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IN THIS ISSUE – “That Has An Audience Here in California”

CAMPAIGN 2018 FINAL WEEKS

AIR QUALITY

TWO PUBLIC SERVANTS PASS

Capital News & Notes (CN&N) harvests California legislative and regulatory insights from dozens of media and official sources for the past week, tailored to your business and advocacy interests.  Please feel free to forward.

Stay current daily!  For our focused updates via Twitter: @jrgualco / @robertjgore / @gualcogroup

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FOR THE WEEK ENDING SEPT.  28, 2018

CN&N will be taking the week off next week

 

Poll Finds Cox Cuts Newsom’s Lead in Half; Gas Tax Repeal Opposed

Voter support for Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox rose enough over the summer to cut front-runner Democrat Gavin Newsom’s lead in half, according to a new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Newsom, California’s two-term lieutenant governor, still remains solidly ahead in the race, but Cox managed to pick up more support from independents and a smidgen of Democrats since July, the survey showed.

Those gains for Cox were enough to cut Newsom’s lead to 12 percentage points, compared with 24 percentage points in July.

“Cox has been running more as an independent and more as someone who has been complaining about the status quo,” PPIC President and Chief Executive Mark Baldassare said. “That has an audience here in California.”

But Baldassare cautioned that the campaigns are just getting revved up for the November election and that Cox’s surge might not last.

Not only do the Democrats hold a major advantage over the GOP in voter registration in California, but Cox will probably come under attack for being endorsed by President Trump. Two-thirds of likely voters in the state disapprove of the way Trump has handled his job as president, according to the poll.

“I think it’s going to change.” Baldassare said. “In some ways, the poll after Labor Day give you a sense of where things start in the campaign. We’ll see how things go from here.”

According to the survey, Newsom was supported by 51% of likely voters, compared with 39% favoring Cox. Among the remainder, 7% said they were undecided and 3% said they do not plan to cast a vote for governor.

Newsom was favored by 86% of likely Democratic voters and Cox by 85% of Republican voters.

Among voters who registered with no party preference, 42% supported Newsom and 37% backed Cox, the survey found. That was an increase in support for Cox. In July, 41% of those independent voters backed Newsom, compared with 31% who supported Cox.

Cox’s strongest areas of support are centered in Orange and San Diego counties, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley. Newsom is dominating in California’s two largest population centers: Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area, the poll showed.

Latino voters back Newsom by a more than two-to-one margin, and the former San Francisco mayor had slight edge among white voters. Newsom also leads among voters of all income and education levels, the poll found.

Baldassare noted that the overall support for Newsom and Cox closely mirrored the answers voters gave when asked if they thought California was headed in the right direction, with 51% giving positive reviews and 43% a thumbs down.

A slight majority of California voters oppose Proposition 6, the November ballot measure that would repeal increases to the state gas tax and vehicle registration fees to pay for improvements to roads, bridges and mass transit, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The statewide survey found that 52% of likely voters who were read the ballot title and label said they would vote against the initiative, 39% would vote in favor of the measure and 8% are undecided, said the nonpartisan research group headquartered in San Francisco.

Half of Republican voters said they would vote for the measure, while it garnered support from 42% of independents and 33% of Democrats, the survey said.

“Across all of the state’s major regions, fewer than half say they would vote yes,” PPIC President and Chief Executive Mark Baldassare said.

The least support came from voters in Orange and San Diego counties, where 35% said they would vote “yes” on Proposition 6. The support level was 43% in the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area, 45% in the Central Valley and 38% in the Inland Empire.

Voters were also asked about how important the outcome of the vote on Proposition 6 is to them; 47% of likely voters said it is very important, while 37% said it is somewhat important.

The new survey indicates a possible shift in public opinion since a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in May that found 51% of the state’s registered voters supported repealing the higher gas tax.

The latest survey was conducted Sept. 9 through 18, before the $30-million campaign against the ballot measure flooded television airwaves with its first ads arguing that repeal of the tax and fee increases would jeopardize motorists by blocking road and bridge safety projects.

