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Speaking to the politicians and leaders who represent Greater Southern California, the state’s deep blue tint isn’t so obvious.
Behind what local leaders call a “blue curtain” of Sacramento’s making, there is a brewing rebellion among the more than 1.1 million registered Republicans — a GOP population larger than that of 40 other U.S. states — and independent voices on the front lines.
Some say they’re trapped in an “abusive relationship” with a one-party state that has traded the California Dream for radical mandates, leaving families to feel “mugged” every time they pull up to a gas pump.
“We have so much driving that we have to do, especially parents, working people, a lot of people commute because, as you can see, LA County is 4,600 square miles and the inner areas, the places with the most jobs, are the most expensive to live in,” LA GOP Chair Roxanne Hoge told Fox News Digital. Los Angeles County is actually about 4,751 square miles. “Kamala Harris, our former veep, stood in front of a gas station in North Carolina and said, ‘Can you believe this price, $3.97?’ We would love $3.97 here in LA, we’re not seeing that at all.”
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“This is a topic everyone is talking about because this affects not only the gas prices, but food prices and everything, the whole entire economy… I can feel it in my own pocketbook,” Los Angeles City Council member John Lee, the only elected non-Democrat in the city, said when asked what his constituents are telling him about the high costs of California. “I can see it in my family when we go to the grocery store that the prices are more expensive… Historically, California has always been either the [first]- or second-most expensive price of gas in this country, and that is because of the highest taxes and fees that we put on as a government.”
For the average Californian, a trip to the pump isn’t just an errand, but also a financial hit critics say is driven by state legislators. California’s local and state gas taxes and environmental regulations add roughly $1.50 per gallon to the national average, and are reportedly linked directly to the state’s one-party dominance and the lack of political diversity in leadership.
“The real reason for the super high prices is really because of the taxes and the regulatory situation,” Chapman University professor of urban studies Joel Kotkin said. “We’ve done something absolutely astounding. We had a thriving oil industry in California. California was one of the big exporters of oil in the 30s and 40s. We have a lot of oil potential, but the problem is we have an administration that consistently has been trying to destroy the industry, particularly under [Gov. Gavin] Newsom.”
“I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat – are there enough people to say, hey, this is what’s really happening? I mean, two things can be happening at the same time. You can have, on paper, a booming economy with lots of wealth being created, and you can still have the highest rate of poverty, highest rate youth unemployment, highest unemployment rate. You can have a whole cascade of terrible things going on, even though a small group of people are making money,” Kotkin continued.
The professor added that “the problem is we are a one-party state now… If you take a place like Orange County, where it’s basically 50-50, the parties have to be responsive to some extent. You can’t go crazy. You can’t be a far-left Democrat or a far-right Republican and do too well in Orange County. You have to moderate to some extent. In California, there’s no need to moderate.”
It’s the very struggle Lee and Hoge face in their positions, especially when pushing back on Newsom-backed laws like AB X2-1, which allows the California Energy Commission (CEC) to set minimum inventory levels for refiners, and SB X1-2, which implemented oversight on oil refinery profits — as well as the infamous clean electricity grid and electric vehicle mandates.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office declined an interview with Fox News Digital and directed questions to the CEC, which said AB X2-1 and SB X1-2 saved Californians $9.3 billion compared to 2022, and that the recent price hikes are “a direct result of global oil market disruption driven by the war in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”
“They’re going to have to show me where we are saving money. I don’t care what any spreadsheet is telling them, but all you have to do is look up at the price of gas and ask any person in the city of Los Angeles, do they feel that the price is going down?” Lee, who recently filed a resolution asking state lawmakers to temporarily suspend the gas tax, said.
“People of the 12th District elected me to represent them in City Hall because I am that independent voice. I am that voice that does not have to look at any other person, other than to the people that I represent, to tell me what is best to serve them,” Lee said. “The easiest way is for Sacramento to reduce some of the fees and taxes that they put on energy costs. And if we could do that, that would provide the most immediate relief to our families, which is desperately needed by them right now.”
