# Caucus Power-Mapping — methodology

**Version:** v1.0 · **Verified:** 2026-10-01 · **Sources:** official caucus pages on legislature.ca.gov, official legislator/Senate office pages, reputable news (CalMatters, LA Sentinel, Daily 49er, California Courier), Wikipedia member tables (cross-checked).

This note documents how SILobbyist's caucus data was built, what "verified" means, and what a lobbyist should and shouldn't conclude from it. Goldie reads this; so should you.

## What a caucus is (and isn't)

California's legislative caucuses are **informal member organizations**, not standing committees. They cannot refer, hear, or kill bills. Their power is real but indirect:

- **Bloc discipline.** When 29 Progressive Caucus members (nearly half the Assembly's 60 Democrats) vote together, they can kill a bill *inside the Democratic caucus* before it reaches the floor.
- **Agenda-setting.** Caucus priority packages get hearings, press, and the governor's pen — e.g., the Black Caucus's "Road to Repair 2025" package and the Jewish Caucus's annual Tikkun Olam package.
- **Signaling.** A caucus position tells leadership exactly where a bloc stands, functioning as a pre-floor whip count.
- **Close-vote leverage.** The 18-member Jewish Caucus is roughly the margin on a tight floor vote; its position decides outcomes.

Floor math for context: 41 votes in the Assembly and 21 in the Senate to pass a bill (54/27 for urgency measures). No single caucus can pass a bill alone — but several can kill one.

## Sourcing approach (in order of preference)

1. **Official caucus pages** (e.g., latinocaucus.legislature.ca.gov, blackcaucus.legislature.ca.gov) and the Assembly's official caucus directory.
2. **Official member office pages** (senate.ca.gov / aXX.asmdc.org) — used to verify officers and individual memberships.
3. **Reputable news** — CalMatters, LA Sentinel, Daily 49er, California Courier, EIN Presswire releases.
4. **Wikipedia member tables** — used only where cross-checked against (1)–(3). Wikipedia is never the sole source for a verified roster.

## What "verified" means here

A caucus is marked **verified** only when its full 2025–26 roster could be assembled from the sources above without guesswork. Five of the 13 caucuses meet that bar:

| Caucus | Members | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| California Latino Legislative Caucus | — | ❌ (chair only: Sen. Lena Gonzalez, per CalMatters Jul 2025) |
| California Legislative Black Caucus | 12 | ✅ (LA Sentinel leadership announcements) |
| California AAPI Legislative Caucus | — | ❌ (chair only: Asm. Mike Fong, Sept 2026 release) |
| California Legislative Women's Caucus | 58 | count only (official announcement; no published roster) |
| California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus | 14 | ✅ (official member profiles, cross-checked) |
| California Legislative Progressive Caucus | 29 | ✅ (Assembly's official caucus page) |
| California Legislative Jewish Caucus | 18 | ✅ (officers via official release; roster via cross-checked table) |
| California Armenian Legislative Caucus Foundation | 56 | ✅ (foundation announcements via California Courier, Aug 2026) |
| California Legislative Veterans Caucus | — | ❌ (founded 2026; five reported members only) |
| California Legislative Tech & Innovation Caucus | — | ❌ (co-chairs verified live on official site; no roster) |
| California Legislature Outdoor Sporting Caucus | — | ❌ (co-chairs partially verified; no roster) |
| New Democrats (Mod Dems) | — | ❌ (informal; last roster 2018, all termed out) |
| California State Legislature Rural Caucus | — | ❌ **dormant** (official site is a 2007 archive) |

Unverified caucuses are included deliberately — a lobbyist who doesn't know the Women's Caucus exists is flying blind — but their rosters are never invented. The data marks them `membership_verified: false` and the UI shows **"membership unverified — see source"** with a note explaining what is known and what isn't.

### Corrections and caveats discovered during research

- **Tech Caucus co-chairs:** older coverage names Asm. Irwin and Asm. Evan Low. Low left the Assembly in Dec 2024; the live official site now shows **Asm. Jacqui Irwin and Asm. Patrick Ahrens**.
- **Veterans Caucus:** founding coverage named "David Archuletta" — no such legislator exists; this is almost certainly **Sen. Bob Archuleta**, recorded here with the discrepancy noted.
- **Jewish Caucus associates:** Blanca Rubio, Susan Rubio, and Rick Chavez Zbur serve as associate (non-Jewish) members; they are counted in the 18-member roster with that status noted.
- **Women's Caucus:** the 58 figure comes from the caucus's own 2025–26 leadership announcement (37 Assembly, 21 Senate, with Senate gender parity). Membership effectively tracks women legislators, including Republicans; the caucus is bipartisan.
- **Latino Caucus:** excludes Republicans (reported at roughly three dozen members during 2023–24 50th-anniversary coverage).

## Overlap method ("power brokers")

The power-broker view counts, per legislator, how many **verified** caucus rosters they appear on, and ranks legislators sitting in **2 or more**. Chamber and party come from SILobbyist's legislator directory (`data/legislators.json`), with an accent-insensitive lookup plus explicit spelling aliases ("Chris Ward" → Christopher Ward, "Jose Solache" → José Solache, "Suzette Martinez Valladares" → Suzette Valladares).

Findings from the verified rosters (2025–26):

- **3+ caucuses (12 legislators):** Sade Elhawary (Progressive/Black/LGBTQ), Chris Ward (Progressive/Jewish/LGBTQ), Alex Lee (Progressive/LGBTQ/Armenian), Jesse Gabriel (Progressive/Jewish/Armenian), Dawn Addis (Progressive/Jewish/Armenian), Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (Progressive/Jewish/Armenian), Marc Berman (Progressive/Jewish/Armenian), Matt Haney (Progressive/Jewish/Armenian), Corey Jackson (Progressive/Black/LGBTQ), Rick Chavez Zbur (Jewish/LGBTQ/Armenian), Patrick Ahrens (Progressive/Jewish/Armenian), Mark González (Progressive/LGBTQ/Armenian).
- **2 caucuses:** Isaac Bryan, Tina McKinnor, LaShae Sharp-Collins, Mia Bonta (Progressive + Black); Scott Wiener (Jewish + LGBTQ); Gail Pellerin, Maggy Krell, Susan Rubio, Blanca Rubio (Jewish + Armenian); Mike Fong, Robert Garcia, Liz Ortega, Robert Rivas, Celeste Rodriguez, Chris Rogers, Catherine Stefani, Nick Schultz (Progressive + Armenian); Caroline Menjivar, Sasha Renée Pérez, Jose Solache (LGBTQ + Armenian); Laura Richardson, Mike Gipson (Black + Armenian).

## What's missing (and why that's fine)

Full rosters for the Latino, AAPI, Women's, Veterans, Tech, Outdoor Sporting, and Mod Dem blocs aren't published by the caucuses themselves. Rather than fabricate them, SILobbyist shows exactly what is verified and flags the rest. The overlap view therefore *understates* multi-caucus membership — legislators in unverified caucuses may hold more seats than shown. Re-run this research each session: caucuses elect new officers every two years (usually in even-year Decembers) and rosters shift with elections.

**Last reviewed:** 2026-10-01. Next review: after the 2026 general election, when 2027–28 officers are announced.