Proponents of the measure argued that motorists were already paying high gas taxes and vehicle fees but that the state had failed to use that money to address the deterioration of roads and bridges. On Tuesday, the supporters of Proposition 6 proposed a second initiative for the 2020 ballot to dedicate the previous car taxes and fees to transportation and halt the high-speed rail project.

http://www.ppic.org/publication/ppic-statewide-survey-californians-and-their-government-september-2018/

 

Cox Kicks Off Final Campaign Swing

Republican John Cox, kicking off the final weeks of his campaign for governor, huddled on Wednesday with workers who produce Sriracha hot sauce and prodded them to air their grievances about California’s housing costs and the price they pay at the pump.

The low-key event kicked off Cox’s “Help Is On The Way” statewide bus tour, which will provide the GOP candidate ample opportunities to attack rival Gavin Newsom and other Democrats for the day-to-day struggles of working Californians.

Cox listened intently as mixing-room worker Sal Salas talked of needing two incomes in the family just to pay the rent. Felipe Martinez added that his four children sleep in the lone bedroom in his San Dimas apartment while he crashes every night in the living room.

“The primary reason I’m running for governor is because of the affordability of the state, and livability — and the quality of life in California,” Cox told the small gathering of workers circled around a table inside Huy Fong Foods in Irwindale, where he was joined by company owner David Tran. “I’ve watched what’s happened to the state, and most working people have been priced out.”

Cox’s campaign stop lacked the crowds and pep-rally atmosphere that surrounded Newsom’s campaign bus tour earlier this month when he stopped in contested congressional and legislative districts to energize support for down-ballot Democrats. Cox never asked the workers for their votes, saying instead that he wanted to hear about the problems they face.

Donna Lam, the company’s executive operations manager, said Huy Fong Foods welcomed the Cox campaign to the plant but added that no one should consider it an endorsement by the company or the owner. Huy Fong Foods welcomes candidates from all parties, as well as Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and church groups, she said.

“David [Tran] is not really political. He’s all about America. Made in America,” Lam said of the owner.

After taking a tour of the plant, Cox told reporters that his 30-stop bus tour will focus on the grave problems facing California, including the rise in poverty, homelessness and cost of living. He blamed those ills on the Democratic politicians who have controlled Sacramento for years.

He also accused Newsom, California’s two-term lieutenant governor and a former San Francisco mayor, of being more focused on criticizing President Trump than tending to the needs of the nearly 40 million people who live in the state.

“My opponent has been part of the problems for the last 16 years. He presided over San Francisco, which is now a cesspool,” Cox said. “He’s been lieutenant governor for eight years and we haven’t heard a peep out of him in relation to the major problems this state has.”

Newsom has repeatedly called that charge false, saying he has offered concrete policies and solutions while Cox’s campaign promises “have the form and substance of fog.”

Cox also was quick to say that he’s been rising in the polls, a claim borne out by an opinion survey released Wednesday night. A new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that, since July, Cox has cut Newsom’s lead in the governor’s race by half — he now trails the Democrat by 12 percentage points.

That same poll found that two-thirds of the likely voters in California disapproved of the job Trump has done as president. Trump endorsed Cox before the June primary, giving his campaign a major boost. Just after Cox finished in the top two in that election, advancing him to the November election, he said he would welcome Trump coming to California to campaign for him.

On Wednesday, as his campaign bus headed to Thousands Oaks, Cox told The Times that he still wants Trump’s support on the campaign trail — but said it’s not necessary.

“I think it would be an honor to have the president support me, but that’s not what my campaign is about,” Cox said. “So it doesn’t matter. My campaign is about delivering results for the people of California.”

Newsom was also in Southern California on Wednesday to tour UCLA’s University Village Center in Los Angeles, an early childcare and education facility that caters to children of students, including low-income families.

He revealed that his campaign will air two more commercials before the Nov. 6 election and described the spots as “positive about the issues.” Newsom also said that he doesn’t have any plans to increase his attacks against opponent Cox, or to link him to Trump.

“I don’t want to,” Newsom said. “He seems to think that’s already happened. I’m focusing on the issues.”

