Bernie Sanders makes a late push for California billionaire tax

Por Jeremy B. White — POLITICO – TOP Stories

SAN FRANCISCO — Bernie Sanders calls the proposed tax on California billionaires the most important ballot measure in America.

Now, with the initiative sliding in polls and vastly outspent by the opposition, the Vermont senator is trying to give it new life.

“The whole country, and frankly people from around the world, are paying attention to what is happening here,” he told a rapturous crowd on Saturday. “People are asking: ‘Is it possible?’ And you are going to do it and show the world it is possible!”

The initiative, a health care union’s bid to offset federal cuts with a one-time, 5% tax on California billionaires, has scrambled the politics of this Democratic stronghold while reverberating far beyond the state.

And it has once again set Sanders — who framed the measure as a litmus test for a party that has struggled to respond to profound economic discontent — against much of California’s political establishment. That includes not only billionaires spending heavily against the proposition, but Gov. Gavin Newsom and powerful allies like Planned Parenthood and prominent labor groups who argue the measure is poorly designed and would disproportionately benefit one union while eroding California’s tax base.

For proponents of the initiative, Sanders’ California travel — after his appearance in San Francisco, he was scheduled to rally for the wealth tax in Los Angeles and for Randy Villegas, a progressive trying to flip a rural swing seat — represents a chance to revive a campaign losing ground to its opponents.

“Am I with Gavin Newsom and Planned Parenthood, or am I with Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party? That’s what (voters) have to decide,” said Susie Shannon, who was the California political director for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign and has worked for ballot initiatives he endorsed. Sanders’ appearance, she said, “In a very simplistic way, just says: Prop 40 is the side of the good guys.”

Newsom, the Democratic governor and likely presidential contender, has vociferously opposed the measure for months, working to block it from the ballot and rallying powerful allies to stymie it. But it has won the support of the California Labor Federation and the California Democratic Party as their members embrace a populist argument for curbing the influence of the ultrarich — an argument with no more prominent messenger than Sanders.

Newsom went out of his way ahead of Sanders’ visit to downplay any tension, heaping praise on the senator as one of the most “important people in American political life” and someone who “represents the zeitgeist of this moment as much or more than anybody.” They simply disagree, Newsom told reporters this week, on the best solution to income inequality.

“He’s right about addressing this issue,” Newsom said. “(On) this particular initiative I disagree with him, and so do many members of labor unions and organizations that admire Bernie Sanders.”

But their disagreement is not just a policy dispute, with the Prop 40 campaign framing the fight as a test for what kind of party and champion they want in 2028.

“It’s the clearest example of whose side are you on: Are you on the side of working-class people who are losing their health insurance because of Trump, or are you on the side of the billionaires?” said Jeff Weaver, a former top Sanders aide. “There couldn’t be a clearer example of that conflict than this ballot initiative.”

Sanders is a formidable asset for a campaign that will need to overcome an overwhelming financial deficit. Billionaires have poured more than $200 million into defeating Prop 40 and passing two rival initiatives designed to invalidate the wealth tax, allowing them to blanket the airwaves, while the yes campaign is relying on organizing and earned media — a place where Sanders can help.

On Saturday, supporters lined up down the block from the theater where Sanders spoke hours before the event began. Embattled SEIU-UHW leader Dave Regan, who has been accused of threatening other union officials as he sought to build support for the wealth tax — an accusation he denied — posed for photos in the theater’s lobby. A “This lawn is watered by billionaire tears” sign beckoned by the merchandise table.

Speakers leaned into the discord with fellow Democrats. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Berniecrat who is positioning himself for a presidential run, told reporters before the event that Newsom was “siding with the billionaires because he wants them to fund his presidential campaign.” Khanna drew a raucous cheer when he denounced Newsom on stage and another when he said he was “not a Chuck Schumer Democrat.”

“It is not easy taking on some of the wealthiest people in the world,” Sanders said. “It is not easy taking on the political establishment.”

Sanders remains popular among California’s left flank, after finishing atop the Democratic primary field in 2020. But while Sanders could help energize and turn out progressive Democrats who are predisposed to support taxing the rich and have few qualms about defying their party’s establishment, it’s less clear that he will win over the undecided and middle-of-the-road voters who could determine the measure’s fate.

“The people to the far left that Bernie Sanders already appeals to are probably already on board,” said Marva Diaz, a consultant and publisher of the election publication California Target Book. “Anyone who’s more centrist and isn’t excited about Bernie Sanders, it probably doesn’t get them out to vote.”

On a press call organized by opponents of the measure ahead of Sanders’ event, former Rep. Katie Porter — a progressive who opposed the tax during her run for governor this year, like almost the entire Democratic field — said, “People are understandably desperate for something that’s going to fix health care. Prop 40 promises to do that, but it absolutely does not.”

And despite his presidential breakthrough, Sanders has had markedly less success with ballot measures. Among the initiatives that Sanders backed and voters rejected in recent years were a trio of rent control measures, a drug pricing initiative, and an effort to reinstate affirmative action.

In several of those cases, Sanders was aligned with the California Democratic Party and at odds with Newsom and well-funded interest groups — dynamics that have recurred with the wealth tax fight, although Proposition 40 has been even more divisive among Democrats.

“In California we have this liberal reputation, yet the interests of the ultra wealthy and the powerful prevail because they spend so much money and they have Sacramento in their pocket,” said Michael Weinstein, whose organization, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, sponsored several of the measures Sanders supported. “It’s Bernie Sanders versus the corporate Democrats, over and over and over again.”

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories