California Democrats never learn how extreme their political views are | Opinion

While Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas ultimately did the right thing by finding a compromise to a bill seeking to enhance punishments for sex trafficking of minors, he failed to protect his caucus from getting pummeled from all sides for defending the indefensible.

In this case, Democrats had balked at harsher penalties for those who solicit 16 and 17-year-olds for sex during a debate for Assembly Bill 379, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, which sought to do just that.

Instead of proactively preventing bad votes and politically damaging debate, Rivas let things get out of control, and his caucus was called out for it by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper and many many others.

This was not an isolated incident.

Last year, a few Democratic senators hijacked a bill from Bakersfield Republican Senator Shannon Grove cracking down on sex trafficking by making it a felony for anyone convicted of soliciting a minor under the age of 18. But Grove was ultimately forced to accept amendments that she opposed.

Suspects prosecuted for soliciting a minor under 16 would only be automatically charged with a felony on a second offense. In cases involving minors under 18, a felony could only be sought on a second offense, and if it was verified in court that the minor was a victim of human trafficking.

With a gun figuratively to her head, Grove accepted the amendments.

This year, Grove took a backseat to Krell, who authored a bill removing the exemption. Krell had the political advantage of being a Democrat and the policy advantage of being a subject matter expert (she is also a former prosecutor who spent her career fighting human trafficking).

Surely, Krell could get this commonsense protection for older minors through the Legislature, right?

Wrong.

History was destined to repeat itself when the chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, Nick Schultz, also a former prosecutor, stripped Krell of being the author of AB 379. Krell wanted the possibility of felony prosecutions for solicitation of all minors under 18. Democrats clung to amendments from Grove’s bill that made it harder to prosecute all suspects accused of trafficking 16 and 17-year-olds.

This led to public policy discussion that never really addressed the deeper question of why the different standards for older minors existed in the first place; instead, we heard vague concerns that young people would get swept up into this, as if it’s normal for young couples to pay each other for sex.

What was even crazier? Amid all of this, Democrats launched political ads attacking Republicans.

“Josh Hoover voted against stronger laws protecting 16 and 17-year-old victims of sex trafficking,” read an ad published by the California Democratic Party that attacked the Sacramento-area Republican assemblymember.

If Assembly Democrats had been right on this issue, they wouldn’t have needed to lie in ads or force hostile amendments behind closed doors.

This could have been avoided by actually legislating and finding some kind of compromise. Instead, it turned into a multi-day story after a massive blow-up last year. It split the caucus, it put Democrats at odds with Newsom and others and it subjected them to inflammatory attacks from Republicans by forcing members to take bad votes.

How well will this play for Torrance Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi in his race to lead California’s schools? And all for what? To protect an 18-year-old’s right to put a minor on a path to prostitution?

It’s wrong morally, but politically it made no sense either. All of this could have been avoided with stronger leadership from Rivas.

This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM with the headline "California Democrats never learn how extreme their political views are | Opinion."