Newsom added that “if he’s coming after me, we’ll have to respond.”

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-governor-race-john-cox-bus-20180927-story.html

 

Newsom / NY Times Q&A

Gavin Newsom made a national name for himself as mayor of San Francisco when he endorsed gay marriage, going against the federal government and his own Democratic Party. Then he became California’s lieutenant governor, a position that has given him little authority but plenty of time to prepare for the job he wants next: governor.

Mr. Newsom is the heavy favorite against his Republican opponent, John Cox. At his recent events he has barely mentioned his campaign, instead focusing on supporting Democrats running for Congress.

We spoke with Mr. Newsom in a series of interviews on his campaign bus. Below are several outtakes, which have been lightly edited and condensed.

  1. How do you answer the question of whether California is a success or failure?
  2. It has been a success — an extraordinary success. Gov. Jerry Brown’s model of not being profligate but progressive is a new model for Democrats. There’s a growing anxiety of how we measure economic prosperity, and California is a poster child for why that’s a legitimate debate. Service economy, low-wage workers working full time without workers comp benefits, uninsured — that’s where we are struggling.

We have these high-wage, high-skill jobs. And then you have a third of the population — I’m loosely defining a third, not for PolitiFact purposes — that are working full time and are around the poverty rate.

  1. Gay marriage is the issue you are most identified with. Do you consider that your singular achievement?
  2. It’s a point of pride to have been associated with that movement. Everyone was running. That was lonely, but it shapes my frustrations with my own party, my willingness to be independent of my own party. The fact that I survived that — I wasn’t sure I was going to.
  3. Do you see yourself like Governor Brown as being a national figure for Democrats?
  4. To the extent you have this extraordinary bully pulpit, because California punches above its weight. So it matters what Governor Brown says. It’s always mattered what governors said in the past. You can move markets. The obvious proof point is the automobile industry.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/us/california-today-gavin-newsom.html?em_pos=large&emc=edit_ca_20180927&nl=california-today&nlid=80823166edit_ca_20180927&ref=img&te=1

 

Gas Tax Repeal Proponents Roll Out Transportation Funding Proposal

As they promised in July, supporters of Proposition 6 to repeal the state’s 2017 gas tax increase unveiled a follow-up ballot measure on Tuesday. The proposed initiative filed to the Attorney General’s Office to qualify for the 2020 ballot calls for a constitutional amendment that would halt activity on the High Speed Rail project, establish a “citizen lock-box” for road repairs and create a dedicated transportation fund for all existing sales taxes on cars.

Opponents, such as the League of California Cities, have previously called this idea “silly” and “unworkable.” But Carl DeMaio, the main proponent of Proposition 6 and new initiative, insisted this was a serious policy mechanism to hold the government accountable and force it to properly fund infrastructure projects.

“We fix the problem with California’s infrastructure by actually taking the money away from the Sacramento politicians and make sure it goes into roads in a real lock-box,” DeMaio said at a morning news conference. “By dedicating relatively steady streams of funding every year, we will provide a predictable stream of revenue for road improvements.”

Redirecting car sales taxes would cut about $870 million from city budgets. DeMaio said he believes local governments could easily find other ways to make up for the revenue loss.

“The shift of funds on sales tax on cars at the local level currently could be utilized by other funds,” he said. “Public health, public safety are some of the earmarks. … Would they like to share their budget? Because we would love to look at the budget and look at the pensions, the overtime and the bloated bureaucracies. We can help them cut their expenditures.”

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article219014805.html#storylink=cpy

 

Air Board Ponders Electric Vehicle Subsidy Expansion

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) considers this week at a hearing offering a $4,500 subsidy for each pure electric vehicle sold in the state, up from the current $2,500.

The move comes as customers of Tesla Inc. and General Motors Co. face the loss of even bigger federal credits.

The federal government now offers a $7,500 tax credit on electric vehicle purchases. The credit is designed to start ratcheting downward once the companies have grown enough to sell a total of 200,000 vehicles each. Tesla passed this threshold in July and GM is getting close.

