The California Senate Republican Caucus slammed Democratic colleagues in a 15-page report detailing years of mismanagement, with GOP lawmakers telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that Democrats have led the state astray with their supermajority.
State and local leaders in Los Angeles County have faced heavy criticism from Republicans and residents after massive wildfires began on Jan. 7, causing at least $250 billion in damages. While Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have emphasized their focus on helping affected residents, the state Senate Republican Caucus questioned in a press release whether there were “missed opportunities” or “negligence” by the Democratic supermajority, while the GOP made efforts to prevent such a disaster.
“Over the past two decades, Senate Republicans have worked to lower the risk of wildfires in California, to try to prevent the inevitable tragedies like what is now consuming vast swaths of Los Angeles County,” the statement said.
“Senate Republicans also have worked on fixing outdated insurance regulations. It’s undeniable that the insurance industry is imploding in California, due in no small part to Proposition 103,” the statement added. “Decades of misguided policies have created a destabilized homeowners insurance market, which is taking a devastating toll on homeowners and renters alike.”
The report details 72 bills pushed by Republicans from 2003 to 2024, covering areas such as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), insurance, public safety, tax relief and wildfire prevention. Of those, only 16 were signed into law, while the rest either failed, were suspended or were vetoed by three different governors, including Newsom.
Under Democratic leadership, Newsom vetoed one bill in 2022 involving insurance, and two others from 2021 and 2023 involving wildfire security.
READ:
CALIFORNIA SENATE REPUBLICANS – A Long Legislative Record of Working to Protect Californians – Homes – And… by hailey on Scribd
In February 2022, California Republican Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares introduced Assembly Bill 2450, which would have required the “Insurance Commissioner to convene a working group of stakeholders” to help evaluate ways to lower home and property owners’ insurance costs in high wildfire-risk areas. Despite passing the Democratic-majority state Senate, Newsom eventually vetoed the legislation in September 2022, stating a “statutory mandate” was unnecessary.
When asked about the report and Newsom’s backlash, Valladares, whose district has been affect by the Hughes fire beginning on Wednesday, told the DCNF the issue has been years in the making.
“There is a lot of blame to go around for the mismanagement of the emergency. But I think that, again, this is decades of mismanagement,” Valladares said. “I do need to point out that part of my take on why it’s so bad is because of the extreme environmentalists and their lobbyists that, by tooth and nail, fight every bill that will actually help mitigate fires. They put pressure on the governor and on Democrats to not take up these bills [and] to not pass them.”
“There are some Democrats that have put good bills forward with bipartisan support that ultimately get vetoed because the environmentalist lobbyists influence the governor to veto them,” Valladares added. “I truly believe the environmentalists in California do not want to see the state grow in population or opportunity, and they use the environment and CEQA to stop it.”
In response to the California Senate Republicans’ press release, Democratic Sen. Ben Allen, whose district was hit by the Palisades fire, told the DCNF in a written statement that lawmakers have taken “strong steps” since 2018, stating climate change has made natural disasters worse.
“California has unfortunately experienced large wildfires through history, though climate change has certainly made them worse as of late. While we have taken strong steps since 2018 to bolster our firefighting and wildfire mitigation efforts – including by passing a $10B Climate Bond which included significant fire investments last November,” Allen wrote.
“I do not disagree that smarter steps need to be taken with regards to where we develop in California. If we choose to develop in these areas that we know are prone to wildfire, we need to enact and enforce policy that better protects the community, including adequate water supply, defensible space and home hardening requirements,” Allen added.
For years, California Democrats have blamed natural disasters on climate change, with Democratic Rep. Dave Min writing on social media that “climate change has dried out” the state’s “foliage and flora” in his address on the most recent fire. In June 2024, Newsom proposed cutting the state’s public safety budget to address a $27.6 billion fiscal deficit. However, he notably also wanted to allocate $1.7 billion from the General Fund to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) for “equity programs” and other “climate priorities.”
In the wake of the 2025 wildfires, Newsom stated that there was “misinformation” being spread online, claiming the state had not run out of water in fire hydrants and reservoirs, despite reports stating otherwise.
“I’d say he speaks in half-truths, right?” Valladares said when asked about Newsom. “Yes, we had two record years of rain and snowpack. That’s why our reservoirs have been above average in their levels. We had two super blooms two years ago, which shows we knew we’d have vegetation issues because of the rain.”
“But the half-truth there is that since 2000, Californians have passed two water bonds to build new storage and conveyance, as well as repairs. Not a single new reservoir has been built in 50 years, despite voters approving funding for them,” Valladares added. “So again, it’s half-truths.”
Echoing his fellow Republican colleague, California Rep. Bill Essayli told the DCNF that Democrats are “completely responsible for all the policy failures,” as the legislature has been fully controlled by the party for over a decade. However, he noted that despite the majority not being in the GOP’s favor, state Republicans are still focused on issues that can help protect homeowners.
“I think the biggest thing to us is there are things that are in our control. There are things that are not in our control. We want to focus on the things that are in our control,” Essayli told DCNF. “For us, it’s managing the forest, the wild lands, reducing the fuse codes and then also reducing the risk of ignition sources.”
“So for example, power lines are involved in starting a lot of these fires. So we’ve been pushing to upgrade that infrastructure and underground it for a long time,” Essayli said. “Nothing’s been done. Nothing’s been done on the infrastructure side, on the cleaning up the forest side, cleaning up the brush. Then of course, there’s the water policy as well. But it’s just failure after failure.”
While both the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires are being investigated, lawsuits against Southern California Edison (SCE) were filed on Jan. 14 alleging the company’s operations helped spark the deadly fire that tore through Pasadena and Altadena.
In one of the claims from a local Altadena resident, Evangeline Iglesias, she alleged that there’s “clear evidence from video footage, photographs, and witness accounts” suggesting Edison International and SCE failed to “de-energize all of its electrical equipment in the area” and failed to ensure flammable vegetation around its infrastructure was trimmed.
When asked about working with the state’s Democrats, Valladares shared that she was optimistic the lawmakers could change as they “know that the voters don’t agree with them right now.” However, when asked if he believed Democrats would take responsibility for their leadership in the state, Essayli immediately turned down the idea.
“No, absolutely not. I think they do not ever admit their policies are wrong. They double down and they gaslight and they deflect. That’s what they do,” Essayli said.
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