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Contributor
John
Campbell
John
Campbell (R-Irvine) is an Assemblyman representing the 70th
District
in Orange County. Mr. Campbell is the Vice-Chairman of the Assembly
Budget Committee. He is the only CPA in the California State
legislature
and recently received a national award as Freshman Republican
Legislator of the Year. He represents the cities of Newport
Beach,
Laguna Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Aliso Viejo, Laguna
Woods and Lake Forest. He can be reached through his Assembly
website
and through the website
for his California Senate campaign. [go to Campbell index]
 Election
Thoughts
Some
lessons to be learned from March 2...
[John Campbell] 3/29/04
How Your Legislature Works: One of the things that Governor
Schwarzenegger talked about during the recall campaign was the
way that the legislature regularly violates its own rules and
casts aside fairness at the whim of the majority. He suggested
reforms that would keep us from having to live under laws created
in the middle of the night without hearings and the opportunity
for public comment.
These reform ideas presume that a bill vetted through the committee
process in the legislature will have received the proper scrutiny.
Well, even that committee process is subject to some shenanigans.
The split in the Assembly between Democrats and Republicans is
48 to 32. Doing the math, that means that Democrats have 60%
of the seats in the body and Republicans 40%. You might assume,
therefore, that each of the 29 committees have a membership similarly
split to reflect the makeup of the entire body.
Wrong. You see, the Speaker of the Assembly has the nearly unchecked
power to set committee membership anyway he pleases. In the past,
this power is somewhat curbed by a desire to give the impression
of some evenhandedness. But the brand new Speaker, Fabian Nunez
(D- Los Angeles) is pushing his power beyond what can be considered
fair or democratic. Here are a few examples of his changes in
the committee structure which were effective last Friday.
1) Although
Republicans make up 40% of the Assembly, most committees now
have hugely
greater percentages of Democrats to ensure that
even the most liberal of agendas will have it's way. For example,
on the Appropriations Committee there are only 23% Republicans,
Government Organization Committee 29%, Insurance Committee (where
worker's comp reform is heard) 29%, Judiciary 27%, Business & Professions
31%, etc., etc.
2) Most Democrats serve on up to 6 committees, thereby giving
them the opportunity to vote in 6 committees. No Republican serves
on more than 5 and many serve on only 2.
3) The Speaker carefully removed Republicans from the areas
of their expertise where they might be the most effective, and
thereby cause his liberal agenda the most problems. I, for example,
have been removed from both the Budget and Insurance committees.
But there are many other instances of Republicans with expertise
and experience in energy, health or transportation being removed
from those committees.
This is not whining. It is merely to point out why many bad
bills will reach the Governor's desk this year and will require
his veto and why few Republican authored bills may pass at all.
And to demonstrate that the message of the recall still has not
gotten through to Democratic legislative leadership, it means
the voters may need to teach them another lesson in November. CRO
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