Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra is entering office with a message aimed squarely at the Capitol’s Democratic power brokers: this administration intends to work with them, not around them.
Standing alongside Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas in the Capitol rotunda last week, Becerra made a point of emphasizing partnership over power plays.
“We’ve tried to make it very clear, through the fact that we are standing here just a couple of days after the election, to say, ‘We’re going to work together. This will be a partnership,’” Becerra told reporters. “Get used to this.”
That trio — Becerra, Limón and Rivas, often referred to as Sacramento’s “Big Three” — will shape the direction of California policy in the coming year. So far, though, none of them has laid out specific legislative plans for the challenges awaiting lawmakers when they reconvene in January.
Those challenges are significant. New federal restrictions threaten to slash Medi-Cal coverage for more than a million Californians starting Jan. 1. Legislators also must revisit the unresolved question of who pays for wildfire damage caused by utility equipment, after a deal collapsed late in this year’s session. On top of that, voters have signaled they want state leaders to address artificial intelligence regulation, government accountability, housing production and the rising cost of living.
Becerra’s early vow to collaborate closely with the Legislature stands in contrast to the approach favored by outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, who frequently introduced major proposals late in the legislative session, using tight deadlines to push bills through with limited opportunity for pushback. That strategy worked for years — helping speed up infrastructure projects and ease environmental review requirements for housing — but it blew up this year when Newsom’s last-minute wildfire liability overhaul fell apart amid legislative resistance.
Rivas said lawmakers have grown weary of being blindsided by eleventh-hour deals, something he’s tried to address for years without much success under the previous administration.
“It’s pretty clear, based on the engagement we’ve had thus far, that it’s going to be a different type of relationship than what this Legislature has experienced over the past eight years,” Rivas said. “I fully expect and trust the governor-elect when he says that he’s going to do his best to work with the Legislature and do his best to not drop stuff on us unexpectedly.”
Political observers say Becerra’s background as a former assemblymember, congressman and head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus gives him a natural advantage when it comes to navigating legislative politics. Richard Stapler, a Democratic strategist and former senior aide to state Sen. John Laird, said Becerra’s experience managing competing interests within a diverse caucus should serve him well as governor.
“The success of his governorship will largely ride on his ability to have a sound, thoughtful working relationship with the Legislature,” Stapler said.
Former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon cautioned that some friction between the governor’s office and the Legislature is inevitable, regardless of how friendly things look now. He noted that past clashes with Newsom or former Gov. Jerry Brown often stemmed from moments when lawmakers ceded their own authority — such as during the early days of the pandemic, when the Capitol largely emptied out.
“It’s easier for one person to act than an entire body,” Rendon said.
Since clinching the Democratic nomination for governor, Becerra has met individually with numerous legislators and addressed both the Senate and Assembly Democratic caucuses. Last month, he toured a new transit-oriented affordable housing project in Oakland with Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Buffy Wicks, who plans to revive a stalled bill aimed at boosting condominium construction by reforming the state’s construction-defect liability rules — a frequent deterrent for developers.
“Because he’s been a legislator, he understands the pace and cadence of a legislative body, and you know, he also understands how we get very attached to our ideas — we get married to our bills, as they say,” Wicks said. “Having more collaboration at the front end I think is going to be important and certainly welcome from the Legislature.”
Sirat Attapit, who served as legislative affairs director when Becerra was attorney general, recalled that he urged his team early on to build relationships with all 120 state legislators. She described him as deeply detail-oriented, often flagging even minor fiscal impacts in proposed legislation.
Becerra has also said he’d like to see lawmakers introduce fewer bills overall, aiming for a more focused legislative agenda. This year, lawmakers introduced just under 1,850 bills, down from more than 2,100 in each of the previous two years.
“That requires me to come to them early,” Becerra told KCRA last month, “to talk to them, so they don’t feel like they have to plow forward and then find out at the end that I didn’t like what they were doing.”
Despite the collaborative tone, Becerra has mostly avoided detailing where his policy priorities will actually land, favoring broad language about “affordability” and ensuring “everyone pays their fair share.” When pressed on whether he would reverse Newsom’s rollback of Medi-Cal benefits for undocumented immigrants — something he appeared to support in a past interview — Becerra pushed back on reporters for asking him to commit before budget details are finalized.
“Guys, don’t play this game about asking me to commit, because I didn’t get elected doing that,” he said. “A lot of other folks make these wild promises, and they’re not the governor-elect.”
Asked how Becerra’s approach might differ from Newsom’s, Rivas said he wasn’t sure policy outcomes would look much different, pointing instead to Becerra’s background as a former lawmaker and the son of immigrants.
One area where the three leaders appear to be aligned is the so-called Fair Share proposal, which would tax large corporations whose low-wage workers rely on public assistance programs like Medi-Cal. As federal funding cuts and state deficits forced Medi-Cal reductions in recent years, progressive lawmakers pushed for this tax as an alternative revenue source. Newsom, generally resistant to new taxes, agreed only to have the state study the idea, with a report due from the Department of Finance in March.
Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, who chairs the Senate labor committee, said she raised the Fair Share concept with Becerra earlier this year and was encouraged when he brought it up again unprompted at a recent event for Black community leaders.
“He stopped me and he said, ‘I really want to work on Fair Share. I want to get that done. I believe that that is important to how we move forward coming out of Trump’s attack on our healthcare system,’” she said. “That was very encouraging, that he remembered the conversation, he remembered me raising that point, and that he sought me out.”
Rivas said there appears to be “a natural alignment and a willingness to do something” among the three leaders on the issue, though all are waiting for the finance department’s recommendations before moving forward with specifics.
Legislative leaders were more measured about another Becerra campaign proposal — requiring utilities to provide low-income households with two hours of free electricity during low-demand daytime hours. Limón said such programs can offer short-term relief for families struggling with high utility bills, adding that her caucus is open to the idea. Rivas said he still needs to discuss the details with Assembly Democrats.
“Could there be alignment?” he said. “Possibly.”
Original source: CalMatters
