California lawmaker reveals why she's ditching Democrats to join GOP

A state lawmaker in California is ditching the Democratic Party — after becoming the first Democrat to win her district in decades — and heading to the GOP, and revealed to a newspaper's editorial board what she called the "last straw."

State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil was elected two years ago to represent the following counties: Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Stanislaus and Tuolumne.

Marcos Bretón, of The Sacramento Bee's editorial board, noted that while the switch would be "notable" in other states, it's "highly unusual" in California.

“This wasn’t a discussion I took lightly, but there was a last straw,” Alvarado-Gill told the Bee. “For me, the last straw was the Proposition 47 shenanigans, the ‘poison pill’ amendments.”

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Voters approved Prop. 47 a decade ago to reduce penalties for certain property crimes. Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats in the state government unsuccessfully attempted to scuttle reform to the initiative in June.

"A law-and-order package of bills, including from Alvarado-Gil, were hijacked and loaded with amendments — ‘poison pills’ — that would have killed the bills if voters passed a Prop. 47 reform initiative in November," Bretón said.

Alvarado-Gil said Newsom was "very aggressive" in getting his party to "fall in line." She was among a few who refused.

"I was vocal about it...So I sat with that for a little while. The consideration of separating myself from the majority party, their tactics and a misalignment of our values has been percolating for some time," she said.