As we often say here on the FR Blog, we really aren’t in the practice of writing about the internal politics of legislative caucuses.  That having been said, it’s been reported by Capitol Weekly and the SacBee’s Capitol Alert that tomorrow Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines will step down.  This, of course, follows a tremendous amount of internal and external pressure to see a change in this position after Villines negotiated and provided one of the key votes for the largest tax increase in California history.

Capitol Weekly is reporting that Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee of the Central Coast will be the next leader.  Blakeslee is a close ally of Villines, and we can presume that his taking the helm would be as a result of a "friendly hand off" by Villines, who probably realized that his days as leader were numbered (especially if, as expected, the ballot measures that he has championed go down in defeat later this month).

The odd and curious part is that while Blakeslee is widely respected for being an honorable man and a fair broker, there is no getting around the fact that on the issues, if you exclude the recent budget deal, Blakeslee is the least conservative member of the caucus. 

An early supporter of AB 32, Blakeslee supports the greenhouse gas emissions standards that have and continue to create massive regulatory burdens on Californians.  In 2008, he received a 60 from the Sierra Club — indicating an alarming amount of support for their extremist environmental agenda.  Also in 2008, he voted with the League of Conservation Voters more than any other GOPer.

On the life issue, it speaks volumes that in 2006 he voted the Planned Parenthood position on the bills they care about nearly half the time. 

I am not bringing up all of these policy issue to "attack" Blakeslee — hey, he’s a really nice guy and I like him a lot.

My concern is that Blakeslee, with the idea that he has to represent a more "moderate" Coastal seat, is well to the left of main stream Republicanism.  It is not the normal course to pick such a geographically leveraged legislator and tap them to be the leader. 

Invariably that leads to built in conflict.  Does he represent his own positions, or those that are held by the vast majority of his colleagues?

I will close by saying that unlike over 2/3rds of Assembly Republicans who oppose Proposition 1A for its $16 billion in higher taxes, Blakeslee has staked out a "no public position" position on Proposition 1A.  Oh, and he also voted to place the open primary measure on the June 2010 ballot.

There are probably a host of other controversial positions that Blakeslee holds, to the left of the GOP mainstream.  But this all happens in "real time" so it is hard to gather info that quickly.

I wonder if Blakeslee’s public positions on all of these policy matters were even a factor for those of his colleagues who have signed onboard with his ascending to the top spot?

It would appear that by replacing the controversial Villines with a controversial (on the issues) Blakeslee, we will be in for some new challenges (for example, would GOP caucus staff now "score" bills for members based on how Blakeslee would vote?)…

Clearly Villines’ stepping down is a concession that the budget deal represented bad policy and bad politics.  We’ll see how Blakeslee, if in fact he is the pick tomorrow, fares as he faces a terrible budget situation.

Republicans need to circle the wagons and fight as a team against the big-spending, big-taxing agenda of Democrats.  As a conservative, however, it would be disingenuous of me not to be open with my concerns about such a moderate GOPer becoming leader.   That said, Ishould he in fact become leader tomorrow, I wish Blakeslee luck, and will offer whatever assistance I can to see him successfully advance a Republican policy and political agenda…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.