Preamble
The position of the Republican Party is that state government is too big, and spends too much. That taxes should be cut, and many government-funded programs be eliminated. Families should be able to keep more of their tax dollars, to spend as they would see fit, not shipping them to Sacramento through high taxes and onerous fees, to be redistributed by politicians to their various causes.
If everyone would ingrain that into their thinking on policy debates, then there would a better understanding about why Republicans in the legislature are not hip on drinking the ‘bipartisan’ Kool-aid being poured by Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator Perata and Speaker Nunez right now. You see, the Democrats are only willing to jump on board the ‘bipartisan’ bandwagon when it means that government regulations will increase, a new program will be created, or more spending will be authorized.
There is an axium — the compromise between no new spending and increased spending — is increased spending.
It’s nice to throw the ‘bipartisan’ label out there, but let’s see a bipartisan plan to lower tax rates, a bipartisan plan to reduce regulation, or a bipartisan plan to slash spending by state government. Those are the kinds of ideas that Republicans can embrace.
ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS RE-ORGANIZE; VILLINES OF FRESNO IS NEW LEADER
It is traditional that within a couple of days of each General Election, the legislative caucuses in the State Assembly gather to formally elect their leadership for the coming session. The Democrats gathered and re-elected Speaker Fabian Nunez to lead the Assembly Democrats, and the institution as they are the majority Party. Assembly Republicans gathered yesterday afternoon for many hours, debating amongst themselves the future of California, and how to make Assembly Republicans most relevant in the process.
Based on my understanding here is my 30,000 foot summary. Discussion centered around the best strategies to deal with the new paradigm in Sacramento, the change in political direction taken by Governor Schwarzenegger, and the challenges that Assembly Republicans had last year in being relevant to the process. It was all to clear that the Governor and his staff were very comfortable brokering deals with the Democratic leaders, coming to Republicans only in the end to garner some votes on issues requiring a two-thirds vote.
In that context, Assembly Republicans decided that they would be best served by electing Fresno 
Assemblyman Mike Villines (pictured to the right) to be the Republican leader. As has been written about elsewhere in the ‘blogosphere’ Villines had been quietly (or not so quietly) collecting support for a bid for leader in recent days. After lengthy discussion a majority voted for Villines, then the entire Caucus voted by acclimation to make it unanimous for Villines.
I will share that it is my belief that when you put the various Plescia and Villines ‘loyalists’ in their respective corners, the primary issue that caused a shift in leadership was a stylistic one. Mike Villines has garnered widespread support within the caucus for his style — he is open, approachable, principled and firm. He understands how to read people, and a number of members to whom I spoke tonight told me that they believe that Villines will truly be a team leader.
Late this afternoon, I had an opportunity speak with the new Assembly Republican Leader, who was certainly very humble when I spoke with him. He seemed very mindful that a heavy responsibility has been placed upon him. I asked him what his top priorities were as leader. "My first," he said, "is to represent the caucus." He went on to say, "my second main priority is pursuing fiscal restraint in our state government."
Without dwelling too much on the obvious, especially since former Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia is a friend, it would appear that the deals he brokered with the administration to place the big bang bonds package on the ballot and on last year’s out-of-balance budget were injurious to his relationship with many of his colleagues.
For members with whom I have spoken about this, their biggest issues with the Leader were not policy issues, but the way that he negotiated and the way he handled negotiations between the Governor, Democrat Leadership, and the Caucus. Of course, to be fair to Plescia, he was literally thrown into the bond negotiations in the 11th hour, and had to learn the ropes on the job.
I should add that several sources have told me that the Governor’s office injected themselves into the Caucus elections, on behalf of Plescia. This, of course, didn’t help the leader — and probably hurt him quite a bit.
You can read more about Villines here, but I will tell you that he is a strong conservative, but also quite pragmatic in his understanding of the political process. I believe that he will really be able to rally Assembly Republicans into a strong, unified and cohesive group. This will be important because it is this unity that will empower Villines to truly have a place at the table, negotiating by using the leverage of the required two-thirds vote on the budget and other certain bills.
Today we feature a column from Mike Villines that I hope you will take the time to read. Rather than read other people’s intepretations of what Villines has to say, you can read it yourself.
Several readers have asked, so I will make it clear that at this point, only the decision about the Leader’s position has been made. If things followed their normal course, over the next few weeks we may start to see some adjustments of the other leadership posts.
It certainly helps with stability for the Caucus that in Villines they have selected a legislator who two full terms ahead of him, so he is not a lame duck as he begins leading his GOP colleagues into the next term.
Needless to say, we have high expectations for Villines, and we also extend our best wishes to George Plescia. Plescia and those close to him will still be an important part of the battle against ‘bipartisan growth’ in government, and an advocate for ‘bipartisan belt-tightening.’
On a closing note to those that follow such things, it is important to note that this decision on changing leaders took place with a substantially different Assembly Republican Caucus. Eleven newly-elected GOP freshmen will be sworn-in come December, but it was these incoming memberse, not their outgoing counterparts, that participated in this meeting. This new group, taken as a whole, is substantially more conservative than the retiring group. Remember that retirees from the Assembly include many members who were elected in 2000, the one year that the ‘open primary’ measure was in place, which had produced moderate nominees in many districts.
[Read more perspectives on this leadership change, from the left, center and right, over at the FR BlogScan.]
Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?
Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.