LA Times: State Democrats move to the middle this legislative session

As they gain strength, state Democrats act a bit like Republicans

Analysis: Although labor did better in the legislative session than business interests, the recession and coming election rules push for moderation.

Assemblyman Charles Calderon talks with Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Bakersfield, after Rubio failed to cast a vote on Calderon's measure to force some Internet retailers to begin collecting sales tax. (Photo by Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

 

By Anthony York and Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times

September 10, 2011, 6:15 p.m.

Times staff writer Michael J. Mishak contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

 

Reporting from Sacramento—

Democrats have more control of California government than they've had in nearly a decade, yet in the legislative session that ended early Saturday, they made some very Republican-like moves.

The Legislature the Democrats dominate passed bills that would ease environmental rules on some developers and order bureaucrats to be more business-friendly. And after battling for months to raise taxes, Democrats championed tax cuts for small companies.

Some of the moves were incremental, and business won, as usual, far fewer victories than Democrats' traditional labor allies. But the pro-business gestures abruptly scrambled the political dynamics in the state.

Industry groups that often fight Democrats stood by them while Republicans, who have barely any voice remaining in Sacramento, were relegated to the sidelines. The Democrats were merely offering, the Republicans protested, weaker versions of ideas they've promoted for years.

The shift is a combination of politics and necessity. The party's governor, Jerry Brown, prides himself on fiscal restraint, and most Republicans have moved so far right that even business groups can't reach them on some key issues. Democrats have seized the moment to try to co-opt some of the minority party's trademark positions and keep the GOP, in the words of one legislative staffer, "seven layers below irrelevant."

But the biggest factor is the economy. "The recession is forcing the Legislature to prioritize jobs above all else," said Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier).

Jobs were the explanation Democrats gave for virtually everything this year, including measures that would speed the resolution of environmental lawsuits against select development projects and Brown's $1-billion tax plan, which died in the final moments Saturday. Democrats also said a measure to convert up to 100,000 child-care workers into dues-paying union members was a jobs program.

Democrats did push through bills opposed by business interests.

They passed a measure to prevent supermarkets from selling liquor at automated checkout machines, a cause pursued by unions representing grocery workers. And they sent to Brown a bill that would require superstores to demonstrate that if they opened new branches, the local economy, parks, playgrounds and day-care centers would not be harmed.

And labor was still the main beneficiary of Democrats' legislative clout. In addition to the child-care measure, the party muscled through other last-minute bills that would make it easier for farmworkers to organize and harder for cities to void union contracts through bankruptcy.

Republicans contended that the bills showed the Democrats' jobs rhetoric to be hollow. During debate on whether to aid the developer of a proposed Los Angeles football stadium that unions said would spur jobs, Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) fumed that other businesses had begged for similar help and never received it.

"The way you pick winners and losers is through the unions who tell you guys what to do," she told legislators across the aisle, who ruled her out of order.

Dan Schnur, director of USC's Unruh Institute of Politics, said Democrats still clearly consider labor their top priority. But there's been significant movement "on issues where business and labor agree," he said.

"There's tremendous pressure on these members to do something to look like they're creating jobs," he said, so they're acting where labor and business interests converge.

Democrats found several such areas. Acknowledging complaints that companies flee California because of onerous regulations, they passed a bill that would require state authorities to consider the effect on business of any future rule. Some Republicans joined in.

One of the most vilified regulations is the California Environmental Quality Act, which can lead to years-long lawsuits that kill developments. After stipulating that lawsuits against the Los Angeles stadium project could last only 175 days, Democrats on Friday rushed through a measure that would allow the governor to choose other large projects to receive the same benefit. Again, some Republicans voted for the measure, but they complained it was too little, too late.

To qualify, projects would have to be certified as environmentally friendly — and, in a nod to unions, must pay laborers prevailing wages.

In a last-ditch push last week, Brown tried to shift California's tax structure, packaging it as a "California Jobs First Program." It would have ended a provision that benefited out-of-state companies that sell products in California, and shifted the $1 billion in savings mostly to small businesses. In addition, millions of California families would have been able to claim a higher standard deduction on their income taxes.

Though Republicans hold only a smattering of seats in each legislative house, they have leverage on tax matters, which require a two-thirds vote that is attainable only with some GOP support. Brown won passage of his tax plan in the Assembly but couldn't sway any GOP senators, and the measure died early Saturday.

In an interview Friday, Brown recalled that, earlier this year, some of the GOP's biggest business supporters urged the party to support an extension of tax increases that was included in his proposed budget. Republican lawmakers refused. The majority party pushed through its own spending plan on a party-line vote.

Now, Brown said, Democrats are occupying the political void created by the GOP, which he said is listening only to anti-tax activists and extremist talk-radio hosts.

The Republicans are now marching to a much more obscure drummer," Brown said. "And no great party can endure with any degree of strength if it turns itself over to an unelected, tiny group of individuals."

Last month, Capitol insiders gaped as Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, joined Democratic leaders to announce the new regulatory proposal to help businesses. Reporters asked why he was standing with lawmakers whose bills he had labeled "job killers."

Zaremberg replied: "I know how to count."

So do Democrats. Next year's elections could reshape California's political landscape with the onset of nonpartisan primaries and newly drawn legislative districts intended to increase the influence of moderates. By making gestures toward the center, Democrats can gain both an electoral edge and, potentially, campaign cash from business.

But the new flirtation could be tested in the coming weeks, when Brown is expected to propose a new pension plan for public employees that could directly pit labor against business. Industry leaders are happy to have the Democrats inching toward their side, but they say much work remains.

"One year," Zaremberg said, "doesn't make a trend."