Just to recap: On March 17th, Assembly Speaker John Perez, at the behest of Senator Ed Hernandez (the driving force behind SCA-1), pulled the plug on SCA-5. On March 26, State Senator Leland Yee was arrested by the FBI on corruption charges. With the Democratic super majority in trouble due to two State Senators in hot water, Senator Yee was surely the nail in the proverbial coffin. As discussed in my earlier posts about the mechanics of all this, SCA-5 requires a two-thirds vote of both houses to get onto the ballot as a proposition. Without a super majority in both chambers, Democrats have no chance of bringing back SCA-5 any time soon.
So that means SCA-5 is dead right? As it turns out, SCA-5 may be dead as a bill, but it is ALIVE as an issue.
The California Latino Legislative Caucus and California Legislative Black Caucus, in a statement issued March 25th, blasted the Democratic leadership and Republicans:
We understand the desire of leadership to have further discussions about this important issue and are committed to ensuring the success of the bicameral commission on issues surrounding recruitment, admissions, and retention. However, we must not ignore the fact that the major reason this measure has been delayed is due to a malicious disinformation campaign being waged by disingenuous ultra-conservative partisans intent on denying equal opportunity for all Californians.And they started slamming fellow Democrats who had betrayed the cause.
That same day, six state legislators (Senators Ricardo Lara (Bell Gardens), Norma Torres (Pomona), and Holly Mitchell (Hollywood) and Assembly members Lorena Gonzalez (San Deigo), Anthony Rendon (Lakewood) and Jose Medina (Riverside)) withdrew their endorsement of State Senator Ted Lieu (who had joined Leland Yee and Carol Liu in asking for Senator Hernandez to slow down SCA-5) for Congress.
Today, members of the Latino and Black caucuses withheld necessary votes in a bill sponsored by State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi that would have expanded the number of vehicles entitled to use HOV / carpool lanes.
Sen. Holly Mitchell, the Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the Legislature's black caucus, said she was not surprised to hear that so many lawmakers withheld their votes on Muratsuchi's bill. Does she expect black and Latino Democrats to continue withholding votes from colleagues they feel do not support a return to affirmative action?
"Perhaps," Mitchell said, adding that lawmakers who believe in restoring affirmative action are concerned "that there is a lack of commitment to a core Democratic party priority."With Democrats attacking each other, is it a surprise that Republicans using SCA-5 as a wedge issue to divide the Asian-American community?
[At the state Republic Convention] California Republican Party vice chairwoman Harmeet Dhillon told reporters Saturday that her party’s candidates have been seizing on disaffected Asian voters across the state.
“It is just math that affirmative action suppresses Asian-Americans and Jewish Americans,” Dhillon said. “So that is going to turn out those Asian voters who live in California because their dream is to send their kids to UC Berkeley or UCLA or one of those top schools.”(See article)
Republican candidate Peter Kuo, on his campaign website, is keeping the issue alive by telling voters that SCA-5 will return after the November election. Also, as long as Democrats keep talking about it, Republicans like Kuo get to keep on talking about it too (responding to Black & Latino causus' joint statement).
So, to recap, SCA-5 was brought to life, killed off, and brought back to life again.
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