The Wall Street Journal picks up on my California example of what happens when liberals have full control of government and adds this tidbit at the end on intermural contests in Dem primaries: "union-backed liberals beat moderate Democrats in 13 of 14 Democratic primaries earlier this year, according to Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council."
California's Liberal Flakeout Wall Street Journal ^ | August 21, 2002 | Review & Outlook
Political pros are predicting that Democrats could win control of both the House and Senate this November, for the first time since 1994. If you want to know what that could mean, look no further than California, where the legislature is partying like it's 1969.
The state that gave us Ronald Reagan has been trending left for several years, but a GOP rout in 2000 put liberals firmly in control of both state houses. Only Democratic Governor Gray Davis stood in the way of remaking Sacramento as Stockholm, and for a while he used his veto power to do precisely that. These columns praised him for it.
But then he bungled the state's electricity crisis, his approval ratings cratered and his re-election fell into doubt. Mr. Davis now needs his liberal base to turn out and vote this fall, and so he's giving the green light to what could be the greatest liberal legislative binge since Congress rolled over a Richard Nixon weakened by Watergate. Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters calls it a perfect liberal "harmonic convergence."
Mr. Davis has already signed a $3.5 billion increase in workers' compensation benefits, after rejecting a virtually identical bill three times as a job-killer. Last month he also signed a measure he once opposed that would put draconian limits on future "greenhouse gas" emissions from cars sold in California. Since Detroit can't make cars only for one state, Sacramento is in essence dictating higher auto costs for every driver in America.
And there's so much more coming. The "iron triangle" of interests that dominates the legislature -- trial lawyers, environmentalists and labor unions -- is now pushing its entire wish list, in the expectation that Governor Davis will sign anything that moves before the legislature adjourns on August 30.
Already heading for the governor's desk is a bill to increase union power by mandating binding arbitration in disputes between farm workers and growers. Another bill already passed would allow local governments to develop their own labor laws. This liberal favorite opens the door to a proliferation of local mandates for "living wages," aka salary minimums, and new demands that business hire only union workers if it wants government contracts.
State Senator Sheila Kuehl, of the People's Republic of Santa Monica, is also close to passing her bill to force nearly every business in California, no matter how small, to offer paid family leave. Federal law currently mandates only unpaid leave and exempts small businesses. But Ms. Kuehl would force business to pay workers for not working. This $2-billion-a-year burden would hit job-creating small businesses the hardest, since larger companies have more personnel flexibility and are better able to absorb new costs.
Unions are also likely to get a bill to lock in a permanent annual increase in the state's minimum wage. The trial lawyers are bidding to limit confidential lawsuit settlements, a way to guarantee more litigation and longer trials. Other mandates on tap include an expanded right to sue health plans, a requirement for employers to retain two different accounting firms, and a rule that if companies offer severance pay to any worker they must offer it to all workers.
And we can't help but note Senate President John Burton's bill to let Native Americans block development by designating "sacred" tribal sites on either public or private land. The legislation, which would accept "oral history" evidence of sacred sites, is ripe for abuse and could halt the building of power plants and roads in a state that needs both. But it's a liberal double play: Anti-development and pro-racial identity.
What's especially remarkable is that this deluge hasn't been tempered by either California's slow economy or its budget crisis. Governor Davis's energy mismanagement has contributed to a structural state budget deficit of some $50 billion over the next five years. The pols have put their fingers in the dike this year by proposing higher cigarette taxes and the like, while saving the big tax hikes for next year, after the election. But they seem oblivious to the fact that their new rules and mandates will drive business from their state.
California now sends one of every six Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives, so their liberal clout will surely be felt if Dick Gephardt becomes Speaker. All the more so because union-backed liberals beat moderate Democrats in 13 of 14 Democratic primaries earlier this year, according to Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council. President Bush would retain his veto power, but that's also what Californians once said about Gray Davis.