A person, with long blonde hair and wearing a black blazer with a white shirt, looks to their right as they sit in front of a wooden desk suurounded by other people.

A reliable political axiom — at least in California — is that when one party achieves dominance in some arena, it fragments into factions defined by ideology, gender, economics, ethnicity, geography or even personality. The axiom has been demonstrated at the local level for decades, such as the perpetual infighting among San Francisco’s dominant Democrats, or the ceaseless squabbling among Republicans when they controlled Orange County.

Democrats achieved absolute dominance in state politics over the last quarter-century, holding all statewide offices and capturing supermajorities in the Legislature and within the state’s congressional delegation.

One might think that such hegemony would manifest itself in sweeping responses to California’s most pressing issues, such as homelessness, poverty, water supply, wildfires and housing shortages — particularly after Gavin Newsom became governor on promises to seek “big, hairy audacious goals.”

It was not to be. The issues that were plaguing California when Newsom took office in 2019 are as formidable as ever, reflecting not only their complexity but the tendency of the dominant party to become a collection of often hostile quasi-parties.

The disunity has appeared on multiple occasions, but what’s happened over legislation to crack down on sex crimes against children is a stark example.

Two years ago, state Sen. Shannon Grove, a Republican from Bakersfield, carried legislation that would have added human trafficking of a minor to the state’s list of serious felonies, thereby qualifying an offender for tougher penalties. Democrats stalled the bill, which was opposed by criminal justice reform groups. But when reporters asked Newsom about it, he intervened, essentially compelling the Legislature to pass it.

Last year, Grove took up the issue again with legislation that would increase penalties for anyone who solicited sex from a minor, but Democrats insisted that they wouldn’t apply if the minor was 16 or 17 years old. Gay rights advocates demanded what was termed a “carveout,” contending that including older teens could backfire if the law was used to punish consenting relationships.

Grove grudgingly accepted the amendment as the price of getting the measure approved, but the issue was rejoined this year with a bill carried by Assemblywoman Maggy Krell, a Sacramento Democrat who had been a sex crime prosecutor.

Krell’s measure would eliminate the carveout for 16- and 17-year old victims but in a replay of the previous year, fellow Democrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee struck that provision of the bill, leading to a public squabble on the Assembly floor last week.

Republicans sought to restore the bill’s original purpose and Krell endorsed the effort, saying “We need to say, loud and clear, that if you’re under 18, a child, a minor … the person buying that person should be charged with a felony. It’s plain and simple, sex without consent — that’s rape.”

She picked up vocal support from some other Democrats but Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas beat back the effort and punished Krell by taking her name off the bill and inserting a phrase declaring an intent to deal with the issue later.

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story.

Shannon Grove

Republican, State Senate, District 12 (Bakersfield)

Maggy Krell

Democrat, State Assembly, District 6 (Sacramento)

Robert Rivas

Democrat, State Assembly, District 29 (Salinas)

“No one in the room is OK with” minors being sold for sex, Rivas said. “This is a nuanced issue and conversation.”

That, however, is not the end of it because Newsom once again entered the debate.

“The law should treat all sex predators who solicit minors the same — as a felony, regardless of the intended victim’s age,” Newsom said in a statement. “Full stop.”

The image that emerges from this dustup is that of a Democratic Party at war within itself, with Rivas trying to be an “ayatollah,” as former Speaker Willie Brown once described himself, and Newsom distancing himself from his party’s leftish tendencies as a prelude to running for president in 2028.