Write a policy memo to a state Assemblymember.

Your task is to play the role of a Sacramento staffer and write a 5-page (double-spaced) paper advising your boss, a member of the state Assembly during the 2021-22 session on how to vote on a piece of pending legislation. It will be due at 8pm on Thursday, July 29th.
The trick to this paper is to use primary sources to find relevant data (using the web resources described in the “Paper Resources” link on Canvas) and tie together the information using ideas from this course and your own political smarts. You are NOT writing about whether the bill is good or bad policy in the abstract; you are giving reasons why a Yes or a No vote is the right decision for your Assemblymember. Please be sure to provide citations – either through footnotes or endnotes – to show us where you got your information. Web sites must be formally referenced, so only pasting in the URL is not acceptable.
Prompt: Write a policy memo to a state Assemblymember. You are an aide to a member of California’s Assembly in the 2021-22 session, writing a memo recommending how your boss should vote (i.e., for or against) on one of the two bills introduced in that legislature and listed below. You need to tell your boss what the main policy question is, what effect the bill will have on the state, and what effect the bill will have on your boss’ district. You can choose you Assemblymember from the list here (Links to an external site.). To answer these questions, read the analyses of the bills available on the course website and use other sources to tell us:
What is your boss’ political and personal history? How much did she win by in her last election, and when is she running for reelection? What sorts of interest groups or individuals contributed large amounts of money to her last campaign?
What is the geographic, ethnic, and political profile of her district?Tell us where her district is located, what sorts of areas it covers, and give its racial/ethnic breakdown. Using the Secretary of State’s reports, tell us what the breakdown of party registration is among the district’s voters. Relate relevant district characteristics to the bill.
What interest groups are on record as supporting or opposing the bill, or who might be the winners and losers if it passed?Are they tied to your boss? (The Legislature’s committee analyses report the formal positions taken by groups, at the end of the analysis.)
You can pick any member of the state Assembly, and chose one of these bills from 2021-22:
Assembly Bill 1245, which allows a defendant to petition a court to resentence them to a lower sentence after the defendant has served at least 15 years of their sentence. You can find analyses of the bill here (Links to an external site.).
Assembly Bill 1395, which declares the policy of the state to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2045. You can find analyses of the bill here (Links to an external site.).

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