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Hoge agreed: “They could repeal the gas tax, just suspend it for a while. That would save us a lot of money… The sad truth is that California is sitting on unbelievable oil and gas energy reserves. And that we could pump and refine our own gas right here. We should be like Alaska, where citizens get checks because we are selling so much oil to the rest of the country and the world. And we’re not. And that lays squarely at the feet of the Democrats in Sacramento.”
“What happens in California does not stay in California. The crazy bills that are passed, whether it’s CAFE standards or nutty equity requirements for education or gas standards and electric car mandates, they’re all coming for you.”
“Sacramento has a million and one ways to plug the holes that they have caused. By the way, they’re not just running behind on their budget and their revenues. They have an unfunded pension liability that is like a sword of Damocles that is well over a trillion dollars at this point. They are completely enumerate[d] and economically illiterate,” she said.
The disconnect with California’s high-profile politicians translates into other topline issues, like recovery efforts from the Palisades and Eaton fires. Douglas Elliman agent Cory Weiss helped relocate more than 30 families after losing their homes and, two weeks after the fires, saw Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass dining at the same steakhouse as him.
“I said, you know, ‘You let us down.’ I think she thought I was going to say hello and congratulate her. She didn’t know who I was. And I said, ‘Look, I just helped 30 families that have been displaced and you’re here having a steak dinner, you’ve let us down.’ And she just gave me a blank stare and… just kept shaking her head… I didn’t see any remorse,” Weiss recalled.
“I would say that I am critical of our current mayor,” Weiss said. “There’s been no accountability, no real path forward, no bringing the community together. I’m really surprised that there has not been more community events that weren’t politically driven, and, ‘we’re all in this together.’ And that is, to me, what’s really sad.”
Bass’ office did not respond to multiple requests for an interview with Fox News Digital.
“I think the demographic forces are pushing California’s basic politics towards a further left perspective,” Kotkin warned. “When you wipe out whole industries and people feel, ‘Well, building things isn’t going to get me anywhere,’ you’re going to have a politics that is more interested in giving money to the teachers union than creating blue collar jobs.”
“The Republicans have given up California. And, again, I’m not a Republican,” the professor reiterated, “but I would wish we had a two-party system, because if you have a one-party, it’s very hard to change anything, and nobody is accountable.”
“So many people around the country go, ‘Oh, California, you get what you deserve.’ No, we don’t. There are plenty of us fighting here behind the blue curtain who are doing our best and trying to vote and to speak up and to put our necks out to run for office,” Hoge said. “But more importantly, what happens in California does not stay in California. The crazy bills that are passed, whether it’s [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards or nutty equity requirements for education or gas standards and electric car mandates, they’re all coming for you. We’re such a big state by population that all those mandates are being taken up by producers. Whether you live in a ruby red state or not, you’re going to suffer if you don’t help us out.”
“We are the second-largest city in the greatest country in the world, and we are the big economic engine of the state of California, which is one of the largest economies in the world. You would think that Sacramento would pay attention to us a little bit more, and understand the differences between a city down here and maybe a city up there. Unfortunately, Sacramento loves to come up with these one-size-fit-all type of legislation that just don’t work,” Lee said. “And so, yes, it’s very frustrating. It’s very frustrating when they just take this approach without consulting with us, without talking to us, without getting our input. And so when we put in legislation like I did to request this [suspension], I’m hopeful that someone will take it up. At the same time, I don’t have control over that.”
“I think that we have the voice of being the city of Los Angeles, and I think these council members and our mayor and, including myself, we need to be putting more pressure,” the councilman said. “My colleagues, I know that they are feeling the same pinch, too, that they are understanding that their constituents are hurting as well. So I think that they need to express their voice, raise their voice and to make sure that they’re expressing their frustrations with what’s going on and how their constituents are feeling right now.”
“I think the American Dream is still alive, the California Dream is alive, but I think that we need to be able to be flexible and take a look at different ways… to provide these things to our city.”
This is Part 3 of Fox News Digital’s series, “Golden State strain: Inside California’s economic nightmare.” For Part 4, we travel to San Diego to speak to struggling small businesses and a multi-billion-dollar lending company to see how skyrocketing energy overhead is suffocating the local economy.
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