Date: May 31, 1996
Friends:
From: Kim Alexander
Subject: AB 2546/Speier Bill Goes Down Again...
As anticipated, Assembly Member Jackie Speier's motion to withdraw her electronic filing bill, AB 2546, from the Assembly Appropriations Committee failed today. The motion required a majority vote to pass (not a two-thirds vote, as I had originally reported), but it still could not obtain the necessary 41 votes required to withdraw the bill from committee.
Had the withdrawal motion succeeded, the full Assembly would then have been able to cast votes on whether or not the state should mandate electronic filing of political disclosure records. (The vote on the withdrawal motion is at the end of this message.)
Today was the last day that the Assembly could consider any Assembly bills this year, so the Speier bill is dead. Speier's item was the very last one considered today on the Assembly floor. The Assembly Members did not discuss the substance of the bill, although both Jackie Speier and Assembly Democratic leader Richard Katz both pointed out the strong editorial support for and media interest in the bill.
Both the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News endorsed AB 2546 in editorials today, and the Contra Costa Times featured an excellent column from their political editor Dan Borenstein today. Jackie Speier tried to read an excerpt from the Merc's editorial on the floor today, but her microphone was cut off by Curt Pringle.
The Los Angeles Times editorial asked, "What's to Hide, Sacramento?" and continued, "The state Assembly has a chance today to prove to Californians that its members have nothing to hide....." and concluded, "(t)his legislation ought to have the votes of all 80 members. Of those who sit on their hands during the roll call, Californians should ask, 'What do you have to hide?'"
The Los Angeles Times anticipated exactly what would happen: in fact, many members did sit on their hands and refused to vote either way on withdrawing the bill from committee. The vote was quite partisan:
35 Assembly Members voted for withdrawal (33 Democrats and 2 Republicans, Peter Frusetta and Brian Setencich);
21 Assembly Members, all Republicans, voted against withdrawal;
19 members abstained from voting (18 Republicans and one Reform Party member, Dom Cortese);
and 3 lawmakers (all Democrats) were absent today.As I mentioned in my last message, there is another electronic filing bill, AB 1026 by Bruce McPherson that is sitting in Senate Elections waiting to be heard; unfortunately, partisanship in the Senate is likely to kill that bill as well.
However, this is really the first time that the State Legislature has taken the issue of electronic filing seriously, and the numerous news stories and editorials on the topic that have been published in recent weeks, as well as letters and phone calls from constituents, all had an enormous impact; a lot of work went into killing AB 2546, as evidenced by the lengthy Assembly Republican Caucus analysis that was written up on the measure, as well as the hit piece that was distributed on the Assembly floor late last night, entitled, "What Jackie Speier doesn't want you to know about her Internet bill (AB 2546)".
All of the documents related to this bill, and other electronic filing legislation in California and elsewhere, will soon be available through a new web site the California Voter Foundation is establishing that will be dedicated to electronic filing. I will let you know as soon as the site is up and operable.
Now that we have a public record of where lawmakers stand on this issue, California's voters can decide for themselves which lawmakers stand for reform, and which choose to stand in the shadows.
Here is the vote:
Ayes - 35 Alpert
Archie-Hudson
Baca
Bates
Bowen
Brown
Burton
Bustamante
Caldera
Campbell
Cannella
Davis
Ducheny
Escutia
Figueroa
Friedman
Frusetta
Hannigan
Katz
Knox
Kuehl
Lee
Machado
Martinez
Mazzoni
Migden
Murray, K.
Murray, W.
Napolitano
Setencich
Speier
Sweeney
Tucker
Vasconcellos
Villaraigosa
Noes - 21 Ackerman
Alby Baldwin
Boland
Bowler
Brewer
Cunneen
Goldsmith
Granlund
Hawkins
Kaloogian
Knowles
Margett
Miller
Morrissey
Morrow
Rainey
Takasugi
Thompson
Woods
Pringle
Not Voting - 24 Aguiar
Battin
Baugh
Bordonaro
Brulte
Conroy
Cortese
Firestone
Gallegos (A)
Harvey
Hauser (A)
Hoge
House
Isenberg (A)
Knight
Kuykendall
McPherson
Olberg
Poochigian
Richter
Rogan
Weggeland
Vacancy
Vacancy
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation cvf@netcom.com 916/325-2120 http://www.webcom.com/cvf/Home | Legislative Updates | Publications | News Stories | Search