<!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ --></p> <p>from <a href=""https://calmatters.org/author/sonya-quick/"" title=""Posts" by="" sonya="" quick="" class=""author" url="" fn="" rel=""author"">Sonya Barza</a>CalMatters</p> <figure> <img decoding="async" width=""1200"" height=""800"" src=""https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/010726-MYLEGITN-GH-CM-v5.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1"" class=""attachment-post-thumbnail" size-post-thumbnail="" wp-post-image="" alt=""Graphic" of="" my="" legislator="" logo="" next="" to="" a="" collage="" ca-elected="" assembly="" members="" and="" senators="" the="" capitol="" building="" state="" seal="" decoding=""async"" srcset=""https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/010726-MYLEGITN-GH-CM-v5.jpg?w=2001&ssl=1" https:="" sizes=""(max-width:"/><figcaption>Illustration by Gabriel Hongsdusit, CalMatters</figcaption></figure> <p>This story was originally published by <a href=""https://calmatters.org/"">CalMatters</a>. <a href=""https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/"">Sign up</a> for their newsletters.</p> <p>CalMatters is launching a free tool to help Californians follow, engage and hold their legislators in Sacramento accountable in a powerful new way.</p> <p>Our new tool is a personalized weekly newsletter called <a href=""https://calmatters.org/my-legislator/"">My legislator</a>which delivers key updates about your California State Member and Senator straight to your inbox. We track everything legislators say, vote and enact, and more, so Californians can keep up with their elected leaders and keep elected leaders accountable to their constituents.</p> <p><a href=""https://calmatters.org/my-legislator/"">Sign up for My Legislator</a>. And if you need help confirming who your state representatives are, don’t worry, our registration process has you covered. </p> <p>This session, lawmakers will consider about 5,000 bills before adjourning in August. These bills regulate so much of Californians’ quality of life as state lawmakers make decisions about K-12 and college education, courts and prisons, health care, the environment, transportation, housing and homelessness, and the cost of living in the world’s fourth-largest economy. The state has an annual budget of over $300 billion and is allocated another $200 billion each year by the federal government.</p> <p>That’s why every week during the legislative session, My Legislator tells you:</p> <ul> <li>How your legislators voted (or if they missed a vote)</li> <li>What did they say?</li> <li>Historical context around who funds and influences them</li> <li>Bills that are authored as they make their way through the legislative process</li> <li>How they measure up to their peers on bills passed, votes missed, bipartisanship and more </li> <li>Messages from their offices</li> <li>What the numbers mean and how the legislative process works</li> </ul> <p>Last fall, we tested our My Legislator for a month and put it into beta with just under 3,000 readers. The feedback we received was amazing:</p> <ul> <li>“The My Legislators newsletter provides useful information that is not available without a deep dive and a significant investment of time.” – Bill, Petaluma</li> <li>“I get emails from both my state and federal representatives. But they only report what they want me to know. The CalMatters My Legislators newsletter tells me at a glance what bills they’re writing, what they’re saying in the media, and especially how they’re voting. It’s so helpful.” – Tracy, Oceanside</li> <li>“The information about my representatives in the My Legislators newsletter is very revealing. I didn’t know any of this, even though I’ve been deeply involved with civic groups for some time. Thank you, CalMatters.” -Susan, Los Angeles</li> <li>“I’m glad to get this knowledge for my legislators in the CalMatters Digital Democracy newsletter! I wouldn’t know any of this information if it wasn’t for this service.” – Jeff, Vallejo</li> </ul> <p>Data on what is being collected in real-time from every California state assembly member and senator through Digital Democracy, a CalMatters project using technology and data to increase transparency, accountability and understanding of California state legislators and the decisions they make about state policy.</p> <p>This article was <a href=""https://calmatters.org/inside-the-newsroom/2026/01/my-legislator-launch/"">originally published on CalMatters</a> and is republished under <a href=""https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives</a> license.</p> <p> Copy the HTML
