Democratic assemblywoman Parra banished from Capitol for withholding budget vote

Yesterday, Hanford assemblywoman Nicole Parra was booted from her office in the Capitol building across the street to the Legislative Office Building, where, despite the name, no other legislators have offices. The move is apparently not unusual for Sacramento; there is one office in the Capitol building that is so small it’s compared to a broom closet, but even these tight quarters were apparently not punishment enough for Parra.

Why the forced move? The Bakersfield Californian fills us in:

Parra has pledged to only vote for the budget if a water bond is passed by the Assembly. “She is committed to seeing a vote on the water bond,” Chernow said.

And that’s exactly the problem, said Assemblyman Hector de la Torre, D-South Gate. “It wasn’t the vote itself,” he said. “It was the way she went about it, making her vote conditional.” While Parra is casting her move as standing up for her district, in reality she has become so isolated from her colleagues that she won’t be able to accomplish anything, he said.

Danny Gilmore, the Republican running to succeed the termed-out Parra, said he supports her. “Good for her,” he said. “She’s doing what she should be doing, representing her district.”

State Sen. Dean Florez — whose mother, Fran, is running against Gilmore — took the opposite view. “Creating ultimatums for a budget vote is one of the main reasons why we don’t have a budget on time. It’s a terrible form of vote trading that voters don’t necessarily appreciate,” Florez, D-Shafter, said in an e-mailed statement.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Parra knew something was in the works:

“I knew that I would be punished some way, somehow,” Parra said. But she said her Central Valley constituents should be disgusted at the way she was disciplined.

“I represent the same amount of people the speaker represents,” she said. “Why should my constituents, because I’m fighting for them, not have access to me in my office in the Capitol building?”

Parra also said leaders have refused to put her bills up for a vote.

Bass, D-Los Angeles, declined to comment, calling Parra’s move an “internal caucus matter.” Other Democrats said Parra was taking the state “hostage” with her water demand.

“It’s outrageous that any member, Democrat or Republican, of this Legislature, would force the children and the elderly and the disabled people of California to continue to suffer without a budget because of the narrow interests of their own district,” said Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank.

The Fresno Bee issued this editorial, saying Speakerwoman Bass’s frustration is misplaced, and pointing out the budget didn’t have a snowball’s chance in h-e-double toothpicks of passing anyway, with or without Parra’s vote:

Bass huddled with her advisers and decided to teach Parra a lesson. It was a little like a frustrated child getting whooped on the playground so she went home and punched her kid sister. The speaker would have been better served figuring out common ground with the Republicans on the budget.

The final budget vote was 45-30, nine votes short of the 54-votes needed to pass a budget. No Republicans supported the Democratic plan and Parra was the only Democrat at the session that abstained. The remaining Assembly members did not attend the session.

We support putting a water bond on the November ballot, although we aren’t ready to oppose the budget if a water deal falls through. The state is 50 days into the fiscal year and Democrats and Republicans have ducked their responsibility.

Bass should toss the entire Assembly out of the Capitol if she wants to punish people who have failed Californians.

But if Republicans can vote against the budget because of their opposition to tax increases, Parra surely can abstain on the budget because she thinks her constituents deserve a solution to the water crisis.

Bass’ reaction to Parra revealed more about her weaknesses as speaker than it did about the Hanford Democrat not being a team player.

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