In politics, you can’t escape your votes. What happens in Sacramento follows you home | Opinion

Politicians should always be mindful of the Miranda Rights of politics: “Your past votes may be used against you in the court of public opinion.”

This axiom was on full display last week when the National Republican Congressional Committee unleashed an attack against Asm. Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, who is challenging Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, for his 2017 vote as a state legislator on a climate policy tied to gas price increases.

Salas voted to re-authorize California’s Cap and Trade program that allows for emission credits to be sold to industries to offset their carbon pollutants that warm the atmosphere.

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How does this vote impact gas prices? Oil refineries have to participate in the Cap-and-Trade program, and the independent Legislative Analyst Office has estimated that the program added 27 cents to the price of a gallon of gas.

So is it defensible for the Republican strategists to attack Salas for voting to increase gas prices? Sure. Is it fair? That’s up to voters. But as a Republican strategist observing this race, and as someone who has clients in the oil industry, this line of attack appeared to be effective in 2022 when Salas first challenged Valadao and lost.

The upshot is that these are complicated policies and legislators don’t always know how their votes will play out in the future. For example, in 1996, lawmakers from both parties passed the deregulation of the state electricity market. It was hailed by its champions as an “effort to protect California consumers” and promised lower electric bills. Of course, five years later, the state was mired in an electricity crisis and the deregulation was largely blamed for allowing the manipulation of the California power market by Enron and others that led to blackouts.

Fast forward to the 2005 Los Angeles mayoral race, when Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, D- Los Angeles, was attacked by incumbent Mayor James Hahn for supporting deregulation. Hertzberg didn’t see that coming when he cast that vote in 1996. He lost in the primary.

But watching Salas once again attacked years after his Cap-and-Trade vote makes me wonder about the fate of current legislators who last year voted for Senate Bill X1-2, legislation pushed through the legislature by Gov. Gavin Newsom to empower the California Energy Commission to set a maximum profit margin for gasoline refiners and impose a penalty upon them for exceeding that margin.

The policy is basically a price control scheme that has historically led to constrained gas supplies which then, of course, leads to higher prices — the opposite of the intended policy.

Democratic lawmakers acceded to the governor’s insistence and passed the bill into law. Many legislators privately expressed skepticism that such a penalty would ever be enacted.

However, Newsom is pushing the Energy Commission to set the profit cap and directed them last fall to start the regulatory process. The Newsom administration is hoping for a cap as early as around the November election.

Will SBX1-2 come back to haunt Democrats in future campaigns? Time will tell.

In politics, you can’t escape your votes. It’s not like a stay in Vegas. What happens in Sacramento follows you home. Rudy Salas is merely the latest example.

Rob Stutzman is a Sacramento-based public affairs consultant and former deputy chief of staff for communications for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.