officials to consider the harsh economic effects such sweeping closures would have on people trying to make ends meet. Chau’s preference for more segmented stay-at-home rules, particularly those that allow in-person instruction at schools with low levels of coronavirus transmission, sometimes gets him teased on phone calls with health officers from other counties..."

“I have no plan at this time,” Dr. Chau told the Voice of OC after confirming his resignation. “Honestly, I am exhausted after three years non-stop."

WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

🌧️ The Wall Street Journal explains how California is scrambling to capture the flood of rain water before it escapes back into the ocean.

🤯 Nathan Fletcher, a County Supervisor in neighboring San Diego County and rising Democrat star, resigned Thursday after he was accused of sexual assault.

📱 The Laguna Beach City Council is releasing the bodycam footage of an officer giving the city manager a ticket for driving while on her cell phone after details emerged that she told the officer she was on the phone with the chief of police.

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Have a tip on a news item in Orange County conservatives should know about? Drop me a line at [email protected]