Is Newsom to blame for blackouts? + PG&E goes to the Capitol + Can CA get Trump’s taxes?

Sacramento Bee (CA)

Nov. 19--Good morning! We have one more AM Alert from #TeamCapBuro until Hannah Wiley returns.

INTO THE WEEDS

The Public Policy Institute of California released a poll Monday night highlighting the state of the 2020 race and key issues across the state. Here are a few things you need to know:

WILDFIRES: A plurality of likely California voters approve of the job Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing. While 48 percent approve of his performance, 45 percent disapprove. His handling of the recent wildfires and power shutoffs, however, is drawing some concern, with 46 percent of respondents disapproving of Newsom's handling and 42 percent approving. Still, more people are taking aim at utility companies and the Legislature.

The Legislature has a 39 percent approval rating, with 51 percent disapproving of the overall job it is doing. Most notable: Just a third of people have a lot or a great deal of confidence in their local utility provider's handling of power shutoffs and wildfire prevention.

While Newsom is paying a price politically for the latest round of fires, likely voters believe other institutions are more responsible. "This is very much a work in progress," said Mark Baldassare, president of PPIC. "People are giving mixed grades to the way it's been handled so far."

ENTHUSIASM: Democrats are strongly motivated to beat President Donald Trump. Nearly 8 in 10 likely Democratic primary voters say they are either extremely enthusiastic or very enthusiastic about voting. They are also highly engaged in the news, with 80 percent saying they are either very or fairly closely following 2020 election news. This could spell trouble for Republicans.

"This is an election where people are caring a lot about the outcome," Baldassare said. "All of this seems to be pointing to higher voter turnout."

SPLIT-ROLL TAX: There's mixed support for a proposed ballot measure that would have commercial properties taxed based on their current market value rather than their purchase price and direct some of the funds to K-12 public schools. Forty-six percent of likely voters supported it, while 45 percent opposed it.

The margin of error for the 1,008 likely voters is 4.3 percentage points. It's 5.1 percentage points for the 681 respondents likely to participate in the Democratic primary.

LAWMAKERS RIP ON PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric executives were in the hot seat Monday during a legislative hearing that lasted hours and featured 25 scheduled speakers on last month's planned power outages.

"We know our performance wasn't perfect," said PG&E CEO Bill Johnson, acknowledging website outages, confusing maps, jammed call centers and inadequate communication with state and local government. "We can and will and have to do better."

Many lawmakers had harsh criticism for the utility, which says it may cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses this week. Last month, more than 1 million people and businesses lost power during PG&E blackouts, which the utility says were necessary to prevent its equipment from sparking fires as hurricane-force winds swept through California.

"We thought PG&E would use a scalpel in implementing these planned blackouts," Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said. "Instead PG&E has chosen to use sledgehammer and then turn around and essentially tell the public, 'Sorry, suck it up, we'll fix it in 10 years.'"

The Monday hearing highlighted the pressure on the utility, which is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and faces billions of dollars in liability from wildfires sparked by its equipment in 2017 and 2018.

"Repeatedly turning off power for millions of people in one of the most advanced economies in the world, even in the interest of safety, is not a sustainable solution," Johnson said. "I want to assure you of this: We do not expect an annual repeat of what we went through this October and what we put our customers and others through. That just cannot happen again."

SB 27 FIGHT JUST GOT HARDER

If California loses its fight to pursue Trump's tax returns in the state Supreme Court, it will likely struggle even more at the national level.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump by temporarily halting an order directing him to release eight years of tax returns to the House Oversight Committee.

While the cases are very different, it could very well be the end of the road for California if it is unsuccessful in convincing its state Supreme Court to compel the president to disclose his tax information.

TWEET OF THE DAY

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento -- "From ending homelessness to passing federal gun safety reform measures to taking meaningful action on climate change, I appreciate the presidential candidates proposing meaningful solutions for these issues we face in CA and across the US."

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