THE BUZZ: OVERRIDE — California Democrats for years have enjoyed holding more than two-thirds of the seats in the state Legislature — but they seldom use the powers that come with it. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday issued his first veto of the post-session season, sending back a proposal by Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula that would have allowed some undocumented immigrants to be eligible for up to $150,000 in state-backed home loans — defying the support in the Legislature. It serves as a reminder that California is home to one of the few statehouses in the nation with a supermajority that can reject a veto. But in spite of their overwhelming numbers, lawmakers in Sacramento haven’t undone a governor’s veto in more than 40 years. Instead, they have historically deferred to repeatedly reintroducing the same legislation — year, after year, after year. State Sen. Nancy Skinner, who is termed out this year, has adopted such a strategy with her bill to grant media access to prisons. It has been vetoed nine times by four governors. Her tenth version, Senate Bill 254, currently sits on Newsom’s desk. “This is just one of those things where you have to keep trying,” Skinner told Playbook this summer. Similarly, Assemblymember Akilah Weber’s bill to require licensure for athletic trainers passed unanimously in the Assembly, but similar proposals have been vetoed six times since the 1980s. “I think each of those governors — Governor Schwarzenegger, Governor Brown — they got it wrong,” she said in an interview. Newsom has rejected three proposals from state Sen. Monique Limón to increase gubernatorial appointment transparency. It’s on his desk yet a fourth time. Earlier this year, when she introduced the latest version, Limón acknowledged her “level of confidence that the governor will veto it again ... is high.” But, she said, so long as communities identify a need, legislators persist. “That is our job,” she said. Between 1979 and 1980, state lawmakers made history by overriding four of then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s vetoes in eight months. But then they never did it again. Although California Democrats have a “veto-proof” supermajority in both houses, the Legislature has not exercised its override power in 44 years. Why doesn’t California use this power? “The short answer is cowardice,” said former Assemblymember Mike Gatto, who served from 2010-2016. “The longer answer is that the executive branch’s power has grown significantly at the expense of the Legislature.” Former Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon, who served from 2012 to 2020, recalled that when Brown’s term ended and Newsom took office in 2019, the Assembly considered an override on a bill veto. “We pretty unanimously agreed that that was a balance of power that needed to be restored,” he said. “When a new governor is coming in, that's the time, as the Legislature, to assert yourself.” But, he said, the Senate was entirely disinterested. And when Gatto suggested an override for one of his bills that Brown had vetoed, he said his colleagues were taken aback. His own staff feared the move would render them pariahs. Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said there’s a threat that a governor could retaliate against the Legislature in the future if the body looks to overturn a veto. “You'll bet the governor is going to exact revenge,” he said. Ultimately, fear won. Gatto decided against the override. Today, in California, legislators rarely utter the word “override.” “There's no talk of an override,” said state Sen. Anthony Portantino. He reintroduced his bill to provide unemployment benefits for striking workers after Newsom vetoed it last year. It died in committee this June. “A veto override I don't think is the way to ever go,” echoed Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who reintroduced two proposals that Newsom had previously rejected. “If I was the governor, it would only make me more defensive.” Aguiar-Curry said discussions about the override are so rare that new legislators may not even know they have this tool at their disposal. In other states, however, legislators rarely think twice before trying it. “In South Carolina, overriding the governor has not become a shocking event,” said Democratic Rep. Seth Rose. He said legislators seldom reintroduce legislation – the override helps them maintain influence and pass important bills. “The speaker of the House is 100 times more powerful than the governor,” he said. Republican Arkansas Rep. Robin Lundstrum, who led a successful override effort in 2021 on legislation to ban gender-affirming care in the state, said it didn’t affect her relationship with the governor, a fellow Republican. “If you're adults, you recognize that you're not always going to agree,” she said. “The override process is something that needs to be in the toolbox of every legislature.” Some still think there’s a future for the override in California. “The legislature is very capable of doing it, it just has to be the right moment,” said Calderon. And one data point suggests the fallout might be less severe than anticipated. In 1982, after four of Brown's vetoes were overridden, he vetoed less than 2 percent of bills, the lowest percentage of any modern governor. GOOD MORNING. Happy Monday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte. WHERE’S GAVIN? In New York for the Harris-Walz campaign, stopping by a fundraiser and doing media interviews.
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