Thursday, February 27, 2025

Huntington Beach Councilman Tony Strickland Leads in Special Election for State Senate On Tuesday, Feb. 25, voters in California’s 36th State Senate District special election and an early tally of ballots in Orange and Los Angeles counties showed Republican Tony Strickland with a strong lead. As of the latest tally, Strickland maintained an early 51% lead over Democrat Jimmy Pham. Pham is an attorney and serves on Westminster’s traffic commission. Strickland, a Huntington Beach councilmember and former mayor, is eyeing a return to the California Legislature, where he has already served for a decade — first as an Assembly member from 1998 to 2004, then as a state senator from 2008 to 2012 — representing parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“Tony Strickland has always been a great supporter of free enterprise and open competition,” said WECA’s Southern California Government Affairs Representative Dave Everett (pictured with Strickland). “Whether it is in the California Legislature or at the local level in Huntington Beach, merit shop contractors know they can count on Tony Strickland.” The special election was triggered after former State Senator Janet Nguyen vacated the seat to join the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Nguyen endorsed Strickland to succeed her in the Senate. The race for the 36th State Senate District, which includes communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, could be decided outright if a candidate secures more than 50% of the vote in the primary, meaning the runoff election scheduled for April would be canceled.

Despite Strickland’s strong early lead, Orange County Democratic Party Chair Florice Hoffman said she is encouraged by the initial results. “It looks like Jimmy Pham will be in a runoff in this Republican district,” she said. Pham ran for the 70th Assembly District seat in 2024 but was defeated by Republican Assemblymember Tri Ta.  The 36th Senate District stretches from Seal Beach to San Clemente along the Orange County coast to a small portion of Los Angeles County. It includes portions of Buena Park, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Stanton, and Westminster in Orange County and Artesia, Cerritos, and Hawaiian Gardens in Los Angeles County. Republicans make up the district's most significant share of registered voters at 37.11%. Democrats follow with 33.93%, while 22.61% of voters are registered with no party preference. Whoever is elected in Tuesday’s primary or the general election in April will serve a term that runs through Dec. 7, 2026.



Huntington Beach Councilman Tony Strickland (left) and WECA Southern California Government Affairs Representative Dave Everett (right)

Stan Ellis (R) Wins Special Election for Assembly District 32 In a decisive victory, Bakersfield-area businessman Stan Ellis (whom WECA supported) has won the special election for California's 32nd Assembly District. Ellis, a Republican, secured 64% of the vote, avoiding a runoff and succeeding Vince Fong, who vacated the seat after winning a congressional election last year. Stan Ellis is a farmer, local businessman, and community member with deep roots in the Central Valley. Ellis's campaign focused on common-sense leadership, advocating for less regulation, safer communities, and economic opportunities. "This victory is a clear message that our communities want leadership that puts working families and our future first," Ellis stated in his victory email.

The district, which includes parts of Visalia and Bakersfield, has been without representation since June 2024. Ellis's win brings a renewed focus on addressing the critical needs of the Central Valley, and he expressed eagerness to begin his work in Sacramento.

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AZ’s Ciscomani Expresses Reservations Over House Republican Budget Resolution Southern Arizona U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R) is expressing reservations over a Republican budget blueprint that could result in significant cost shifts from the federal government to Arizona and negatively affect the state’s Medicaid program, known as AHCCCS, or the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. Story.

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Plaintiffs Are Responsible for Commencing Court-Ordered Arbitration The California Court of Appeal held that after the employer-defendant successfully moved to compel arbitration of the plaintiffs’ employment-related claims, the employer-defendant did not waive its right to arbitration by failing to commence arbitration. The fact that the employer was the only party that “wanted” arbitration was irrelevant. The arbitration agreement required the plaintiffs to initiate arbitration, which they failed to do. Michelle Arzate, et al. v. ACE American Insurance Company, Case No. B336829. Story

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Big day for crypto: The US Senate’s first subcommittee on digital asset policy convened this week. Punchbowl got a sneak peek at the opening remarks from the panel’s top Democrat Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.). The Arizona Democrat, whose election bid was backed by the crypto super PAC network Fairshake, will say crypto “presents both extraordinary opportunities and significant challenges.” Gallego will also stress the need for “robust oversight,” including a call to ensure crypto is “not used to circumvent existing laws on money laundering, tax evasion, or illicit financing.” Gallego also wants to focus on “encouraging productive and useful innovation to everyday Americans. The growth of things like ‘meme coins’ on everything from Trump to DOGE to Peanut the Squirrel are about flashy headlines and trending on social media, not about helping traditionally un- and under-banked communities gain access to the financial system.” [Punchbowl]

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Labor Nominee Gets a Boost Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan will vote to advance Lori Chavez-DeRemer through the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday, significantly boosting the chances that Trump’s Labor secretary nominee will get confirmed. Hassan is the first Democrat on the HELP Committee to say she will vote for Chavez-DeRemer, making up for potential opposition from panel member Rand Paul. [Politico]

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What is Happening on the Labor Front in DC? Kristen Swearingen Explains. A lot is going on in Washington, DC, these days. In this episode of Labor Relations Radio, Kristen Swearingen, Vice President, Legislative & Political Affairs at the Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc. and spokesperson for the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, joins host Peter List to discuss some of the issues, including the re-introduction of the PRO Act, Sen. Josh Hawley’s “PRO Act-Lite” framework, as well as President Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Listen

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Bill Introductions in the California Legislature Over the past decade, the California Legislature and its 120 legislators have introduced between 1,900 and 2,600 bills per year, each year of the 2-year legislative session, by the February introduction deadline. Fewer than 50 additional bills get introduced after the deadline (e.g., due to a rule waiver or a bill introduced by a committee, which are not subject to the introduction deadline). The 2023 California Legislative Session saw more introductions than usual, the highest number in over a decade. The 2024 Session returned those introduction numbers to more normal levels. Story

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Guess Who Stymies Housing Construction A passel of recent California laws was supposed to supercharge the construction of desperately needed housing. According to YIMBY Law, they haven’t even come close. One California law was supposed to flip defunct strip malls across California into apartment-lined corridors.

