CA vs. Trump: Vaccines and immigration

In one week the Legislature will kick off a special session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom to prepare the state for President-elect Donald Trump. CalMatters reporters drill into two particular issues where California’s policies could clash with the Trump administration: public health and immigration.

RFK Jr. and vaccination: California Democratic officials are already bracing for potential public health court battles over abortion, transgender health care and Medi-Cal support. But Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services — former environmental lawyer and controversial vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — could also affect California’s vaccination efforts.

As CalMatters health reporter Ana B. Ibarra explains, Kennedy has a history of making false claims about medicine, such as the frequently debunked assertion that vaccines are linked to autism. In 2019, he joined anti-vaccine activists in Sacramento to unsuccessfully oppose a bill to crack down on dubious medical exemptions for childhood vaccines.

These days, Kennedy has somewhat softened his mistrust of vaccines, telling NBC News earlier this month that, “If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away.” But if confirmed as health secretary, he could embolden anti-vaccine Californians who undermine the state’s public health policies.

As health secretary, he’d have the power to help decide whether to withhold federal funding that helps pay for states’ vaccination efforts; appoint members of an advisory committee that makes recommendations on immunization practices; and limit access to new vaccines.

Read more about Kennedy’s potential impacts on vaccine policy in Ana’s story.

Mass deportation: Advocates warn that Trump’s pledges to deport one million people a year — which the American Immigration Council estimates could cost taxpayers and the economy $88 billion annually — will threaten more than just undocumented immigrants, reports CalMatters’ Wendy Fry

Other distinct groups are at risk too: Non-citizens who have had brushes with the criminal justice system, including ones from decades ago; the roughly 1.3 million people in the U.S. who have been issued final orders of removal; and undocumented people who may live or work near these two groups.

Though California became the first “sanctuary state” to support immigrant communities during Trump’s first term, its protections aren’t as strong as some other states. State prison employees, for example, still coordinate with federal immigration agents about inmates in their custody, and Newsom’s clemency rate to pardon immigrants and shield them from deportation is lower than some previous governors.

Learn more about who is at risk under Trump’s deportation plan in Wendy’s story.

And as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal, Wendy and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on Wendy’s story on the anxieties immigrant families waiting to enter the U.S. are experiencing due to Trump’s reelection. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

Let’s get into some election updates:

Top two primary: Three minor political parties in California are joining forces to try to overturn the state’s top two primary system as unfair to voters. In a federal lawsuit, the Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom parties argue that the setup — in which the top two finishers of any party advance to the general election — has “created an unconstitutionally insurmountable barrier to general election ballot access for any minor party or independent candidate.”

The top two system, approved by voters in 2010, was first used in the 2012 elections. As Ballot Access News points out, only once has a minor party candidate made it to the general election when the Democratic and Republican parties fielded at least two candidates combined in the primary. This year, a candidate for the far-right American Independent Party, which has confused independent voters because of its name, failed to win a state Assembly seat.

On the other hand, the November ballot included eight Democrat vs. Democrat races and four Republican vs. Republican for state Assembly; three Democrat vs. Democrat contests and one Republican vs. Republican for state Senate; and three Dem vs. Dem races for U.S. House. 

Ballot count: Nearly 16 million ballots have been counted for the November election, but as of Sunday, there were still more than 202,000 left to process, according to the Secretary of State’s office. 

Lake County is a laggard: It has finished 16,500 ballots, but has 10,800 remaining. Its top elections official defends the slow count, a cause for complaint every election. 

• Maria Valadez, Lake County registrar, to the Los Angeles Times: “The state gave us a deadline, we meet the deadline. I just don’t understand, why do we need to rush?”

She’s right that county election officials have until Dec. 5 to finish counting and certify the results. But candidates and voters might disagree: Nearly three weeks after Election Day, two U.S. House and five legislative races are still uncalled by the Associated Press. U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley and Assemblymember Joe Patterson, both Rocklin Republicans whose reelections were called the morning after Election Day, say they’ll introduce legislation in Congress and the Legislature, respectively, to require faster counting.

From CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay:

California’s Insurance Department is rolling out the last regulation in its attempt to fix the home and fire insurance market: Allow insurance companies to factor in their reinsurance costs when setting premiums.

The department is inviting public comment on Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s proposed regulation, including a virtual meeting on Dec. 5 at 10 a.m.

Reinsurance is what insurers buy to insure themselves against risk. The department said in its public notice that allowing for the cost of reinsurance in rate-making “would promote insurer solvency and market stability in addition to providing necessary insurance coverage to protect consumers and businesses.” 

For the past couple of years, Californians have been dealing with higher property insurance costs as insurers have stopped writing new policies in the state, citing increased wildfire risk and inflation.

The department also said insurers that want to incorporate reinsurance costs into their premiums would “commit to increasing coverage in wildfire distressed areas” — a similar requirement for insurers that want to also use catastrophe modeling, another regulation that’s part of Lara’s plan to solve the state’s insurance problems. The new regulations are supposed to take effect early next year.

In other insurance news: The Little Hoover Commission, the state’s independent oversight agency, last week unveiled its recommendations for fixing the insurance crisis. The recommendations include allowing insurers to use catastrophe modeling and factoring in reinsurance costs, just like in Lara’s plan. 

But the commission also lambasted Lara for failing to show up for its hearings: “We repeatedly invited Insurance Commissioner Lara or someone from his office to share with us the department’s plans to address this crisis. Without explanation, our invitations were ignored.”

• Gabriel Sanchez, spokesperson for Lara: “It’s a strength of the report that its recommendations echo and endorse Commissioner Lara’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy.”

California plans to increase electric motorcycle sales so that 50% of motorcycles sold would be zero-emissions by 2035. CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Robert Meeks have a PBS SoCal video segment on this goal’s potential pitfalls. Watch it here.