Yet another 2/3-vote stalemate in Sacramento

WHAT IF SOMEONE asked you to vote to extend the unemployment benefits of nearly 300,000 jobless Californians in a way that wouldn't cost state taxpayers a dime?

Would you do it?

Even with state unemployment figures now running at 10.1 percent, local Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Moorpark) couldn't bring herself to vote for AB 23 3X, which would help unemployed workers for an additional 20 weeks, all with federal stimulus money.

It seems like a no-brainer, but Strickland sat on the sidelines along with 17 of her GOP colleagues, including Cameron Smyth, (R-Santa Clarita) and intentionally failed to vote. Another nine had the nerve to just vote against it.

Just one more vote Monday night and this bill to help our struggling families would have passed. Is it always a fait accompli that we must grovel for one Republican vote every time a 2/3 vote is required?

A GROUP OF UNEMPLOYED local tradesmen who had heard about Monday night's incomprehensible outcome decided to voice their opinions about it today at a press conference outside the Oxnard Employment Development Department.

"This bill's not going to cost California taxpayers one penny," Steve Weiner of the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties Building Trades Council told a group of around 50 unemployed workers. "We're telling them they need to approve this bill. It's time for them to do their job."

Marilyn and Leo Valenzuela told me they were up in Sacramento when the vote occurred and were very angry about it, especially when they attempted to lobby Audra Strickland to get it passed and the meeting didn't go well. They were perplexed that Strickland Chief of Staff Joel Angeles did not seem to know much about it. "He didn't even know how she voted," Marilyn said.

Marilyn, executive secretary-treasurer of the Tri-County Central Labor Council, had been honored on Monday by Assemblyman Pedro Nava as the 35th District's "Woman of the Year." She and her husband decided the Oxnard press conference was too important to miss.

"We got up at 5 a.m. and drove from Sacramento and pulled into the parking lot at 12:30 today," she said.

NEARLY 1.8 MILLION CALIFORNIANS are currently unemployed; about 1 million are receiving unemployment benefits. For 70,000 of those people, benefits will run out in a month. Sacramento Democrats sought to get AB 23 3X passed in time to help these folks. The measure is expected to bring in an estimated $2.5 billion to $3 billion in federal stimulus money for 20 weeks of additional emergency unemployment benefits during 2009.

Later today I talked to 35th District Assembly candidate Susan Jordan, who was also up in Sacramento on Monday. "I was at a dinner listening to Hilda Solis -- probably the most inspiring Labor Secretary we've ever had -- and she was telling us how this administration is helping working families," Jordan said.

"At the same time, two blocks away, the Republicans were refusing to extend unemployment benefits. It was outrageous. I don't know how any of them can justify this."

UPDATE Monday 3/23/09: The Assembly passed the bill today on a 76-0 vote. For more, go here.

FURTHER UPDATE Thursday 3/26/09: The Senate passed the bill today on a 38-0 vote, along with its companion measure which updates unemployment benefits. For more, go here.

And so it went with the final outcome of the state senate race between Hannah-Beth Jackson and Tony Strickland. Jackson lost by just 857 votes to an opponent who ran the dirtiest, most deceitful campaign I have ever witnessed.

It was the blog entry that never got written.

But today brought news that finally drew me out of the deep well I had been residing in, a well dug by a temporary loss of faith in our system of democracy. It was a pit dug even deeper by an incident that I witnessed last summer in which I once thought justice would never be served.

Today I heard that Assembly member Audra Strickland's chief of staff -- and Tony Strickland's former chief of staff -- will indeed go to trial for actions that occurred June 17 outside a Westlake fundraiser for Tony's campaign.

The State Attorney General's Office has filed a complaint in Ventura County Superior Court against Joel Angeles on four counts: interference with civil rights (involving Louis Pandolfi of Simi Valley); battery causing serious bodily injury (involving Jack Phillips of Camarillo); battery (involving Pandolfi); and battery (involving Sandy Quiring of Simi Valley). The trial is scheduled for Feb. 6.

These incidents allegedly occurred against three people gathered to protest the acceptance of more than $130,000 in direct and indirect campaign contributions from the tobacco industry for Tony Strickland.

As one of more than 50 anti-tobacco protesters at the Hyatt Westlake, I am also one of 11 witnesses who had to provide a statement about what I had seen that day. I remain unwavering in my account that Angeles' actions were unprovoked and I watched as 67-year-old Phillips, a minister, was knocked to the ground. Phillips later underwent surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

LEGAL EXPERTS TELL ME that Angeles could serve a year in jail for each offense, and while he could work out a plea bargain arrangement, the civil rights complaint will make it harder to do so. The violation of Pandolfi's civil rights was filed as a "hate" crime and the battery against Phillips was filed as a major crime with great bodily injury. These charges were carefully crafted to open the door for a civil lawsuit as well as restitution.

No doubt forces were at work throughout the election season to keep the story under wraps. And the file seemingly languished on Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten's desk for an eternity before he recused himself and passed it up to the State Attorney General's office.

Despite the sensitive nature of his office, Totten was a most ardent campaigner for Tony Strickland. The recusal was certainly warranted.

I am more than happy to let the courts determine the final outcome and have no wish to try this case via the press. But the decision today restored my faith that sometimes people determined to do the right thing can prevail.