Dan Walters: Bass could face very tough year {Karen Bass, new California Assembly Speaker}

Sacramento Bee ^ | 2/29/8 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

The Capitol was in a celebratory mood Thursday as Karen Bass was ratified as the next speaker of the state Assembly and the first African American woman to hold such a position in California and national history.

It is, after all, generally considered to be California's second most powerful political position, albeit not as potent as it was before term limits, and Democrats were happy that they didn't suffer the embarrassment of a prolonged battle royal for the speakership.

Bass should savor the moment while she can because it won't last very long – she'll be forced out of the Assembly by term limits in 2010 – and because 2008 is shaping up as an especially contentious year in the Capitol.

It's not only an election year in which more than a quarter of the Legislature's seats will be turned over, now that voters have rejected an easing of term limits. It's also one that will be marked by high levels of ideological and partisan conflict over a deficit-ridden state budget.

Three of the Legislature's four partisan leaders are being forced out by term limits, and the speakership is the last of the three positions to be filled. As many as 10 Democrats vied to succeed Fabian Núñez. Bass, the Democratic floor leader, at one point appeared to be out of the running because she wouldn't commit to serving a full two-year term.

Depending on what happens in a fierce duel for a much-coveted seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in June, Bass would have a state Senate or a Los Angeles City Council seat available. But unless she agreed to forgo those opportunities, her fellow Democrats were unwilling to make her speaker. Once she acceded and other would-be speakers fell aside, Bass' commitments expanded until,...

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Hey! don’t scare me like that. I thought the title meant no bass fishing!

[Pilsner]

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[stefanbatory]

way to lure us in here...but there’s something fishy about this story...

[Disambiguator]

I thought this was a thread about musicians.

[OldSmaj]

Bass could face very tough year...

You got that right!

I cut my work day down to four hours, just bought a new Shimano reel and I've got a bunch of those biodegradeable worms and I found a new lightweight/heavy pound line and....Huh?

Oh, this ain't a fishin' thread?

Sorry.

Never mind.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

Me too!
I thought “Oh, man, they’re gonna kill the milfoil in Lake Guntersville!”

[SmithL]

Oh, this ain't a fishin' thread?

Oh, I dunno `bout that. I seem to have hooked quite a few.
; )