• By On 7 January 2026 In Government, State, Timely Stories

    2025 California Legislature Recap

    Happy New Year!
    As we prepare to jump into 2026, let’s first take a look at the activities of the California Legislature last year:

    • 2,416 bills introduced during the last 2025-2026 session
    • 19 bills voted down
    • 917 bills sent to the governor
    o 794 bills signed by the governor
    o 123 bills vetoed by the governor
    o 117 of those vetoed bills passed with more than two-thirds support of the Legislature, so lawmakers could override the governor. (But that hasn’t happened in more than 35 years.)

    How many votes? As CalMatters has reported, legislators almost always vote “yes,” leading critics to suggest the public vote is essentially a rubber stamp on decisions made in private. Also, instead of voting “no,” they often skip a vote, known as NVR or “No Vote Recorded.” NVR counts as a “no” vote, but it’s controversial because it avoids accountability for the decision. Here is a look at every vote cast by California legislators in 2025:
    • 270,970 total votes cast
    • 236,410 AYEs
    • 14,952 NOs
    • 19,608 NVRs

    Who missed the most votes? Legislative rules don’t distinguish between someone who is absent, someone who abstains or someone who simply doesn’t cast a vote. Some legislators hope that rule changes. Meanwhile, here are the legislators who missed the most votes:
    1. 1,027 NVRs — Eloise Gómez Reyes (D) (Senate District 29, San Bernardino), who was on medical leave part of the legislative session
    2. 1,006 NVRs — Kate Sanchez (R) (Assembly District 71, Rancho Santa Margarita)
    3. 834 NVRs — Megan Dahle (R) (Senate District 1, Redding)

    Who talks the most? Politicians are known to talk a lot, but who is the most talkative legislator? It’s a tough competition, as we saw last year when Assemblymember Joe Patterson told colleagues: “I’m trying to work my way up CalMatters’ list of most talkative members. So I’ve got a lot to say today.” Last year’s top three:
    1. 232,694 words — Josh Lowenthal (D) (Assembly District 69, Long Beach)
    2. 212,882 words — Christopher Cabaldon (D) (Senate District 3, Napa)
    3. 175,122 words — Caroline Menjivar (D) (Senate District 20, Van Nuys)

    Who is the most bipartisan? We heard many of you ask which legislators are most likely to work with the opposing party. There isn’t a perfect way to measure that, but here’s one way: Which legislators most often joined members of the other party as coauthors of bills? We found that Republicans more often coauthor bills with the other party, likely because they’re the minority party, so we’re showing you the top three in both parties. (Next week, we’ll share full details on how we measure bipartisanship.)

    Republicans
    1. 146 bills — Juan Alanis (Assembly District 22, Modesto)
    2. 105 bills — Laurie Davies (Assembly District 72, Oceanside)
    3. 84 bills — Heath Flora (Assembly District 9, Ripon)

    Democrats
    1. 46 bills — Blanca Pacheco (Assembly District 64, Downey)
    2. 39 bills — Anna Caballero (Senate District 14, Merced)
    2. 39 bills — Thomas Umberg (Senate District 34, Santa Ana)

    Which bills caused the most debate? One way to figure out if a bill was complex or controversial is to count the time spent on it in hearings. Here are the bills that caused the most discussion last year:
    1. 14 hours, 59 minutes — AB 715: Educational equity: discrimination: antisemitism prevention.
    2. 6 hours, 39 minutes — SB 79: Housing development: transit-oriented development.
    3. 6 hours, 31 minutes — AB 84: School accountability: Office of the Education Inspector General: school financial and performance audits: charter school authorization, oversight…

    What were the most active organizations? CalMatters tracks when an organization (or company) declares in writing that they’re for or against a bill. Last year, which organizations made their position known on the most bills? Here are the top three:
    1. 199 bills — California Chamber of Commerce
    2. 166 bills — American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
    3. 149 bills — Courage California

    Download the PDF with links by clicking HERE.

    If you have questions, suggestions or thoughts for our team, contact us at digitaldemocracy@calmatters.org.

    Thanks for reading,
    Dave Lesher, CalMatters Co-Founder

     

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