Posted on 11/28/2004 8:41:25 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO -- A new Legislature, rattled by a federal corruption probe centered in the East Bay, returns in about a week to a highly unpopular "partisan cesspool" that voters worsened and should help fix very soon, says a new report from an independent, nonpartisan think-tank. Term limits have largely backfired, spurring rather than squelching political-ladder climbing and behind-the-scenes games, analysts said. In recent weeks, the investigation swirling around Senate leader-elect Don Perata, D-Oakland, has only worsened the crisis in the face of weighty issues such as the state's persistent, multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
"Legislators are learning more quickly than in the past, but frequent changes in the membership, and especially in the leadership, are taking a toll," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berk eley, and a co-author of the report by the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California.
Here are the highlights of how things stand at the Capitol, based on numerous interviews, with Perata taking over from veteran, termed-out Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco:
Perata, known as a tough wheeler-dealer, faces a potential coup attempt from Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, who narrowly lost to Perata and denies what other lawmakers and Ca pitol insiders say -- that she's counting votes and hoping to oust the embattled Perata.
The drama could come Dec. 6, when the Legislature returns for a brief 2005 organizing session, or early next year, depending on developments in the probe and surrounding circumstances. The federal investigation centers on whether Perata and his relatives received payoffs through one of his former aides, now a powerful Oakland lobbyist, for approval of contracts or projects -- assertions Perata denies.
Other liberal Democratic senators are looking at a run for the post, if Escutia doesn't seize the opportunity.
Some Republican lawmakers would secretly like to see nothing more than Escutia, or another lawmaker criticized by some as a shrill liberal -- such as incoming veteran Democratic legislator Carole Migden of San Francisco -- get the job and deal ineffectively with popular GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Senators from both parties are hedging their bets by publicly expressing support for Perata, in case he survives the scandal.
If the rattled Senate fails to regain its earlier status as the more stable house, a relative newcomer, Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, could become the second most powerful politician in California after the governor. A wily politician, San Francisco Democrat Willie Brown, and some of his predecessors, held that unofficial title for years as Assembly speaker.
Amid those main plots are woven subplots, all a reflection of the type of politics that have flourished under term limits that voters approved in 1990, according to the PPIC study.
"While term limits are neither the populist victory its proponents had in mind nor the unconditional disaster some predicted, the reform has seriously undermined the effectiveness of the state's legislative branch and should be modified," the study said.
In both houses, committees now screen out fewer bills assigned to them and are more likely to see their work rewritten at later stages, the report said.
As a body, the Legislature is less likely to alter the governor's budget, and its own budget process fails to encourage fiscal discipline.
The study also found that term limits altered but did not revolutionize the type of legislator who comes to Sacramento. Specifically, the term-limit initiative accelerated trends of increasing female and minority representation that were already under way in California.
Rather than representing a new breed of "citizen legislator," however, new members after term limits behave a great deal like their predecessors, arriving with local government experience and running for another office -- usually an Assembly or Senate seat -- when their terms expire.
Even the major figure behind Proposition 140, which enacted California's term limits, Pete Schabarum, has voiced his discontent with the results.
"What I was hoping was that we would have a group of 120 legislators who were actually private citizens willing to give a piece of their lives to public service. None of that is happening. It's becoming a partisan cesspool," he said.
The PPIC report, among other things, suggests amending the proposition to limit legislators to 14 years of total legislative service in either house. Currently, members are allowed six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate.
"This minor reform would not erode the gains brought by Proposition 140 in terms of increased diversity and could greatly increase the experience and proficiency of state legislators," said Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, who co-authored the report.
Wait until the legislature is all Latino and watch the corruption rise to levels one can only dream of. Then watch the prejudice against white Californians really take off.
I never liked term limits in their current form for the reasons discussed at length in the Federalist. The better answer is to do more to support the ability of a challenger to reach the public with free air-time.
The Californians had their chance and a clear choice this November. They blew it big time, as they've done in the past.
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.