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Fearing backlash, California Democrats chart centrist path

08 September 2013 03:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Democrats in California have a level of power they have craved for years, holding the governorship and large legislative majorities, but to the consternation of some party faithful - and the surprise of many Republicans - they are reining in some progressive impulses, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Fearing a backlash from moderate voters, party leaders have held back on a number of touchstone issues, spending less than many wanted on social programs and placing a proposal to weaken the state's tax reform law, Proposition 13, into legislative limbo.

With the 2013 legislative session ending on Friday, a package of gun control measures has been held up for months, while a bill to regulate fracking, the process of extracting oil from rock by injecting it with water and chemicals, passed only after a proposed moratorium was removed.

"We have been modest," said Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat. "We have used the super-majority selectively and strategically."

Democrats won two-thirds majorities in both houses of the legislature last year, giving them the power to pass tax increases or put constitutional amendments to voters without any Republican cooperation.

Governor Jerry Brown is also a Democrat, and the combination had been widely expected to spur quick passage of bills on a wide variety of progressive issues.

Indeed, dozens of bills - on fracking, gun control, taxes and other topics - were quickly submitted but many were ultimately derailed.

"When it was confirmed that we had two-thirds control over the legislature, there was a lot of speculation that we would be going after Proposition 13 and things like that," said John Vigna, spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Perez. "And it's not where we wanted to go."

To be sure, the legislature remains firmly in the liberal camp with regard to many social issues. Last month, lawmakers passed a bill that, if signed by Brown, would allow nurses and other medical professionals besides doctors to perform some first-trimester abortions.

Brian Jones, who chairs the Assembly Republican caucus, said such actions make him skeptical that Democrats were really charting a more moderate path. The proof, he said, will come before lawmakers recess next week, when gun control bills and other measures that had been shelved are likely to come forward.

Even so, Jones said he was surprised Democrats were not more heavy-handed. "They're not pushing the two-thirds advantage as much as I thought they were going to," he said.