California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) purged five Republicans and one moderate Democrat from legislative committees late Friday, apparently in retaliation for their efforts at oversight and bipartisanship.
The move was shocking even by California standards. Democrats hold supermajorities in both the Assembly and the State Senate, and can pass legislation virtually without input or objection from Republican members of either.
The San Joaquin Valley Sun reported that “[s]ome of the GOP’s loudest voices in the California Assembly – and one Democrat who undertook a bipartisan initiative – were dropped from committee posts.”
It added (original emphasis): “Breaking down a ‘Friday Night Massacre’: Rivas’ moves centered on Asms. Alexandra Macedo (R-Tulare), David Tangipa (R-Clovis), Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego), and – to lesser extent – Asms. Bill Essayli (R-Riverside) and Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin). … Rivas also removed Asm. Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento) from the Assembly Higher Education Committee.”
Krell has been working with Republicans on legislation to combat the sex trafficking of minors in California.
Bipartisan and statewide--thank you San Diego @MayorToddGloria and @SDDistAtty Summer Stefan for joining our survivor advocacy organizations in sponsoring AB379. https://t.co/8XopsDvDFV
— Maggy Krell (@maggykrell) February 28, 2025
DeMaio, whom Rivas removed from two budget-related committees, said in a statement:
Assembly Democrats are punishing me for doing my job of scrutinizing the state budget – it is clear they don’t want me to expose their wasteful spending and their money laundering of tax dollars to fund political groups. They can remove me from the Budget Committee, but they can’t stop me from working with a team of outside investigators and researchers to shine a light on our state budget and exposing the waste and corruption happening in Sacramento.
The minority party has few rights in the California state legislature — which may be why then-Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who hails from the Golden State, felt entitled to exclude certain Republicans from the January 6 Committee in 2021 — the first time the Speaker had done that in the history of the U.S. Congress.
Essayli attempted to address the problem last year with a bill strengthening minority rights — which was voted down:
Assemblymember @billessayli (R-Corona) calls on the Assembly to pass HR 4, which includes a minority party bill of rights.
— Eytan Wallace (@EytanWallace) December 2, 2024
Per Essayli, the bill would — among other things — allow the minority party to have a say in which members get selected to all committees, and would… pic.twitter.com/nSzJv3v9Tl
Last year, Democrats also stripped Essayli of his seat on the Judiciary committee after he objected to Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation to override parental rights regarding children who decide to change their gender in their schools.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
