CALIFORNIA POLITICS
Central Valley
Central Valley — a region in which CDT has been investing in for over a decade — has become a must-visit stop for presidential candidates. We recently supported our Central Valley partner, Communities for a New California (CNC), in crafting a question on reparations posed by CNC volunteer Nia Parks to Peter Buttigieg at the recent MSNBC Hardball Town Hall in Fresno.
Experts predict that the 2020 Census will significantly undercount Black and Latinx people, and this will be especially acute in the Central Valley, “home to many foreign-born Californians whom the state fears might not want to document their citizenship or residence status. … Some of the other factors that make it harder to count include limited-English households, homes that don’t have internet service, multi-housing units and lower-income populations.” (Sacramento Bee) CNC is leading Census outreach in the Central Valley. Contact Ludovic if you are interested in supporting CNC as they focus on the Census and 2020 elections.
POLICY
Courage Campaign reports that funding from corporate interests, “influenced an Assembly vote last week that left only one of two tenant protection measures alive. In its Renter Relief project, the campaign tracked direct and indirect contributions from realtor and landlord groups to lawmakers who declined to vote or voted against Assembly Bill 1482, which caps annual rent increases to 7 percent plus inflation. The group identified vulnerable members based on voting records from a 2018 just cause eviction bill, and it also targeted the lawmakers in Facebook ads. … Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, voted against the bill and the project noted $21,000 in contributions to her campaign. Assemblyman James Ramos, D-San Manuel Reservation, received $191,600 and did not vote for the bill, the project recorded.” (The Sacramento Bee)
This highlights how corporate interests are succeeding in their attempts to still triumph in the age of a Democratic supermajority in the state legislature.
RESEARCH
Black Futures Lab: Black Census Project
Launched by Black Futures Lab in early 2018, the Black Census Project is the largest survey of Black people conducted in the United States since Reconstruction. Over 30,000 Black people from across the country participated in the Black Census Project, providing their views, political beliefs, concerns, and aspirations. In the upcoming months, Black Futures Lab will release a series of reports that analyze and interpret the results of the Black Census. The first in this series of reports, More Black than Blue: Politics + Power in the 2019 Census, focuses on political engagement, economic and criminal justice issues.
Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC): Californians and Their Government Survey
PPIC released their latest “Californians and Their Government” survey, which includes findings on people’s views on the presidential race, the upcoming Census, housing and homelessness, and differences in how people view local police across racial/ethnic groups.