In comments Monday, Mary Nichols, CARB chairwoman, said she hasn’t abandoned hope that Congress will lift the cap so more electric-car buyers can qualify for the federal credit. If not, she said, “we would be having to look at another way to make up for that.’’

The higher California rebates would come as President Trump is arguing that only the federal government can regulate tailpipe emission standards or mandate electric-car sales. Last month, the president also proposed freezing federal fuel economy requirements at 37 miles per gallon in 2020, instead of letting them rise to 47 mpg by 2025 as planned by President Obama. This would also freeze greenhouse gas limits, but so far, California is refusing to back down.

“At the end of the day, California officials looked at the data, came to a different conclusion than Trump, and are proceeding with the authority they already have under the Clean Air Act,’’ said Don Anair, research director for clean vehicles at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The state is able to consider an increase in its electric-car subsidy partly because revenue is becoming available as companies buy more credits to comply with the state’s low carbon fuel standard, said Dan Sperling, a UC Davis transportation professor who is also a member of the Air Resources Board. At this week’s hearing, the board will consider boosting the required low-carbon content of its transport fuels to 20% by 2030, from 5% this year.

California may provide this portion of its subsidies directly to consumers at the point of sale, rather than via mail rebates later, as proposed by automakers, electric utility companies and others.

The state’s current $2,500 electric-car rebate comes from a different source: the purchase of credits to comply with the state’s cap-and-trade program for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

At meetings Thursday and Friday, the Air Resources Board will also look at heftier subsidies for fast-charging facilities for electric cars and hydrogen stations for fuel-cell vehicles, Sperling said. The board also may mandate that urban transit systems buy only battery-only or hydrogen-powered buses by 2030, he said. The state’s electric utilities have emerged as enthusiastic backers of such measures, Sperling said, as ratepayer-funded charging stations provide a new source of revenue.

Additionally, the board plans to vote on whether to force carmakers to continue complying with Sacramento’s greenhouse gas limits, even if Trump weakens those set in Washington.

California has formally linked its greenhouse gas targets to Washington’s since 2009. But in Friday’s vote, the state will decide whether to stop doing so if the federal government starts making unilateral changes in its standards now, Sperling said.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-electric-car-subsidy-20180925-story.html

 

State’s Air Quality Leaders Oppose Federal Vehicle Emission Rules

California’s leading air pollution enforcers and the state’s attorney general vowed to fight the Trump Administration’s proposed lessening of vehicle emission rules during a public hearing in Fresno on Monday.

“There is nothing safe about this proposal,” said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board.

Nichols described the Trump Administration proposal as nothing more than “muscle flexing.” And she called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw it. California has led the nation in embracing and supporting clean air technology, she said, and the state “will not sit idly by as you try to flat line our efforts.”

The Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule would freeze fuel economy and tailpipe emissions standards at 2020 levels for passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2021 to 2026. It also challenges California’s state authority to regulate its own emissions standards to reduce greenhouse gases. California’s standards are more stringent and include requirements for automakers to sell a certain number of electric cars.

The U.S. EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have said easing emissions standards would keep the cost of cars down, encouraging people to get rid of older, polluting vehicles for newer, cleaner models. Opponents of the Trump Administration’s proposal said rolling back emissions standards would increase harmful pollutants and threaten public health.

Outside the meeting, Nichols said she believes the Trump Administration believes its plan is going to save money for the auto industry. “And I think this is coming from the president,” she said. But automakers are “saying the current standards are OK,” she said. The industry only says they want a little more time and flexibility to comply, she said.

During her testimony, Nichols said Fresno was an appropriate location for the meeting on the proposed rollback of tailpipe emissions standards. “This is ground zero for the most stubbornly persistent violations of air standards,” she said. The San Joaquin Valley has among the worst smog and particulate pollution in California and the U.S.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra testified that the state has stringent air standards for a good reason. “We don’t do this because it’s easy or it feels good,” he said. “We do this because 26 percent of school-aged children here in the San Joaquin Valley suffer from asthma. We do it because the five largest fires in California history occurred in the last five years.”

