The California Democratic Party is cracking along more entrenched fissures going into 2016.
Big Labor is facing bigger opposition in the state, and Democratic lawmakers, with a more moderate hue than in years past, are pushing back against major spending and onerous regulations.
An outsider Democratic lawmaker, who unseated an incumbent in the Los Angeles Valley, has now backed away from the train.
The rock-solid Democratic support in Sacramento for the bullet train, which has endured despite legal and financial setbacks in recent years, has developed a political fissure.
Assemblywoman Patty Lopez (D-San Fernando) says she is withdrawing her support for the project, and she says five other Democrats in the Legislature are reviewing their positions.
The Times also mentioned that Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom also opposes Brown's bullet train. He needs to step away from Brown's shadow in his bid for Governor in 2018.
Lopez' decision reflects her constituents' vocal opposition to this vanity affair. The Orange County Register reports:
Hundreds of protesters from Lopez’s district turned out at a rail board meeting in Los Angeles this summer, many opposed to a proposal to tunnel through the Angeles National Forest.
![]("http://asmdc.org/members/a39/images/member.png") |
| Assm. Patty Lopez (D-Sylmar) |
The Los Angeles Times also added:
This summer, hundreds of protesters from her district showed up at a rail authority board meeting in downtown Los Angeles. And only weeks earlier, protesters brought in their own sound system and took control of a rail authority open house in San Fernando that was supposed to highlight the project's benefits.
Latino communities are not just active, but pushing back at Big Government intrusions into their daily lives. If an outsider Democrat can stoke this kind of following, imagine what a well-intentioned Republican could do. Republicans up and down the state have opposed the Crazy Train from Day One. More voters are realizing that this popular bond is running off the tracks, and threatens to harm people's homes and businesses as well as hinder meaningful financial reforms.
Not only that, but more Democrats are waiting off to the sides, prepared to jump off the train, too.
Governor Brown's tight yet illiberal coalition is starting to fray, and California Republicans can take advantage of these divides to boost their influence in the state and for all California residents.