California’s lopsided Democratic legislature was turned upside down. The most dramatic event of this year’s just-concluded session was a bizarre, unanimous Republican victory.

The Republican Party’s rare victory was led by a tenacious conservative from Bakersfield, Senator Shannon Grove, whose case was right. Ultimately, it proved irresistible, even to liberal lawmakers whose ideology conflicted with her bill.

Grove’s cause was longer prison sentences for child sex traffickers. Her bill, SB 14, classified pimping children under 18 as a serious crime. You h! What is there to argue?

Nothing, the Senate thought. It voted 40-0 without debate just before Memorial Day weekend to send its bill to the General Assembly.

But categorizing child sex trafficking as a serious crime subjects repeat offenders to California’s three-strikes law, which liberals have been crusading to undermine because it can mean life sentences and overcrowded prisons.

So in July, Grove’s bill was shelved by the Assembly Public Safety Committee, chaired by the Assembly

memberman

Reginald Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles). This panel has long been a deathbed for more punitive legislation.

The media got it, Grove told me. The Californians wouldn’t have known about it if you weren’t engaged. Then the governor became permanently engaged. And the

S

speaker enabled.

There was public outcry and intervention by the two powerful Democrats: Gov. Gavin Newsom and new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas

(D-Hollister) from San Benito County.

Twisting their arms saved the bill. The Assembly Public Safety Committee briefly reconvened and Democrats meekly resurrected the measure.

SB 14 finally reached the Assembly floor

September 11 last Monday

and passed 80-0, but only after the Republicans

rubbed

the Democrats nose in.

People commit crimes and nothing happens, Yuba City Republican Leader James Gallagher claimed, echoing an oft-repeated Republican line that may gain more public attention. Today we finally took a stand.

Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli of Corona claimed that tougher sentences for sex traffickers conflicted with the liberals’ agenda to empty prisons.

Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi of Rolling Hills Estates,

Torrance,

a former prosecutor warned party colleagues: we need to redress the balance, continue investing in programs like mental health and education, but do more to keep our neighborhoods safe and ensure that those who commit the most heinous crimes are locked up where they can’t be hurt more people.

The Senate later agreed to Assembly amendments that protected human trafficking victims from being targeted by prosecutors, a distinctly liberal fear. And the measure was sent to Newsom unanimously.

It was a major triumph not only for Grove and the Republicans, but also for two Democrats: the rookie

S

speakers and nationally

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ambitious governor.

Newsom’s biggest victory, however, was bipartisan passage just before the governors’ bill adjournment Thursday evening.

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necessary revision of mental health laws and funding. It represented his latest effort that largely failed to solve California’s persistent problem of homelessness.

The Legislature has passed three bills, two

whose author was written by

Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), who grew up watching her aunt Barbara suffer from mental illness. Her aunt never received adequate treatment and continued to struggle

–

And

–

from the street,

finally something

gang rape and soon

died dying

of AIDS.

Much of today’s homelessness dilemma stems from the government. Ronald Reagan and the Legislature closed state mental health hospitals 56 years ago. Sacramento turned over patient care to counties. But little money was provided for treatment. Many former patients self-medicated with drugs and alcohol and ended up on the streets.

One Eggman bill, SB 43, would make it easier for homeless people with serious substance abuse and mental disorders to be held against their will for treatment.

The other Eggman bill, SB 326, would redirect $1 billion annually from the so-called millionaire tax, about 30% of the fund, to new mental health housing and treatment facilities for 10,000 additional people with serious behavioral or substance abuse problems.

Voters in March’s presidential election will have to approve the reallocation of millionaires’ tax expenditures. And they will also be asked to approve an amount of $6.4

–

billion bond issue to build the new housing and treatment units.

That Newsom bond proposal shepherded through the Legislature by Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) quietly and unexpectedly grew by $1.7 billion in the final three days of the legislative session. A little bait and switch? What’s another billion or two?

But the big winner of the session was labor, today the Capitol’s most powerful special interest.

It passed legislation to increase the number of paid sick days for workers, raise the minimum wage for health care and fast-food workers and even allow legislative staffers to unionize.

The biggest eye-opener, however, was the legislation that gave striking workers the option to take out state unemployment insurance after two weeks.

When someone goes on strike, it’s not something romantic. It’s hard for that family, Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) said during a heated debate over his bill, SB 799.

This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, a response to Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), who runs a seed farm. Someone who has a job? Goes on strike and gets [state] advantages?

Dahle made sense, as did Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta), who argued: striking is voluntary. And that’s not what unemployment insurance is intended for.

Both houses sent the bill to the governor on a party-line vote.

Newsom expressed concerns last week about the measure being torn between his loyalty to labor and the realization that the state’s unemployment insurance fund is already roughly $20 billion in debt.

Caution is needed, the governor said non-committally when asked if he was signing the bill.

Cautious in fiscal and political terms.

In contrast, the only need for caution regarding child sex trafficking law is to ensure that the unscrupulous bad guys are locked up for a very long time.