JPAC Launches Inaugural Legislative Scorecard

Seventy State Lawmakers Receive Perfect Score in JPAC’s First-Ever Legislative Scorecard, Highlighting Support for Bills to Counter Antisemitism in Aftermath of October 7th

October 22, 2024

SACRAMENTO, CA — Today, the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC) launched its first-ever Legislative Scorecard. Every year, JPAC asks California legislators to support a robust set of bills that further the Jewish community’s top priority issues and values. The 2024 Scorecard provides transparency about how each state lawmaker voted on the Jewish advocacy group’s top priority bills.

JPAC scored 15 bills under consideration in the California Legislature in 2024, split into two categories: Countering Antisemitism & Hate and Supporting Vulnerable Communities. All bills were priorities of JPAC and dozens of Jewish organizations. Most scored bills were “sponsored” by JPAC, meaning the organization worked closely with the bill’s author and led the development, strategy, coalition-building, and advocacy efforts for the bill. These include major bills to teach about antisemitism in campus DEI trainings, protect ethnic studies courses from falling victim to antisemitic and anti-Israel content, and support new refugees. JPAC also scored bills that it “supported,” which means it joined an existing coalition to further a bill’s chances of success.

Of the 120 members of the California Senate (40) and Assembly (80), 70 lawmakers received a 100% score, demonstrating the wide support for the Jewish community in the California Legislature. The Scorecard also evaluates Governor Newsom’s performance and highlights the Legislative Jewish Caucus and nine other elected officials as 2024 Heroes.

View JPAC’s 2024 Legislative Scorecard here: https://jpac-cal.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/JPAC-Legislative-Scorecard-2024.pdf

“The horrors of October 7th and the subsequent meteoric rise in antisemitism have been a paradigm shift for our community,” said David Bocarsly, JPAC Executive Director. “We asked others to show up for us in a bigger way than ever before. And a great many did. Now, we’ve created a tool to highlight how our lawmakers answered our call. JPAC’s 2024 Legislative Scorecard is our opportunity to acknowledge and thank our champions in state government, and to respectfully ask for greater allyship from others moving forward.”

About JPAC:

The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC) is the voice of California’s Jewish community to the State Capitol. Composed of California’s leading Jewish community organizations, JPAC advocates in Sacramento on behalf of the Jewish community’s concerns and broadly shared values. JPAC member organizations – including Jewish Federations, Jewish Community Relations Councils, Jewish Family Service agencies, and others – collectively serve hundreds of thousands of Californians of all backgrounds and represent the interests of California’s 1.2 million Jews, making it the largest single-state coalition of Jewish organizations in the nation.

Since 2019, JPAC has successfully advocated for over $465 million dollars from the state budget for a wide range of community projects, including enhancing community security initiatives for institutions at-risk of being hate-crime targets, and expanding Holocaust education institutions.

For more information, visit us at http://jpac-cal.org.

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Contact: David Bocarsly, JPAC Executive Director, david@jpac-cal.org