California's Ugly Skin Game (Jill Stewart On Insiders' Stacking The Deck Alert)

It should be a ripping good show in Sacramento in 2005, since the only place more torn by debilitating race, gender and cultural tension than the California State Assembly and State Senate might be a high school cafeteria seething with rival gangs.

I realized this when I saw two lists of recent appointments announced by Republican and Democrat leaders to top jobs and committee chairmanships coveted by state senators and assembly members in Sacramento.

To sum up, the Republicans are wallowing in the 1980's, still knuckle-dragging with a crew of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men, only slowly adding women and minorities. Equally out of touch, in a different way, are the Democrats, stuck at an imaginary 1960's peace protest where Latinos, blacks, Asians and gays control things---and icky WASP men are quashed.

In Sacramento, the parties reflect Californians about as accurately as a cracked old mirror.

This is why little of value will be accomplished by the California Legislature, which has just launched its 2005 session with enough hot air to blast a man around the globe.

The Republican Party of California and Democratic Party of California are owned by fringe-y special interests, who spend money to elect the people who are then awarded these leadership spots by the party leaders. It’s a nasty little circle of mutual admiration.

The result is an extreme over-preponderance of white, Christian, ultra-conservative men among the Republican legislative leaders, and an extreme over-preponderance of urban ultra-leftist ethnic and gender warriors among the Democratic leaders.

Who among them will speak for the California majority---the hardworking middle-class taxpayer who is neither an ideologue of the right or the left and doesn't care about a politician's religion, skin color or sexuality?

Our legislators, hurtling toward the extremes like a Political Big Bang, don’t care that Californians describe themselves largely as “moderates“---not as liberals or conservatives. Nor do our legislators care that aside from the singular behavior of black voters---who vote together as a racial monolith in local and statewide elections---Californians do not vote in rigid racial or ideological blocs. We saw that as more California Latinos opted this time for George W. Bush than did in 2000.

So it’s particularly galling to see two lists, released on the same day before the holidays, by Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Republican Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, that reflect Sacramento’s unfettered racial, ethnic, gender, religious and cultural divisions in all their dark glory.

Ackerman’s list looks like a Conservative White Guy sign-up sheet from an evangelical society mixed up with a roster for an exurban Rotary. (Note: Ackerman did not control every appointment. Some Republican appointments are made by the majority Democrats. But even those Democratic appointments accurately reflect Senate Republicans: conservative White Guys.)

Take Dennis Hollingsworth, announced as the vice chair of Budget and Fiscal Review. Sure, he's a friendly, sometimes even charming guy. But Hollingsworth begins many of his comments in the legislature with an attack on abortion rights, regardless of the topic at hand. He‘s such an ideologue that he’s easily baited by Democrats. It‘s not productive, nor is it good for his party.

Other White Guys selected include Jim Battin and Roy Ashburn, vice chairs of the Rules Committee, and Jeff Denham, named chair of Agriculture. White Guys for vice chair include: Bill Morrow of Veterans Affairs, of Energy and of Judiciary; Sam Aanestad of Appropriations; John Campbell of Business Professions and also of Labor; Battin of Elections; Denham of Government Organization; Bob Dutton of Government Modernization and also of Revenue; George Runner of Health; Dave Cox of Local Government; Bob Margett of Natural Resources; Ashburn of Public Employment; Chuck Poochigian of Public Safety; Tom McClintock of Transportation.

Republicans did drum up one Latino---the moderate Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria, who will be vice chairman of both Human Services and of Education. Talk about your lonely voices.

Still, we can’t neglect the Democrats. Beginning in the 1980’s, the Democrats began building a Tower of Babble based on race, ethnicity and gender that has become increasingly hateful, unjustifiable and impenetrable.

One former Democratic consultant in Los Angeles tells me, “What started out as a reasonable strategy, to bring minorities into office, has gotten out of control. Democrats divide the state up by race to the point where each [legislative] seat in Sacramento is designated by skin color. You can’t run if you aren’t the color. Voters don’t like it. We could lose the middle class to the Republicans, just as the South lost it to the Republicans.”

I was disappointed but not surprised when Nunez announced his 14-member Non-White Guys Plus Gals leadership team of five Latinos, three blacks, two Asians, three white women and one gay man.

Beyond his clear distaste for putting white males on his Democratic leadership team, Nunez excluded all political moderates, reaching into a pool of angry urban leftists and very green leftist newcomers.

The only arguable moderate is Majority Floor Leader Dario Frommer, who once told me he is a “raging moderate.“ But he’s not, really. Frommer slavishly votes against pro-business initiatives and for anti-business laws. He votes for new taxes and against true budget cuts. I’ve seen little moderation from the slick-talking Frommer.

