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Listen to this article 0:00 / 3:11 1X BeyondWords Sen. John Cornyn’s, R-Texas, office on Wednesday denied that a bipartisan immigration bill is in the works after comments he made on the Senate floor that his staff say were a joke, but that sparked uproar from conservatives. Cornyn, who frequently attempts to find bipartisan paths for legislation on a range of issues that includes immigration, was on the Senate floor Tuesday evening as the chamber advanced bipartisan gun legislation that he had helped shepherd. HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic tweeted that Cornyn was smiling as he told California Sen. Alex Padilla:...

Senate Democrats have reached an agreement on a new set of federal voting rules again, but this time it is more worrisome for Republicans because a key Democrat is on board. In fact, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has not been a fan of previous voting bills, spearheaded this effort along with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and a group of cosponsors, NPR reported. The package is the latest attempt by Democrats to counteract Republican-led measures at the state level to restrict voting access and alter election administration. The new legislation, unveiled Tuesday morning by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar...

"There is no way the United States can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions without looking at how Americans drive," Schumer says. ========================================================================= Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says every vehicle on the road should be fully electric by 2040. "There is no way the United States can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions without looking at how Americans drive," Schumer said on Tuesday. "So I have put forward an ambitious, comprehensive proposal to accelerate our country's transition to zero-emission vehicles. We've called it Clean Cars for America. "The goal of that plan is that by 2040, all vehicles should be...

Washington (CNN)Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' Senate seat on Tuesday, choosing the first Latino in state history for the role.

EXCLUSIVE: Republicans on the House Oversight and House Administration Committees are demanding answers from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla about a “highly questionable” $35 million contract his office awarded to a firm linked to the Biden campaign, claiming it was a “misuse of taxpayer money and a violation of the law.” Padilla’s office, according to House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer, R-Ky., Administration Committee Ranking Member Rodney Davis, R-Ill., and Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., allegedly used Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grant money from the coronavirus stimulus package, known as the CARES Act, to fund a voter contract...

*** A week before the election — and potentially weeks before the outcome is known — California Democrats are elbowing each other for the chance to sway Newsom on how to fill the state’s junior senator seat should Joe Biden and Harris (D-Calif.) head to the White House. At least a dozen California Democrats are seriously in the mix, and their supporters, donors and staffers are jostling behind the scenes to make their case. In this deep-blue state, where no Republican has won statewide in 14 years, a Senate seat could be the closest it gets to a lifetime appointment....

With just weeks until the Census Bureau faces a critical deadline to finish counting 330 million Americans, cities and states are racing to get through to hard-to-reach communities who risk being left out of the final tally. At stake are billions of dollars through hundreds of federally administered programs - and political power for the next decade. Some states are so close to the cutoff point at which they would earn or lose a House seat in the apportionment that will come from census figures that just a few thousand missing people could mean a smaller congressional delegation. "The census...

A Sutter County judge granted a request Friday by two GOP legislators to temporarily block an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom that would require that all active California voters receive a mail ballot for the November election. The order provoked a fiery response from Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who dismissed the assemblymen’s legal challenge as “a reckless publicity stunt.” The temporary restraining order by Superior Court Judge Perry Parker, which was sought by Assemblymen James Gallagher of Nicolaus (Sutter County) and Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (Placer County), sets a June 26 hearing in Yuba City to determine whether...

As president, Biden would replicate California’s repressive AB5 law. “Last year California passed AB5 affording gig workers protections and benefits like a minimum wage and overtime pay,” Joe Biden tweeted on Tuesday. “Now, gig economy giants are trying to gut the law and exempt their workers. It’s unacceptable. I urge Californians to vote no on the initiative this November.” The initiative, qualified for the ballot on May 22, establishes criteria for determining whether rideshare drivers are “employees” or “independent contractors.” AB5 also targets freelance writers and independent contractors in dozens of professions, including health care. Joe Biden was all in...

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday signed an executive order to ensure every registered voter in the state is automatically mailed a ballot for the November presidential election. The executive order does not replace in-person voting, Newsom said during a press conference. "Mail-in ballot is important but it's not an exclusive substitute to physical locations," Newsom said. He added that the state is still working to have "the appropriate number of physical sites for people to vote as well." Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who's been pushing to expand vote by mail, called into Newsom's press conference and said the...

