Posted on 10/17/2004 12:15:17 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO -- Assembly Democratic leaders thought they were doing Assemblywoman Nicole Parra a favor when they installed her as chairwoman of the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee.
It's no secret that she was given the job to give her a chance to win points with one of the more conservative voting blocs in her tight re-election battle this year. It didn't work out that way.
When politically active veterans got together in Clovis on Monday night and listened to both candidates, they endorsed her Republican opponent, Dean Gardner.
The fact is, Parra probably never had a reasonable chance to win the majority of veterans over to her side. But Parra herself made some choices that made it more difficult.
Both the Assembly and the Senate have veterans affairs committees. Although important legislative issues involving veterans come up occasionally, the committees are inherently political. The main job of the committees, especially the chairs, is to keep veterans happy. Veterans aren't a big source of campaign contributions, but when they get stirred up, they can be an influential voting bloc.
Typically, the committees put out a steady stream of non-controversial bills and resolutions saluting veterans for this and that and tweaking state benefits for veterans when any money is available.
Parra was appointed to the post early last year by then-Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles. Wesson himself made a big point of courting veterans, personally sponsoring a bill to authorize five new state nursing homes for elderly veterans.
But, to begin with, many veterans considered it an insult when a young woman with no military experience was named to head the committee that oversees legislative issues for veterans.
That was a departure from the common practice of picking fellow veterans to head the committees.
In the Senate, the most visible member of the Veterans Affairs Committee in recent years was the late Pete Knight, R-Palmdale, a retired Air Force colonel who won fame as a test pilot. He undoubtedly would have been chairman of the panel if he hadn't also been a member of the Senate Rules Committee. Its members aren't allowed to hold chairmanships because it controls the membership of all committees.
Parra's chairmanship was plagued with bad timing and bad luck.
First, the state Department of Veterans Affairs, the target of almost all substantive policy decisions by the committee, has been plagued by mismanagement and scandals in recent years.
The Cal-Vet home loan program it operates is a constant source of complaints. The fund raising for a major veterans memorial on the Capitol grounds in Sacramento nearly foundered before state officials stepped in and rescued it.
Parra also stepped into the post just as the department decided to close the skilled nursing facility at the state veterans home in Barstow after a series of patient deaths attributed to problems with their care. It was a highly unpopular decision among many veterans and their families in that part of the state.
Parra also got caught in the middle of an internal political battle among veterans. The state has long helped fund county veteran's service officers, usually full-time county employees who help veterans obtain services they're entitled to.
Veterans groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars do the same thing for their members and others. But they do it for free.
That has been a growing source of resentment among veterans groups. Last year, they mounted a lobbying campaign to try to get some of that state funding for their efforts.
"We have volunteers who do the same things as county veterans service officers who get paid pretty good," said John Lowe, the VFW's state commander. "We argued that either the state was wasting its money or we should be paid, too."
County service officers resisted the shift, fearing a cutback in their funding.
Lowe said Parra sided with the county workers initially, until they worked out a compromise that promises no reduction in the current level of state funding for the county officers.
Although Parra voted for the compromise measure, the incident left the VFW sulking.
By then, many veterans were already upset with Parra over her handling of an emotionally charged gay rights issue.
It involved a bill by openly gay Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, who wanted to create a commission that would build a memorial to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender veterans.
It was vehemently opposed by the VFW and most other traditional veterans groups. Lowe and others insist that does not reflect a bias against gays, but a belief that veterans should not be divided into subgroups like race or sexual orientation.
The bill was initially rebuffed by Parra's committee. That had the blessing of Wesson and other Democratic leaders who felt that forcing Parra to vote either way on the bill would be politically dangerous, offending either veterans or gay rights groups.
Kehoe was eventually persuaded to water down the bill. She agreed to remove the homosexual references and call for a commission that would screen all veterans memorials.
Parra agreed to vote for it on that basis, but there was a scheduling problem. By the time Kehoe made the decision, there wasn't time to get it rewritten before it had to clear Parra's committee.
So, technically, Parra ended up voting for a bill that called for a gay and lesbian veterans memorial.
It was clear that the bill was going to be rewritten, but Parra and Democratic leaders may have misjudged the reaction of the groups.
They were not appeased, charging that the bill was a smoke screen. Lowe said they suspect the first memorial to be proposed under the bill will be the gay and lesbian monument Kehoe wanted.
Their suspicions were fueled by the fact that even before the bill was passed, a gay veterans group persuaded the Department of Veterans Affairs to let it install a small plaque honoring gay veterans in the big Capitol Park veterans memorial.
That enraged the VFW and other veterans groups.
Lowe said some veterans talked about donning their old camouflage fatigues and digging up the plaque in the middle of the night.
In any event, the VFW and other groups are mobilizing to ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to have the plaque removed.
So it was a rocky two years for Parra as chairwoman of the veterans committee.
Vets' organizations have not forgiven her for supporting the Kehoe bill, regardless of its final wording.
And to complete the irony, Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure.
ping
Nicole Parra comes from and represents Hanford, where my sister in law lives. I hope they dump her... she's a wimpy Dem without any principles. She pretends to be conservative at election time but otherwise she blows with the wind.
Thanks for posting this. I hadn't seen it. I'm surprised the reporter wrote such a fair piece.
Well on the evening of 10-19-04 I had a call from ROBERT who represents the gay community and he says they are up in arms over my website (http://www.nicoleparra.com) and those TV commercials. All of this is VERY OFFENSIVE to the gay/lesbian, etc., community. He says they are going to bombard me with angry phone calls, etc. They know where I live and they know my phone number and they are going to get all of their friends and supporters to start flooding me with what, I don't exactly know, but I am going to be sorry, so says Robert.
I told him they can't take a joke. It's a parody. Do you know what a parody is, Robert? He said he's very smart and well educated and he knows what a parody is. He says the gay community is very supportive of Nicole Parra and they don't appreciate what we're doing. He came short of calling it HATE SPEECH but he did threaten me with legal action.
I say they just can't take a joke. I said it's supposed to be funny. He said they're not laughing. I tried to be polite but if this keeps up and he follows through with his threat, I will start taping every phone caller. I will warn them first that they are being taped. They'll probably watch their p's and q's or hang up.
I will NOT tolerate harassment of me and my family. My husband is not physically able to handle anything like that but even if he weren't sick, I wouldn't tolerate it.
I looked at your site and cracked up. They sure don't like it when it's them being made fun of or having their poor character pointed out.
I liked the part at the bottom that talked about her wealthy campaign donors. Very funny. Also, you make a good point by showing that there is no information available on her if you do a search.
I admire your dedication to putting your name out there and standing up for what you believe in and being willing to take the flack from the opposition. They sound mean. Be careful.
This has been a vicious battle. Last I heard Gardner was down by 2 points but still in margin of error.
Gardner has the support of the conservatives despite Parra's unholy attacks.
I wouldn't say I'm a gay veteran. I'm quite often happy, though.
Would that qualify me for a plaque?
Who is Wendy?
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