Assemblyman Kevin Kiley – May 28, 2022 Yesterday, the Speaker of the Assembly ignored our bipartisan letter to let the gas tax bill pass. In other news, yesterday the Speaker was toppled. The position of Assembly Speaker is equivalent to Pelosi’s role in D.C. For six years, it’s been held by a guy named Anthony Rendon. But now Democrat Assemblyman Robert Rivas claims he “has the votes” to overthrow Rendon. The Assembly may vote on the matter Tuesday. As the Democrats fight amongst themselves, I’m proposing a third option: Speaker James Gallagher. While sadly that's unlikely, the warring Democrat factions are awkwardly approaching Republicans to court our votes and try to make a deal. Things could get interesting. Meanwhile, the “State of Emergency” continues even as Californians simply ignore Newsom. Orange County's Board of Education sued the Governor to end it, and just received “responses” to questions he had to answer under oath: INTERROGATORY 1: Identify the objective criteria you are relying on to determine when to end the COVID State of Emergency. NEWSOM RESPONSE: "Defendant declines to respond to this Interrogatory." INTERROGATORY 2: Identify any standards provided by the California Legislature that you have relied on to determine when to end the COVID State of Emergency. NEWSOM RESPONSE: "Defendant declines to respond to this Interrogatory." INTERROGATORY 3: Identify any standards in the Emergency Services Act that you have relied on to determine when to end the COVID State of Emergency. NEWSOM RESPONSE: "Defendant declines to respond to this Interrogatory." This has a familiar ring to me, having taken on Newsom in court for almost a year. Despite such stonewalling tactics, we won our trial against him. I’m hopeful the OC Board will win theirs.