A Republican attorney filed a lawsuit on Tuesday demanding that two California agencies develop a better system to verify the citizenship of people who register to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles. In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Harmeet Dhillon alleges Secretary of State Alex Padilla is violating federal law by not verifying citizenship information from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. She wants the DMV to send Padilla more records related to citizenship to demonstrate that only eligible people are able to register.

A new independent audit found multiple errors and flaws in the rollout of California’s automated “motor voter” system California’s ambitious effort to automate voter registration at Department of Motor Vehicle offices produced almost 84,000 duplicate records and more than twice that number with political party mistakes, according to an audit released Friday by state officials. The analysis covered just the first five months of the new “motor voter” program, which was launched in April 2018. It found a wide array of problems with the rollout of the DMV system, including a limited amount of testing as well as inconsistent and...

As California prepared to launch its new Motor Voter program last year, top elections officials say they asked Secretary of State Alex Padilla to hold off on the roll-out. The plan called for the Department of Motor Vehicles to automatically register people who came into its offices, one of several efforts by Democrats controlling California politics to make it easier for more people to vote. With the June 2018 primary approaching, election officials said they warned that the department that manages car registration and boat licenses was not yet prepared to register voters.

Last week California’s Department of Motor Vehicles sent 23,000 “erroneous” voter registrations to the office of Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who maintains the list of registered voters. The DMV blamed it technical errors and said none of the erroneous registrations involved undocumented immigrants. Padilla was “extremely disappointed and deeply frustrated” and the DMV assured him it wouldn’t happen again. Legitimate voters have good reason to believe Padilla was not disappointed but delighted. The odds are strong that illegals make up most if not all of the newly registered voters. The registrations of illegals will be happening again, in...

California voters will decide this fall whether to overturn a recent increase to state gasoline and diesel taxes that has raised billions of dollars for road repairs and other transportation projects. (WHAT ROAD REPAIRS)? Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Monday that an initiative to repeal the tax hikes, as well as new vehicle registration fees, has qualified for the November ballot. Government officials had set a slow pace on signature verification but, after threatening action over the delay, the signature verification was completed. Thanks to Carl DeMaio Initiative Chairman.

**snip***full title: BREAKING: Alex Padilla, California’s Secretary of State just got served, over Voter Rolls.Californians voted for Hillary Clinton over President Donald Trump by a whopping 4 million votes.The first step in any legal proceeding is to serve notice of intent to take legal action and give them a chance to fix the problem. That is exactly what Judicial Watch did. On August 4, 2017, Judicial Watch announced it has notified California’s Secretary of State, Alex Padilla of their intent to sue if California doesn’t comply with the National Voter Registration Act.

California and Virginia on Thursday refused to comply with a request from President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission to provide personal information about registered voters. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement that Trump’s voter fraud commission’s request of personal voting data on every American voter “is a waste of taxpayer money” that aims to ratify a false claim that millions voted illegally. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe called the probe “politically motivated and silly.” California, which had more than 19.4 million registered voters as of February, was the first state to announce it will not comply with...

Should find out today if the California Secretary of State is going to place my name on the presidential primary ballot of the American Independent Party which will be conducted on June 7th. We'll also find out if they also placed Donald Trump's name there as well. He'll likely be on the Republican ballot line in their closed primary, but the AIP offered his name up as well for their non-binding open primary, in which Independents will be able to vote. California law allows candidates to appear on multiple party ballot lines. Once again, though, the actual nominee of the...

California lawmakers have approved a measure that would make the state the first to impose a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. SB270 cleared the Senate on a 22-15 vote Friday and sent to Gov. Jerry Brown. It was approved by the Assembly a day earlier. …

State Sen. Alex Padilla of Los Angeles had every reason to hope that the 11 members of the obscure but powerful state Assembly Education Committee in Sacramento would back his new legislation, Senate Bill 1530, designed to let public schools more easily fire teachers who commit sexual, physically abusive or drug-related acts with their students. The bill, written by the former L.A. city councilman from the San Fernando Valley, a graduate of MIT who is seen by many as a man with a political future, had sailed through the Senate Education Committee in the upper house on a bipartisan vote....