Posted on 08/05/2002 9:29:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Conduct questions up close and personal for two state politicians SACRAMENTO -- For two state lawmakers -- one a Democrat and the other a Republican -- the issue of ethics has become very personal in recent weeks. Assemblyman Dean Florez, a Fresno-area Democrat, says he was fired from his role as head of the inquiry into the state's ill-fated Oracle software contract because he was too tough on Gov. Gray Davis' administration In another instance, Sen. Maurice Johannessen, a Redding Republican who faces term limits this year, sided with the dominant Senate Democrats on the state's deadlocked 2002-03 budget in exchange for funding of local programs. Angered that Johannessen broke ranks, fellow GOP senators kicked him out of the Senate Republican Caucus. Though Democratic Assembly leaders deny Florez' claim, the assemblyman says "there is no other way to interpret" his removal, not only as chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, but also from the panel, on which he had served for four years. "The folly of this strategy is that it now raises public mistrust on the entire Legislature," Florez says. The assemblyman, who plans to run for the state Senate, says he now won't automatically vote with other Democrats the next time they try to pass the stalled budget out of the Assembly. Florez says that even though the Oracle hearings were "painful and embarrassing for many," oversight has an important role to play in uncovering and preventing political corruption. "While an alarm clock may be loud and uncomfortable, it certainly wakes you up," he says. But Florez concedes that "not everyone appreciates an alarm clock." "Punishing folks for aggressively seeking the truth has throughout history always seemed to backfire in one way or another," he says. "What the current leadership doesn't realize is that this move is an affront to the folks who ultimately do set the rules -- the voting public." Johannessen, meanwhile, says he provided the sole Republican vote needed to pass the deficit-plagued budget out of the Senate after Democrats agreed to blunt tax increase proposals opposed by the GOP. Though Johannessen gained funding for local governments and programs benefiting rural counties in exchange for his vote, he says those deals will help many areas outside his north-state districts. The senator's subsequent removal from the Republican caucus revealed many GOP senators "would rather pursue the route of political rhetoric with statements against taxes, while offering little in the way of budget solutions," he says. Johannessen suggests his fellow Republican senators were happy to "set me up as the fall guy," allowing them to "not take responsibility for inevitable cuts and tax increases." "This is a clear example of a Republican Senate without true backbone or leadership," says Johannessen. "Maybe the Republican Caucus should have cast one more vote before they left town (for summer recess) and voted themselves hypocrites of the year," he says.
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