Climate change also is a factor in California’s opposition to the Trump Administration proposal. California cannot back away from its fight against climate change, Becerra said. “We must continue to tackle the No. 1 source of greenhouse gas emissions: our vehicles.”

Becerra said his message to the EPA: “Do your job. Withdraw this proposal. Fulfill your duty under federal law to protect all Californians and Americans from harmful greenhouse gas emissions and to conserve energy.”
California EPA Secretary Matthew Rodriguez spoke at the meeting against the federal EPA proposal. California has led the nation in cleaning the air and 12 other states and the District of Columbia have joined in adopting the regulations, he said. The proposed regulations are not supported by science or technology, Rodriguez said. “You can be assured California will object to it at every step.”

Matt Rogers represented U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris. “Rolling back the federal fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards will jeopardize our efforts to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” he said. “The Administration’s decision is not based on scientific evidence whatsover. It would result in job losses and cost Americans money at the pump.”

Rogers said Harris has led 34 Senate colleagues in a resolution affirming one national program and defending state authority under the Clean Air Act to protect citizens from harmful air pollution. “Now is the time to accelerate innovation forward toward a cleaner future, not threaten our health and our environment by rolling back these standards,” he said.

Numerous people spoke about the health effects of air pollution.

Dr. Alex Sherriffs, a Fowler doctor who is a member of the California Air Resources Board, said California and the federal government have to work together to fight greenhouse gases. This year has set records for wildfires in California, which led to the worst particulate pollutions for decades in the San Joaquin Valley. “Science tells us that climate change clearly is lengthening our wildfire season and our current wildfire behavior,” he said.

Sherriffs said the San Joaquin Valley’s annual premature mortality deaths from air pollution are measured in the hundreds. “We cannot afford to move backwards away from achievable goals,” he said.

Clare Statham, a Fresno grandmother of three, said two of her grandchildren have asthma and in the past three years she has developed symptoms. Statham said she wants the federal government to think about how reducing fuel economy standards would affect their children and grandchildren. Stringent fuel-efficient standards for cars are not too expensive when compared to medical costs, such as those incurred from two of her granddaughter’s emergency room visits, she said. “Please learn those facts before you define what ‘too expensive’ means.”

Alicia Contreras, the national organizing deputy director for Mi Familia Vota, came from Phoenix to speak at the hearing. Contreras said rolling back emissions standards would particularly harm minority communities who live in urban areas and already experience high levels of air pollution. “We think about the environment and what these rollback changes are going to do and how it will affect our Latino families,” she said.

“This is an economic justice issue,” she said.

Opponents of the EPA proposed emission standards began gathering about an hour before the meeting inside the old Pacific Gas & Electric building in downtown Fresno.

Linda Dunn of Clovis said she wanted to show her support for electric vehicles. Dunn said her entire family drives electric cars. “We like clean air,” she said.

Lucy Clark came from Kern County. “After 40 years of living in the Valley, I have developed adult onset asthma,” she said. “I don’t want the waiver that California has to be removed by this program. We need our clean regulations for clean air not just for old folks, but for our children.”

Representatives of the auto industry also spoke at the hearing in Fresno.

Automakers believe climate change is real and are taking action to reduce carbon emissions in new vehicles, said Steven Douglas, senior director of energy and environment for The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an association of 12 of the largest automakers and the leading advocacy group for the auto industry.

About 500 vehicle models achieve 30 miles per gallon or more on the highway, and 80 of the models get 40 mpg or more, Douglas said. There are 45 hybrid-electric vehicles and more are on the way to market. But Douglas said continued support for improvements in fuel economy must account for consumer acceptance. “No one wins if our customers are not buying the new highly efficient products offered in our showrooms. The standards must account for consumer willingness and ability to pay for newer technologies in order for all the benefits of new vehicles to be realized.”

