Politico California Playbook: Swalwell launches for president — Soda push gets first test — Khanna backs tougher cops standard — Nunes sues McClatchy — Hunter faces backlash for PLO email
Check out Way to Win’s Vice President, Nicole Boucher, and Deputy Political Director, Kelli Dupree, in the article below.
By Jeremy B. White, Carla Marinucci, Alexander Nieves and Graph Massara
Politico California Playbook – April 9, 2019
THE BUZZ: Is this the year Big Soda fails to bottle up hostile legislation?
— The beverage industry tends to prevail in Sacramento, beating back measures to label or tax the types of sugar-sweetened beverages that public health advocates have identified as a key obesity culprit (check out this excellent California Healthline story on how the industry spreads money abundantly).
— But perhaps no soda victory has been as demoralizing for legislators as last year’s play, when the American Beverage Association funded a ballot initiative that would have crippled local governments’ ability to raise taxes — and then used that threat as leverage to secure a ban on the types of local soda taxes that had won in Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland and were the goal of incipient campaigns in Stockton and Santa Cruz.
— Legislators were furious. Leaving aside the public policy argumentfor soda taxes, plenty of elected officials feel they got rolled by an outside interest group — and they’re wary that other industries may reach for the same playbook.
— That history grounds a bill package going up for an initial vote today, headlined by a statewide soda tax bill and another to curtail portion sizes. The California Medical Association and the California Dental Association are supporting the bills, and they’re backing it up with a ballot threat of their own as they seek to qualify a statewide soda tax initiative. A labeling bill already cleared its first Senate hurdle.
— Whether the ABA cuts an initiative-averting deal remains to be seen. The industry still retains plenty of influence and cites internal polling suggesting soda taxes are unpopular. But we’re closely watching how far this year’s soda package advances to get a sense of how much the landscape has shifted.
BUENOS DIAS, Good Tuesday morning. Once again, a California court has rebuffed Donald Trump on immigration.
— QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The purge of senior leadership at the Department of Homeland Security is unprecedented and a threat to our national security. … In an effort to fulfill his campaign promises, President Trump is trying to remake DHS into his own personal anti-immigration agency.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the twin departures of former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and former Secret Service chief Randolph Alles.
— TWEET OF THE DAY: Rep. Eric Swalwell @EricSwalwell tests his presidential campaign slogan: “Are you ready America? Let’s go big, be bold, and do good!” with launch video
— WHERE’S GAVIN? Still on his Central America expedition.
— HAPPENING TODAY: POLITICO PLAYBOOK authors JAKE SHERMAN and ANNA PALMER‘s new book “The Hill to Die On” is in stores everywhere. Order the book.
