High drama surrounding CA AB1400 (21R) by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) had made it the highest-profile piece of legislation remaining from last year.

Kalra told progressive Democratic activists that he didn’t bring the bill up for a floor vote because he anticipated the bill would have failed by a double-digit margin. He concluded that a futile vote would only have made it more difficult to cultivate support from other lawmakers for a bill next year.

“Putting them in that position knowing the bill wouldn’t pass anyway would have further alienated them,” Kalra said on a Monday evening call.

But he still faced fury from supporters who had invested their hopes in the bill’s passage, many of whom challenged Kalra’s decision and urged him to name resistant Democrats so they could launch campaign challenges.