California’s Yes Man: Meet the Democratic lawmaker who has never said no to a bill

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Democrats control the California Legislature vote “no” on average less than 1% of the time. But one Assemblyman stands out even among this group of “yes” men and women.

Mike Fonga Democrat from Monterey Park, is the only one of California’s 120 state lawmakers who has never voted “no” on a law, according to Digital Democracy database.

Fong dutifully said “yes” during committee votes and pressed the green button at his desk on the Assembly floor 9,389 times since he was sworn in on February 22, 2022.

Fong chairs the Assembly Higher Education Committee and serves on the Assembly Appropriations and Budget committees, giving the Los Angeles County Legislature significant influence over how billions of Californians’ tax dollars are spent each year.

Fong’s office did not respond to an interview request from CalMatters this week. His office also declined to make him available earlier this year to discuss his voting record to CalMatters and the CBS News investigation in the voting trends of the Legislature.

The April investigation revealed that California’s Democratic lawmakers vote “no” so rarely that critics say most of the more than 2,000 bills introduced each year appear to be decided in advance behind closed doors.

With the Legislature adjourning for the two-year session in August, the latest Digital Democracy data shows the pattern hasn’t changed. Democrats voted “no” less than half of 1 percent of the time. Forty-seven of the 120 legislators voted “no” less than 10 times. During the two-year session, a Democratic lawmaker had an average of about 4,800 opportunities to vote on bills.

The fact that Fong has yet to say “no” to any of the thousands of bills he has considered over the past 33 months was one of the main reasons Long “David” Liu decided to run against Fong in this year’s elections. Liu, a Republican attorney who runs a City of Industry law firm, is a safe bet in the Democratic district that includes large Asian American communities southeast of Pasadena.

“It is such a sacred job to vote as a member of the Assembly on laws that would affect every person who lives in the state of California,” Liu told CalMatters. “And he’s casting his basic vote without knowing what the bill is about, without knowing what it’s about. I mean, that alone is scary.”

Fong said no, but not to a bill

One of the Legislature’s most prominent critics was also baffled by Fong’s tendency to vote yes so often.

Scott Kaufmana lobbyist for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and a frequent critic of Democratic spending policies, told CalMatters that at first he couldn’t believe Fong had never voted no. He checked his group’s internal vote tracker and confirmed Digital Democracy’s findings. Kaufman said that since Fong votes yes on so many bills, he sometimes votes for the ones the tax campaigner group supports. Still, Kaufman said he hopes Fong didn’t reflexively vote yes on everything.

“If they’re hitting the ‘yes’ button just to hit the ‘yes’ button, I’m worried,” he said.

Fong voted “no” earlier this month, but it wasn’t for the legislation; it was on a procedural motion.

Fong hit the no button along with 49 other Assembly Democrats in response to a Republican motion to delay Gov. Gavin Newsom’s special session on gas price hikes. Republicans opposed the session, saying any new fuel regulations would only increase gas costs for consumers. Moments after Fong and his colleagues dropped the Republican motion, Fong pressed the green button, sending a bill regarding refinery regulations at Newsom’s office.

MPs say not voting is no big deal

CalMatters and CBS News in April revealed that instead of voting “no,” many lawmakers aren’t voting at all. In the Legislature, a non-vote counts the same as a “no” vote because legislative rules require a fixed number of “yes” votes for a bill to move forward. Lawmakers regularly hold off voting on controversial bills as a way to avoid upsetting colleagues or angering powerful lobby groups that might see an official “no” vote as an insult.

When it comes to not voting, Fong has done so only 75 times in 9,465 opportunities. In other words, for every 100 bills Fong had the opportunity to vote on, he voted “yes” 99 times. The average non-vote rate for Fong’s fellow Democrats is about 5%.

The Legislature’s online vote tracking database does not distinguish whether they are non-votes due to absencesabstentions because a deputy has a conflict of interest or if he has just refused to vote.

Democratic leaders of the Legislature have repeatedly refused to respond to CalMatters’ questions about concerns that not voting is shirking responsibility for their decisions. Some veteran lawmakers also recently told CalMatters that they don’t think absenteeism is a big issue. “I don’t think it’s a problem,” said the outgoing Democratic Assembly member. Kevin McCarthy from Sacramento. “I think that’s a problem that, you know, you and the reporters fix. I think the bill either passes or it doesn’t. I don’t think there’s much drama in it.”

McCarty has failed to vote 120 times this year in more than 2,500 opportunities. He voted “no” nine times.

Brian Maienscheina San Diego Democratic Assemblyman who is also being called out agreed. Maienschein has not voted 55 times this year in more than 2,400 opportunities. He cast four “no” votes.

“A bill needs 41 yeses to pass, right?” he said. “So, I mean, if you don’t vote yes, you don’t push the bill across the finish line. … I didn’t see that as something that I found was a big problem.”

CalMatters Digital Democracy team members Thomas Gerrity and Hans Poschman contributed to this story.