Harder gets a challenger + Repeal the ‘death tax?’ + CFA to reopen collective bargaining

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

HARDER DRAWS REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER

Conservative Ripon pastor Brett Dood (Dood rhymes with “road”) has announced that he is running as a Republican to unseat endangered Central Valley Democratic Rep. Josh Harder, D-Stockton, in the 2024 election.

“I am running for Congress, because like most Californians, I’m frustrated with the antics in Washington. California families are struggling, something has to be done,” Dood said in a statement.

Dood said he supports putting people over political parties, but his campaign website shows a fairly standard conservative platform, including opposition to abortion, support for the Second Amendment and a pledge to prevent transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

Though Harder managed to hold on to his CD-9 in 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom lost the district to Republican challenger Sen. Brian Dahle. Democrats, however, hold a significant voter registration advantage over Republicans — 43.5% to 28.4%.

In a statement, Dood’s campaign pointed to the fact that Harder’s congressional district is viewed by the National Republican Congressional Committee as a top Democrat-to-Republican pickup opportunity.

According to election tracker Ballotpedia, Dood is the first candidate to file to run against Harder next year.

REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRAT TO UNVEIL AMENDMENT TO REPEAL ‘DEATH TAX’

Republican Sens. Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta, and Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, are joining Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, on Tuesday to unveil SCA 4, a proposed constitutional amendment to alter 2020’s Proposition 19. They want to repeal the tax on inheriting a home from your parent or grandparent, also known as “the death tax.”

“Tax reassessments on inherited property often lead to the family being forced to sell their homes or close down their business, which is an unacceptable consequence for hard-working families who are trying to set themselves and future generations up for success. Economic mobility cannot be achieved unless we let people own what they create through decades of hard work,” Seyarto said in a statement.

The proposed amendment is set to be heard by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on May 10.

Joining the lawmakers on the west steps of the Capitol at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday will be Jon Coupal of the conservative Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association, Los Angeles estate planner Rosie Milligan, Elk Grove realtor Lynda Chac, and other lawmakers.

“For more than 30 years, hard-working California families had a constitutional protection that helped them climb the economic ladder. And now, it’s gone,” said Coupal in a statement. “We must fix this before more families are forced to sell the properties their parents worked so hard to acquire.”

CALIFORNIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PRIORITIES

Monday was International Workers Day, and the California Faculty Association used the occasion to announce that it will be reopening portions of its 2022-24 collective bargaining agreement with the California State University system later this month.

The union said in a statement that it will be seeking higher salaries at all ranks and ranges, a defined workload based on appropriate class sizes, improved paid leaves of absence and better campus safety, particularly for faculty, students and staff from marginalized communities.

“With this announcement, we are initiating our fight for a better CSU for all of our Unit 3 members, including those most precariously and historically marginalized,” said CFA President Charles Toombs in a statement. “This bargaining campaign will center our most vulnerable faculty and address long-standing inequities experienced by many members, an expanded and strengthened parental leave policy and a vision for community safety rooted in our anti-racism and social justice principles.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Daniel Enrique Laso, 9

Jonathan Casarez, 18

Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21

Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25

Julisa Molina Rivera, 31

These were HUMAN BEINGS whose lives were stolen by gun violence.”

- California Gov. Gavin Newsom, replying to a tweet from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott referring to recent mass shooting victims as “illegal immigrants,” via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

• California’s attorney general is suing the city of Elk Grove for denying a contentious affordable housing project in the city’s Old Town, via Darrell Smith.

• As fentanyl overdoses continue to kill Californians, Democrats in the state Capitol searching for solutions are caught between grieving families and communities still recovering from the state’s failed “war on drugs,” via Lindsey Holden.

• Californians have some of the nation’s biggest tax burdens. But they’re far from the worst, via David Lightman.

• Record rains this winter may have dampened Northern California, but wildfire season is still coming — and certain regions will see it sooner than others, via Hanh Truong.

• Dr. Carolina Reyes, a Harvard-trained physician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, got into medicine to help women obtain health care, especially underserved or marginalized people who face systemic racism. She’s seen progress, albeit slow, over three decades, yet the number of maternal deaths each year continues to rise. Luckily, she’s got the ear of President Joe Biden’s health secretary, via Samantha Young, Kaiser Health News