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Most California lawmakers love to talk, but some hardly say a word.
Since the legislative session began in December, the average lawmaker has spoken for 6.3 hours. But eight lawmakers have talked for around an hour or less – six of them Republicans, who are a superminority in the Legislature, according to a CalMatters Digital Democracy analysis.
Quiet Republicans include a trio of assemblymembers from Orange County and a north state senator. Two other quiet Republicans represent competitive Assembly swing districts in the Inland Empire. A pair of Democratic assemblymembers – one from the San Joaquin Valley, the other representing the Chino area – also have been keeping their thoughts mostly to themselves this year.
“I don’t waste time on performative politics,” Orange County Republican Kate Sanchez said in an emailed statement. “If more of my colleagues did the same, we would have significantly more productive conversations at the Capitol.”
Sanchez spoke for just over an hour so far this year. Many of her remarks were on her short-lived bill that sought to prevent transgender students from participating on a girls interscholastic sports team.
The striking differences in speaking are found in the CalMatters Digital Democracy database, which tracks every word spoken during public hearings in the California Legislature.
But does talking equal effectiveness? Not necessarily.
A Digital Democracy analysis found no link between speaking time and whether a lawmaker’s bills got signed into law during the last two-year session.
That doesn’t surprise Thad Kousser, a former legislative staffer and political science professor at UC San Diego.
“That kid who always has his hands up in class may not always be the one everyone listens to,” Kousser said.
Does talking make lawmakers effective?
Instead, success seems mostly to be about the types of bills lawmakers introduce rather than how much they talk about them. Lawmakers from both parties who regularly author controversial legislation are less likely to see theirs pass, regardless of how much they talk about them.
Personalities and relationships with colleagues matter, too.
One example: Bill Essayli, a firebrand Republican representing the Corona area, often spoke critically of Democrats in speeches that made him the eighth-most talkative among the 26 Republicans last session.
None of his bills passed. Like his fiery floor speeches, many of Essayli’s bills were intended to score points with his Republican base. Democrats who control the Legislature killed them out of spite, even the few that weren’t particularly controversial.
By comparison, Sen. Megan Dahle, representing the Redding area, had the highest bill success among Republicans, despite being the third-quietest member of the Legislature last session.
Members of both parties like Dahle personally. Her bills also tend not to be particularly controversial. They typically focus on local issues important to her constituents.
But that doesn’t mean speaking isn’t an important political consideration for lawmakers, Kousser said.
“No legislator is convinced to vote ‘yes’ on a bill because of a floor speech,” he said. “A floor speech doesn’t change people’s minds about a bill; it changes people’s minds about a legislator. Who is this person? What do they stand for?”
Case in point: Democrats may have killed all of Essayli’s bills, but his speeches critical of Democrats made for a steady stream of social media and news clips that caught the attention of those in President Donald Trump’s orbit. This spring, Essayli quit the Legislature after Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, made Essayli the interim U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles.
Fresno’s quiet lawmaker says he’s effective
Fresno Democratic Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula has spoken for 55 minutes so far this year and has been significantly quieter than he was last session.
But he challenged whether his speaking rate was an accurate reflection of his involvement and impact in the Legislature.
“The original number of words spoken means very little to me as I think you can get more across in fewer words and be just as effective as those who speak more,” Arambula said in an interview with CalMatters’ reporting partner, Fresnoland. “So I don’t put any weight or validity toward that number at all.”
Arambula said he has avoided not becoming less engaged in the Legislature after Speaker Robert Rivas removed him from the Assembly’s health committee. Arambula had discussed challenging Rivas for the leadership seat. Arambula, an emergency room doctor, has filed to run for a Fresno City Council seat in 2026.
Arambula said speaking is less important than what lawmakers do for their communities.
“I have a responsibility to make sure that our community is represented well,” Arambula said. “I believe you do that most effectively by returning resources.”
Arambula said he played a key role, despite a tough budget year, in Gov. Gavin Newsom including $100 million for infrastructure in Fresno’s downtown and Chinatown as part of a $300 million commitment. Newsom paused state funding for the city’s infrastructure last year.
“No one else was able to return resources for their community like we were,” Arambula said.
Quiet lawmakers unavailable for interviews
Perhaps not surprisingly, the other quiet lawmakers either didn’t respond to interview requests, or their spokespeople replied with emailed statements.
Republican Assemblymember Greg Wallis, who won his Inland Empire Assembly seat in 2022 by one of the smallest margins in state history, has largely stayed silent on the dais since. So far this year, he’s talked for 38 minutes.
“I love the irony of chasing the quiet Assemblymembers for an interview,” Wallis spokesperson Colin Hawley said in an email. “Greg is all about consistency, so in this instance, he’s choosing to keep his words few and let his votes do the talking.”
The most silent by far is Sen. Dahle. She talked for just seven minutes so far this year. Never particularly chatty on the dais to begin with, Dahle had a stroke in late 2023. It’s now difficult for her to form words, so she mostly stays quiet.
After taking time off to recover, Dahle gave a brief floor speech last August while still a member of the Assembly.
“Speaking’s hard, but I’m doing it,” she said, while fighting back tears.
This year, much of the seven minutes Dahle spoke were on the Senate floor during another emotional speech supporting a stroke resolution.
In an emailed statement, Dahle said she has “that much more time to listen and to discern what is good for my north state constituents and what is not” when she’s not speaking in hearings.
She said she is still fighting on issues such as wolf attacks on livestock, illegal marijuana growing and the state’s rural water supply.
Democratic Assemblymember Michelle Rodriguez, elected last year to represent the Chino area, spoke for only 34 minutes. A spokesperson said she was too busy for a phone interview last week while the session is on summer recess.
A spokesperson for Assemblymember Leticia Castillo, a Corona-area Republican who has talked for 52 minutes since narrowly winning her Assembly seat last year, didn’t return messages.
Spokespeople for Orange County Republicans Tri Ta, who spoke for 65 minutes, and Phillip Chen who spoke for 28, also didn’t return interview requests.
Former Stockton-area Democratic Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, who termed out of the Legislature last year, said some of the most persuasive lawmakers are those who provide thoughtful commentary at the right moment instead of blabbing all the time.
“If you’re just talking to have words, quickly you’re going to get eye rolls, and people drift away,” she said. “People don’t listen if you’re just talking.”
Digital Democracy’s Thomas Gerrity and Foaad Khosmood contributed to this story.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
