Across the aisle: Can bipartisan caucuses change the California Legislature?

Latino Los Angeles06/15/2023

1 minute read

Across the aisle: Can bipartisan caucuses change the California Legislature? — Members of the bipartisan state Legislative Native American Caucus (from left: Democratic Assemblymembers Mike Gipson of Carson, Esmeralda Soria of Merced, Sabrina Cervantes of Riverside, Reginald Jones-Sawyer of Los Angeles,. Anthony Rendon of Lakewood, and James Ramos of Rancho Cucamonga) meet in Sacramento on April 18, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

The Problem Solvers Caucus, one of 16 non-party caucuses in the state Legislature, wants to put public policy before partisan politics, but that’s a tall task. Other caucuses are bipartisan mostly in name only.

Every other week, the 21 members of the Problem Solvers Caucus gather for lunch to hear presentations on different policies. This session, they’re focusing on clean energy and homelessness — issues they say impact every legislative district in California.

Inspired by a similar group in Congress , the caucus is an experiment — made up of both Democrats and Republicans, Assemblymembers and state senators — with the goal of creating a “neutral space” that puts policy before politics.

Launched in 2021 by then-Assemblymembers Adam Gray , a Democrat from Merced, and Jordan Cunningham , a Republican from San Luis Obispo, the caucus includes equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, as well as proportional Assembly […]

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