The hearing in Fresno, which was expected to last at least 12 hours, is the first of three nationwide being held to hear from the public about the Trump Administration’s proposed vehicle emission rules. Hearings will be held Tuesday in Dearborn, Michigan, and Wednesday in Pittsburgh. About 130 people, many from the Bay Area, Southern California and some from other Western states, signed up to speak in Fresno. People have until Oct. 30 to submit written comments to the EPA.
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article218820910.html#storylink=cpy

 

TWO PUBLIC SERVANTS PASS:

Cliff Allenby – A Half Century of Service

He began his career in public service in 1963 as an administrative trainee with the Department of Finance when Pat Brown was governor. Over the following decades, he worked his way through the governorships of Republicans Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats Gray Davis and the younger and older Jerry Brown.

He retired and unretired three times, more than once accepting the call to oversee struggling or orphaned departments. His final return came in 2011 after he agreed to fill in for a few months at the Department of Mental Health. He ended up filling in for a few years, leading what later became the California Department of State Hospitals.

Cliff Allenby, one of Sacramento’s most renown and tenured state public servants, died in hospice care in Elk Grove Friday night after a battle with melanoma. He was 82.

“Cliff was a true public servant whose experience, commitment and ability to get things done made California stronger,” Brown said in a statement. “He will be missed.”

Allenby may be most remembered for his pride in serving California, said Lesley Allenby, his granddaughter. “He was in state government for a long time. He loved working for the state.” He also enjoyed swing dancing with his wife, Sandy, who died in 2008, and spending time with friends and family, she added.

Back in 2012, he reflected over a glass of wine with Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain: “Reagan was the most liberal and Jerry Brown was the most conservative, if growth of government is the yardstick.”

Allenby worked in the Department of Finance for 23 years before joining Deukmejian’s cabinet in 1987 as secretary of the Health and Welfare Agency. After transitioning into the private sector as chief lobbyist for the California Building Industry Association, he returned to the public sector to represent Los Angeles County.

In 1997, Gov. Pete Wilson named him director of the Department of Development Services. He was later appointed by Schwarzenegger as interim director of the Department of Social Services in 2006.

Steve Merksamer, Deukmejian’s chief of staff, said Allenby was a throwback. “Cliff Allenby does and did represent the very best in public service.” Merksamer said. “He had views about issues, but he served every governor, Democrat or Republican, with a great deal of integrity and professionalism. He was by any measure a superb public servant.”

He is survived by his three children, Craig Allenby of Elk Grove, Pam Bailie of Pilot Hill and Susan Asker of Santa Rosa, and three granddaughters, Rachael Allenby of Portland, Me., Lesley Allenby of Elk Grove and Elizabeth Albrecht of Santa Rosa.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article218971375.html#storylink=cpy

 

Robert Presley – State Senator, Law Enforcement Leader, War Hero

Before his name was on a local jail, before a criminal justice department at UC Riverside was named in his honor, before his decades in the state senate made him an icon of Riverside and California politics, Robert B. Presley already was something rare:

A war hero.

Presley won the Bronze Star in World War II, while serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Italy.

There have been some 1.4 million Bronze Stars awarded in the decades since, but when Presley won his, in 1944, the award was new and the only way you got it, according to military records, was clear – for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service” in battle.

But ask Presley’s colleagues and friends for details about that medal, and they draw a blank.

“No idea,” said Ruth Denman, Presley’s office administrator from 1970 through 1974, the last third of Presley’s 12-year stint as Riverside County Undersheriff.  “Bob never mentioned it, that I recall.

“That would be like him,” she added.

Presley, 93, who died Saturday, Sept. 22, after a brief illness, was widely viewed as a warm, thoughtful undersheriff and state legislator.

But the Oklahoma native, the son of a farmer, was also described by many as a much better listener than talker, at least if the subject was Presley.

Those listening skills, and a combination of warmth and gravitas, served Presley well during two long and distinctly different careers – as a leader with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and, later, as a member of the California State Senate.

Early in his career in law enforcement, Presley earned a reputation as Riverside County’s top homicide investigator.

“He looked at reason and followed that,” said retired Riverside County Sheriff Cois Byrd, who met Presley in the early 1960s, when Byrd was rising through the department and Presley was a commander in Indio.

