ENEMY OF MY ENEMY: GOP Assemblymember Bill Essayli is authoring a reparations-related bill — yes, you read that correctly. The Coalition for a Just and Equitable California is teaming up with the Riverside-area Republican on legislation creating a Freedmen Affairs Agency to administer reparations programs after a similar bill crashed and burned on the last night of the legislative session in 2024. The group’s activists are working with Essayli in opposition to the Black Caucus, which is backing a bill from Chair Akilah Weber Pierson to establish the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery. The partnership is very much an example of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Coalition organizer Chris Lodgson said the caucus is shutting his group out of its legislative planning. Essayli was the only lawmaker who reached out after organizers visited members’ offices earlier this year with their proposal, he said. Lodgson self-identifies as a “reparationist” on his social media profiles, which are filled with photos of him in shirts emblazoned with “Cut the CJEC, CA Reparations now!” Essayli — a hardline conservative known for clashes with Democrats on the Assembly floor — doesn’t back direct cash payments. But the lawmaker insists his party can “support getting resources to disadvantaged communities, in this case, descendants of slavery, whether that's school choice vouchers or some sort of investment opportunities.” “There's lots of ideas that I think would align with their goals that Republicans can and should support,” Essayli said. Lodgson also balked at characterizing Essayli’s bill as reparations legislation, as his group looks at the issue more narrowly. “Reparations means direct cash payments,” he said. “That's what reparations means to us. I think that's what reparations means to most people. It's only been in these last several years that people inside the Black Caucus and elsewhere have tried to make reparations be other things too, or other things instead of money. And we're not going for that.” Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have seemed to cool on the idea of reparations only as cash payments, as the concept is so politically untenable and difficult policy-wise. The coalition’s willingness to turn against the Black Caucus originates with members’ last-minute decision in 2024 to shelve a Freedman Affairs Agency bill from former state Sen. Steven Bradford. Lodgson and others filled the Capitol rotunda on the last night of session to protest the move. They said members wouldn’t advance the legislation because Newsom requested amendments turning it into a study bill. The idea of a study is still a major problem for coalition organizers, because they believe it would further perpetuate a longstanding injustice. In addition to her bureau bill, Weber Pierson has also authored legislation commissioning a $6 million California State University study to determine how people would prove they’re descendants of slaves. But Lodgson sees that legislation as a “poison pill” that would allow a reparations win for Newsom without having to create the new bureau. Black Caucus Vice Chair Isaac Bryan called the coalition’s bill a “very unserious move by a very unserious legislator and unserious small group of organizers.” “Working with a literal Republican prosecutor who has a stack of bills and a history of pushing back against all efforts to address harms to Black people in the criminal legal system is a very unserious effort,” he said. Bryan also claimed some members of the coalition are affiliated with President Donald Trump’s “MAGA movement.” Lodgson said his group isn’t political. “The reparations movement is nonpartisan,” he said. “If you only do reparations when one party is in power, then you're doing it wrong.” IT’S TUESDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to lholden@politico.com.
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