Another was designed to turn under-used church parking lots into fonts of new affordable housing.

A third would, according to supporters and opponents alike, “end single-family zoning as we know it.” Fast-forward to 2025 and this spate of recent California laws, and others like it intended to supercharge the construction of desperately needed housing, have had “limited to no impact on the state’s housing supply.”

That damning conclusion comes from a surprising source: A new report by YIMBY Law, a pro-development nonprofit that would very much like to see these laws work.

“It’s grim,” said Sonja Trauss, executive director of YIMBY Law. Though she acknowledged some of the laws are still new, she blamed their early ineffectiveness on the legislative process which saddled these bills with unworkable requirements and glaring loopholes.

“Everybody wants a piece,” she said. “The pieces taken out during the process wind up derailing the initial concept.”

What are these requirements and loopholes that have prevented these laws from succeeding? Maybe not surprisingly, they are the frequent objects of critique by YIMBY Law and the Yes in My Backyard movement more generally.

One is the inclusion of requirements that developers only hire union-affiliated workers or pay their workers higher wages. Story

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Acting NLRB General Counsel Rescinds Controversial Memoranda On February 14, 2025, National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel William Cowen issued Memorandum 25-05, rescinding more than a dozen policy memos issued by his predecessor. Cowen cited an unsustainable backlog of cases as the primary motivation for the rescission. Cowen also signaled that he plans to publish new guidance to replace some of the rescinded memos. Others may be abandoned altogether. Learn More

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CSLB Newsletter Please enjoy the Winter 2025 edition of the California Licensed Contractor Newsletter – a quarterly newsletter from the Contractors State License Board.

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Santa Barbara County Supervisors Are Planning to Give Themselves a 48% Raise On February 25, 2025, the Santa Barbara County Supervisors are planning to give themselves a 48% raise. You read that right. According to Andy Caldwell, Executive Director of the government watchdog COLAB (Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business), that means they will be making $171, 309 per year for a part-time job. They are currently paid $115,000. Story

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Hawley Sells Moreno on Government Control of Private Contracts Punchbowl News has reported that Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) is cosponsoring one of the bills based on Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) recently released legislative framework implementing a “new direction” for Republican labor policy, which ironically appears to consist entirely of provisions stolen from Senator Bernie Sanders’ (D-VT) Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (S 567, HR 20, 118th Congress) and Senator Markey’s bill that brings the warehouse sector under government control and creates a new subagency at the Department of Labor (Warehouse Worker Protection Act, S 5208, 118th Congress). The framework is expected to be broken down into five pieces, and Moreno is reportedly cosponsoring the legislation that would implement government control over management-union contract negotiations.

The legislation, the Faster Labor Contracts Act, requires employers and unions to begin negotiating collective bargaining agreements within 10 days after a union wins a representation election and execute their agreement within months. Consequences for failing to meet this arbitrary timeline is mandatory arbitration, where government-appointed arbitrators set terms for the first contract. [Employment Policy Network]

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Electricity Causes 150 Workplace Deaths Each Year Electricity continues to be one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities and injuries in the U.S., according to new workplace safety statistics from ESFI.

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Mayor and San Diego Supervisor Candidate John McCann Visits WECA San Diego With less than 6 weeks until the April 8, 2025, special election for San Diego County Supervisor, WECA was proud to host Chula Vista Mayor John McCann for a tour and a discussion about workforce development this week at WECA’s San Diego Training Center. Joined by WECA Board President and CDM Electric Vice President Dru Wells, Bill Baber, and Dave Everett from WECA’s Government Affairs team, Mayor McCann sat down with WECA to discuss workforce development, public works projects, and apprenticeship opportunities.

Mayor John McCann is running for the open San Diego County Supervisor seat for District 1. With two Democrats and two Republicans on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, this election will decide which party sets the agenda for the county’s budget and services. A special election will occur on April 8th, with a possible runoff in July if no candidate wins 50% +1 votes. Three Democrats — San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, and Chula Vista Councilmember Carolina Chavez — and one Republican, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, have confirmed they are running. Vivian Moreno voted for a discriminatory PLA on all City of San Diego construction, as did Carolina Chavez for the City of Chula Vista. And while the Laborers Union has endorsed Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, she has not yet imposed a PLA on Imperial Beach. Mayor John McCann, of course, voted against the PLA in the City of Chula Vista.

On the tour of our San Diego facility this week with Mayor McCann, WECA highlighted how apprenticeship presents great opportunities for students, and how beneficial it is for young adults to begin adulthood debt-free. We also discussed some of the discrimination and cost increases involved with PLAs. Thank you, Mayor McCann, for taking time out of your busy schedule to learn more about our members and students. It was a critical discussion on the region’s workforce development needs as well as some of the challenges facing the construction industry in California.