“(Following reason) is a good trait for an investigator.”

Byrd and Presley worked together in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Byrd was tasked with starting a new unit, community relations, and Presley was undersheriff to long-time Sheriff Ben Clark. At the time, civil unrest was gaining popularity and anti-police sentiment was on the rise, and Presley was asked to talk with – and listen to – members of the public who, often, had issues with the department.

“Bob was low key and non-intrusive, but very decisive,” Byrd said. “And he was very strong with the community.”

Strong enough that after a 24-year run with the Riverside County Sheriff, Presley took a stab at politics.

Presley narrowly lost his first campaign, a 1972 special election bid for California State Senate. But he ran again in 1974 and won, beating incumbent Craig Biddle to represent the 34th Senate District. Presley’s constituency included residents of cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, but redistricting changed his district to the 36th and shifted the geography so that for a time he represented cities only in Riverside County and, later, cities in both Riverside and northern San Diego counties.

Also, initially, it wasn’t clear that Presley would win.

“When I went to bed, during that (’74) election, Bob was behind. When I woke up, he’d won,” said Presley’s former secretary Denman.

“He barely got in, but you could tell he’d be good at (politics),” Denman added.

Retired Sheriff Byrd noted another aspect of Presley’s political launch that became a hallmark of his time in Sacramento: Presley ran and won as a Democrat in a very Republican area.

“He was a moderate Democrat; fairly conservative, actually,” Byrd said.

“But in that era, Democrats and Republicans were still talking to each other on big issues,” Byrd added.

“In Sacramento, Bob Presley became the go-to guy to talk to for people on both sides of the aisle.”

Over the years, Presley worked on many different pieces of legislation, and helped direct state spending as head of the powerful California Senate Appropriations Committee. But colleagues link Presley’s name to three key issues – the environment, prison expansion and reform, and domestic violence.

The state’s vehicle smog check program, which started in the early 1980s, is a direct result of Presley’s work.

“It was not particularly popular, as I recall, and he had to do a lot of selling to get that ball through the hoop,” said Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, who described Presley as his “political mentor.”

“But it was necessary.”

Roth noted that Presley led the organization of the California Air Quality Management system, and said air today is cleaner in high-smog areas such as the Inland Empire as a result of Presley’s efforts.

“Presley’s work dramatically improved our region and our state.”

Presley also led a statewide push to build new prisons, with 16 facilities coming on line at a time when many of the state’s prisons were antiquated.

“He did more as a legislator for the criminal justice system than any other legislator in my career,” retired Sheriff Byrd said. “He focused on making things happen.”

And, critically, Presley was a relentless champion to recognize, and fight against, domestic violence.

At a time when the issue wasn’t top of mind, and when the vast majority of state lawmakers were men, Presley established the state’s first shelters to protect battered women and children.

“I think, because of his previous position (in the Riverside County Sheriff’s Dept.), Presley understood the impact of domestic violence on the family, and society, better than other people at the time,” state Sen. Roth said.

After retiring from the legislature in 1994, Presley remained active in state politics. He was appointed to serve as chair of the state parole board by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and, later, to serve as secretary of youth and adult corrections by Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. In the early 2000s he worked as a lobbyist, representing Riverside County in Sacramento.

Through it all, colleagues said, Presley remained committed to reaching across whatever political aisle existed, and believed “compromise” was not a bad word at all in politics.

“Bob Presley brought a human touch to politics,” Sen. Roth said. “He was a true gentleman in a political world that, unfortunately, doesn’t currently have use for true gentlemen.”

Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione said, “The times of Bob Presley seem to be gone. And that’s unfortunate.”

When asked how Presley won his Bronze Star, Roth, like others, said he never heard the details.

“He didn’t talk about himself that way.”

Presley is survived by his wife, Susan Presley, daughters Marilyn Raphael and Donna Danielson, and son Robert Presley Jr. A service in Riverside is being planned.

https://www.pe.com/2018/09/24/robert-presley-an-icon-of-riverside-and-california-politics-dies-at-93/