The Big Five is an informal institution of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

, consisting of the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

, the Assembly speaker, the Assembly minority leader, the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

president pro tempore, and the Senate minority leader. Historically, members of the Big Five met in private to negotiate California's state government budget. These meetings were held under governors

George Deukmejian Courken George Deukmejian Jr. ( ; June 6, 1928May 8, 2018) was an American politician who served as the 35th governor of California from 1983 to 1991. A member of the Republican Party, he was the state's first governor of Armenian descent. B ...

Pete Wilson Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Wilson previously served as a United S ...

Gray Davis Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003. He is the second state governor ...

, and

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...

. In

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, California voters passed Proposition 25, which reduced the threshold to pass a budget from a 2/3 supermajority to a simple majority. As a result, the votes of legislators from the minority party were no longer needed for the legislature to pass a budget, reducing the impact of the minority leaders on budget negotiations. However, a 2/3 supermajority was still required if the budget contained tax increases.

Current members

*Governor:

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

(

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

) *Assembly Speaker: Robert Rivas (Democrat) *Assembly Minority Leader: James Gallagher ( Republican) *Senate President ''pro tempore'': Mike McGuire (Democrat) *Senate Minority Leader:

Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones r ...

(Republican)

GOP 5

During budget talks in 2011, five Republican state senators broke with their party and were willing to negotiate with Governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

about placing propositions on the ballot to extend tax increases. The five senators, known as the "GOP 5" as a tribute to the "big 5", were

Tom Berryhill Thomas Charles Berryhill (August 27, 1953 – August 29, 2020) was an American Republican politician. He was a member of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors from January 7, 2019, until his death. He previously represented the 8th distr ...

Sam Blakeslee Samuel Blakeslee (born June 25, 1955) is a former Republican California State Senator representing California's 15th State Senate district which included the counties of Santa Clara, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. H ...

Anthony Cannella Anthony Joseph Cannella (born March 22, 1969) is an American politician who previously served in the California State Senate. A Republican, he represented the 12th Senate District, which encompasses all of both Merced and San Benito counties, ...

Bill Emmerson William Emmerson (born October 28, 1945) is a former Republican California State Senator who represented the 23rd district in Riverside County. He previously represented the 37th Senate District, having been elected in a June 8, 2010, special ...

, and

Tom Harman Thomas George Harman (born May 30, 1941) is an American politician. He is a former Republican member of the California State Senate who had previously been a three-term member of the California State Assembly. Both seats represent portions of ...

References

Politics of California {{California-poli-stub