Nunez’s Non-White Guys Plus Gals includes, for Latinos, Lori Saldana, Majority Whip; Cindy Montanez, Rules Committee chair; Joe Baca Jr., Rules member; Joe Coto, Rules member; for blacks, Karen Bass, Majority Whip; Mark Ridley-Thomas, Democratic Caucus chair; Mervyn Dymally, Rules member; for Asians, Leland Yee, Speaker Pro Tempore; Judy Chu, Appropriations Committee Chair; and for gays, John Laird, Budget Committee chair. Add three very liberal white women: Rebecca Cohn, Sally Lieber and Betty Karnette.

Technically, Laird, a member of the California Legislature’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus, is also Sole White Guy.

Laird and Nunez were among the “Squawk Box Seven.“ These highly partisan Democrats met in secret on July 21, 2003 to strategize ways to further delay the disastrous, nearly month-late state budget under former Gov. Gray Davis---and then try to blame it on utterly innocent Republican legislators.

Unbeknownst to them, their scheming was being accidentally broadcast over a live intercom throughout the Capitol, was heard by hundreds of people, and was widely publicized. Now, these divisive folks are in charge of the Assembly.

I find it interesting that, after making a terrible mess of its party, the California GOP seems to have reached the seventh stage---of acceptance. They finally admit they will remain a minority party as long as they don‘t broaden their tent. Moreover, they are acting upon it.

Jim Brulte, the former powerful California Senate Minority Leader who was forced out by term limits, now openly discusses the fact that his party is far too white bread to succeed in California.

Brulte tells me, “Look, I describe myself as a pro-life, anti-gay rights, pro-gun, pro-business, anti-environment guy. But if [moderate Santa Cruz Republican Sen.] Bruce McPherson hadn‘t been there with me in the Senate, I would have been the liberal in the Republican Caucus. Me!”

Despite his conservative views, Brulte realizes how absurd that fact is. He’s a conservative modernist. He was admired in Sacramento for trying to recruit minorities and women for office.

Now a private Inland Empire consultant to businesses at California Strategies, he is also chairman of the highly strategic Bench-Building Program of the California GOP, which helps elect minority Republicans to school boards and city councils.

Says Brulte: “We now have minority Republicans on school boards and on city councils … and two Latinos running for District Attorney. … Next, we’ll move them up to higher office. I know we have to reflect California. I look at the Republicans in the California delegation to Congress, and what do I see? I see 20 white males---every one of them a white male. That has to change.”

I think it’s refreshing that the Republicans are open about their fatal flaw. Brulte's attitude is probably scaring the daylights out of the Democrats, even if they won't admit it.

By contrast, the Democrats in Sacramento have yet to admit to their own ugly tendencies in the opposite and equally boneheaded direction. Why should they? They’ve been winning elections. They believe they are in the catbird seat with California voters. But I think they are in danger of believing their own press as they push their agenda further and further left. Key leaders in Sacramento have already announced a plan to push for gay marriage and drivers licenses for illegal immigrants.

Tony Quinn, a political moderate and co-publisher of the California Target Book, which assesses California politics, says the Davis recall “was set off by the Democrats‘ leftward tilt in the legislature. Yet we can see that these legislators clearly did not learn that lesson.”

Quinn suggests, and I agree, that the Democrats could alienate enough voters to begin losing other statewide races to Republicans, such as attorney general, state treasurer, controller and secretary of state. He thinks Nunez “is a weak Speaker” who doesn’t get it.

“The Democrats are creating a major problem for themselves with white voters, as well as an emerging problem with Latinos,” says Quinn. “When you look more closely, recent elections show the Democrats have atrophied. The growth in votes is in Republican areas where George Bush picked up points in 2004 with Latinos, over what he got from Latinos in those areas in 2000.“

It took Republicans 30 years to recognize their disease. I wonder how long it will take the Democrats.

As you can imagine Jill Stewart is a middle of the road Democrat. And she doesn't like the way both parties feather their nests at the expense of the state's taxpayers. Most Californians like to be in the middle, not at the extremes. Does the State Legislature represent them? No way, Jose. The prevailing ethos in Sacramento is, We'll go our way and let the people of our state suck wind. That's the mutual admiration society among State Capitol insiders. None of them gets it. We're sick and tired of their petty political games

Talk about stirring the social bucket! She pretty much insults every group in town.
Hey Jill... what about what they think? Who cares what sex or color they are.

T H A T'S * H E R *P O I N T. She does say Republicans are starting to get it. But Democrats are still locked into the color, femmes, and gays mode of representation.

T H A T'S * H E R *P O I N T.

Ummm... if you think that, you certainly didn't get my point. I'll just take these two as an example:

"...fact that his party is far too white bread to succeed in California. "
"...I think it’s refreshing that the Republicans are open about their fatal flaw"

Her presentation is obnoxious. I could care less what color a candidate is. The only "flaws" I find with politicians are their beliefs and principles (or lack thereof). Quit talking about race and start talking about the issues and what they're going to do to address them. That's it. The rest of this nonsense just ignores what they are hired to do: Legislate!

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