The good and bad of Josh Newman’s loss

It’s a rare political development when a Republican, in California of all places, ousts an incumbent Democrat from political office. But that’s what happened in Orange County’s 37th state Senate District.

Former state Assemblyman Steven Choi ousted state Sen. Josh Newman, who was seeking re-election in a newly drawn district. This is not the first time Newman has been booted from office. Scapegoated as the reason gas tax increase legislation was approved in 2017, Newman was recalled in 2018 and replaced by Republican Ling Ling Chang. Newman later challenged Chang and got the seat back in 2020.

Newman’s political track record has often been described as moderate, and we’ve always appreciated our meetings and discussions with him. Every so often Newman would speak against tax measures, vote against some bad bill and very often strategically not vote on bills. But more often than not, he voted with his party.

Accordingly, we favored Choi over Newman in this past election and were glad to endorse him. Choi will at the very least be a reliable vote against the state’s frivolous spending and tendency to test how far it can go in collecting taxes.

But we do recognize that one reason Newman lost, besides the merits of Choi, is that he angered Big Labor. Newman upset the AFSCME 3299, which represents University of California workers, because he didn’t support Assembly Constitutional Amendment 6. That proposal sought to impose various public sector employee mandates on the UC system.

UC opposed the measure on reasonable grounds: “The state’s public employment framework was not designed with academic and clinical enterprises in mind. The state framework, for example, does not contemplate such things as faculty sabbaticals, or the need to book lab time at odd hours — practices and work that are fundamental to the academic enterprise.”

For the crime of bucking Big Labor, Newman became a target of the union in both the primary and the general election. Despite our disagreements with Newman, his loss is a sorry reflection of the disproportionate political power of unions in California. It’s no wonder that many Democrats who know better decide to bend the knee rather than do the right thing.