CA: Environmental bills suffer as moderates unite - Latino Democrat defections cited

SACRAMENTO -- A group of moderate Democrats, many of them Latino lawmakers from Southern California and the Central Valley, united in the Assembly this week to defeat or significantly weaken a number of bills by fellow Democrats designed to impose new environmental regulations or consumer safeguards.

"This has been one of the worst years I can remember," said Mark Murray, who has been executive director of Californians Against Waste for 11 years. "It's shocking. I thought we had a majority of Democrats, but apparently we don't. ... Environmentalists are not getting any help in the Assembly."

Many of the same moderates were also responsible for turning back Democrat-sponsored legislation on two high-profile social issues -- to legalize gay marriage and physician-assisted suicide -- but in those cases there was no organized attempt to unite the moderates.

"We don't get involved in noneconomic issues," said Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, chairman of the Moderate Caucus.

Canciamilla, a maverick Democrat from Pittsburg, said his group was able to assert its agenda of job creation and economic stability by sticking together with Republicans to deny the Democrat-controlled Assembly the 41 votes needed to pass more than a dozen controversial bills that were opposed by business interests.

"I think you'll see that some of the more controversial measures will not be taken up," Canciamilla said Thursday afternoon as the Assembly moved into the final hours before the first bill-passing deadline of the session. "We measure success in a variety of ways."

The Moderate Caucus is an informal group with floating membership, but a core group of eight to 12 teamed to defeat Democrat-sponsored legislation opposed by business interests. Democrats control 48 of the 80 Assembly seats; if Republicans are united in opposition, eight Democratic defectors can defeat a bill.

Canciamilla credited his caucus' success to "the emergence of a more moderate wing of the Latino Caucus."

Assemblyman Joe Coto of San Jose, the top-ranking member of the Assembly's 18-member Latino Democratic Caucus, said the prominence of Latinos in the moderate group is "coincidental."

As a group, Coto said, the Latino Caucus is committed only to a set of what he called "guiding principles" that include improving access to college, creation of affordable housing, expanding access to healthcare and economic development.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said environmentalists may have more work to do in communicating their message to Latinos.

"I've got a very diverse district," said Nava, a member of the Latino Caucus whose constituents include both coastal-protection environmentalists in Santa Barbara and working-class Democrats in Oxnard. "When you have Latino members who come from highly urban areas, the environmental issues are a little different.

"There would be much to be gained in having leaders of the environmental movement sitting down and talking with the Latino Caucus."

Rachel Gibson, staff attorney for Environment California, said the opposition to some of the environmental bills by urban lawmakers was particularly disappointing. "Some of these moderate Democrats represent constituents who would be most affected," she said.

Sara Lee, spokeswoman for the California Chamber of Commerce, said the Moderate Caucus' action was a good start toward protecting the state's business climate.

"We applaud both moderate Democrats and Republicans who voted against these bills," she said. "We're very pleased that they recognize that there's a way to balance job creation and environmental protection, and that these bills didn't do it."

Among those that went down to defeat were six measures from the chamber's annual "job-killer" list -- the business lobbying group's top priority bills singled out for defeat.

They included a bill that would have required businesses that have settled lawsuits to make public those settlement agreements, a measure that would have required auto manufacturers to pay for the disposal of toxic mercury from salvaged cars and a bill that would have allowed private attorneys to bring civil lawsuits to force compliance with environmental and public health laws.

Murray, whose environmental group is best known for sponsoring the initiative that created California's bottle bill that required deposits on beverage containers to spur recycling, saw two bills sponsored by Californians Against Waste go down to defeat and a third greatly watered down.

The most significant of the three, he said, was a measure by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, that would have placed a fee on cigarette manufacturers to help pay for water treatment systems to prevent litter from washing through storm drains to the beach. The most common form of such litter is cigarette butts.

"It went down without a vote," Murray said. "We were told that the votes just weren't there."

Among those who helped scuttle it, he said, were lawmakers who, when they previously held local government offices, "screamed that we've got to solve this problem. ... But then they come to Sacramento and vote against it."

Murray said in many cases the description "moderate" has nothing to do with political ideology or the makeup of the districts individual lawmakers represent. "It has everything to do with the interests they raise money from," he said. "These moderate Democrats are freelancing for special-interest groups."

Pavley, whose district includes Port Hueneme and the southern and western portions of Oxnard, is one of the Assembly's most prominent environmental advocates. She said she is disappointed that so many Democrats, in her view, succumbed to the lobbying efforts of "very vocal and very active business interests. ... It was very hard to have a serious discussion of these bills based on their merits.

"Environmental protection as it relates to public health is very much a core Democratic value. A large number of Democrats, enough to block bills, don't agree with that."

Murray said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles should have done a better job of enforcing party discipline on environmental legislation.

After lawmakers finished their work Thursday night, however, Nunez pronounced the session a success and said that all the measures that had been backed by his leadership team had passed, with the exception of the gay marriage bill.

"You do have some diversity in our caucus," Nunez said. "Just because a bill is authored by a Democrat doesn't mean that bill's going to get out. You have to allow for dialogue and debate."

Canciamilla acknowledged that the moderates' independence has cause some tension within the Democratic majority.

"There's always a little bit of friction," he said. "We are a minority within the caucus."

Canciamilla said one measure of the moderates' success was their ability to persuade other Democrats to accept amendments that made various bills "less dangerous to the economy."

As the week progressed and the clout of the moderate group became more evident, Canciamilla said Thursday, "amendments that they were less inclined to accept yesterday they were more inclined to accept today."

Testament to that came in the final minutes of the session, when Long Beach Democrat Jenny Oropeza rose to present one last version of a bill that originally would have established a fee on the type of diesel fuel used by trains, ships at port and other heavy equipment. The fee would have been used to offset air pollution caused by the burning of the fuel.

After repeated failure to win passage of that proposal, Oropeza plaintively presented her watered-down version that requires only that the issue be studied.

Murray, whose environmental group is best known for sponsoring the initiative that created California's bottle bill that required deposits on beverage containers to spur recycling

Total BS.

Since most communities in CA use curbside recycling, the deposits are just another tax on consumers.

I would guess that very few consumers ever get their deposit back, since you have to first find a recycling center to return your empty bottles and cans to.

They included a bill that would have required businesses that have settled lawsuits to make public those settlement agreements, a measure that would have required auto manufacturers to pay for the disposal of toxic mercury from salvaged cars and a bill that would have allowed private attorneys to bring civil lawsuits to force compliance with environmental and public health laws.

I guess the poor attorneys will just have to keep using the ADA to troll for fees by shaking down small businesses for handicapped access "code violations".

Too bad. That new bill would have been a goldmine for them.

Where have I heard this before just with the topics and parties changed?

And that process begins in groups like this, groups that gather not around politicians and not around parties, but around principles – solid principles – and the most solid principle of all – Freedom.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said environmentalists may have more work to do in communicating their message to Latinos. "I've got a very diverse district," said Nava, a member of the Latino Caucus whose constituents include both coastal-protection environmentalists in Santa Barbara and working-class Democrats in Oxnard. "When you have Latino members who come from highly urban areas, the environmental issues are a little different.

Ties in with what I was saying on the McClintock thread. The liberal/enviro days are numbered. There are many pro-business latinos who have prospered under capitalism. They don't buy into the sky is falling, we need more gov't mantra like the San Francisco limousine liberals. The current trends of gov't employee union dominated politics is unsustainable, using these trends to project into the future is folly.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.