How does a Republican get a bill passed in California?  Get the Dems and the unions on board, as a start (maybe even a finish).

Proving that sometimes even GOP-authored legislation can’t be ignored, the following are in support of Joel Anderson’s AB 221, which would divest CalPERS and CalSTRS of investments in businesses with ties to Iran.  Note the list even includes former Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi, who — I’m guessing — is neither a union member nor a Democrat:

17 Bi-Partisan Co-Authors 
Majority Whip Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) 
Public Safety Committee Chairman Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) 
Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-West Hollywood) 
Assemblyman Paul Cook (R-Yucaipa) 
Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries (R-Riverside) 
Assemblyman Martin Garrick (R-San Diego) 
Assemblyman Sharon Runner (R-Palmdale) 
Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) 
Assemblyman Ted Gaines (R-Roseville) 
Assemblyman John J. Benoit (R-Riverside) 
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore ( R-Newport Beach) 
Assemblywoman Shirley Horton (R-Chula Vista)

Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-Livermore)
Assemblyman Mike Duvall (R-Brea)
Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) 
Assemblyman Bill Emmerson (R-Rancho Cucamonga)
Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) 

15 organizations 
California Teamsters Public Affairs Council 
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors Los Angeles 
SOS Iran
UNITE HERE!
California Conference of Machinists
United Food & Commercial Workers Western States Council
The Jewish Federation
Association for establishing secular parliamentary régime in Iran
Jewish Labor Committee
Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny
David Prihar, Chairman of Jewish Community Forum of Orange County
Congregation Mogen David
American Jewish Congress
Taxpayers Advocate

Former Crown Prince of Reza Pahlavi

The San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Committee also voted in support of the bill this morning, in advance of an Anderson press conference, which attracted KUSI, FOX, ABC, KPBS Radio, and an interview with KPBS TV.  AB 221 has a hearing in PER&SS this week.  Here’s the excerpted press release:

Money is the mother’s milk of terrorism.

San Diego, CA – Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon) who earlier this year introduced Assembly Bill 221 to end California’s taxpayers investment in Iran, today announced a growing, broad-based coalition supporting the bill, which will have its first legislative hearing tomorrow.

“After September 11, the government instituted new steps to seize funding to terrorist groups. Why? Because money is the mother’s milk of terrorism. Terrorists require money to pay for safe harbors, training, logistical support, false documentation, and of course weapons,” said Anderson , who decried California taxpayers investments in foreign companies which do business in . “We have a fiduciary responsibility to our public employees to protect their retirements from risky investments like these.”

Presently, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) – which oversees California public employees and school teachers’ taxpayer-funded retirement funds – invest in companies that do business in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In 2006 $24 billion of taxpayers-funded retirement dollars were invested in companies with ties to . Anderson ’s legislation would end those investments.

Anderson said that the divestment legislation is inspired by late 1980s, early 1990s, anti-apartheid divestiture legislation – the first being Assembly Bill 134 authored in 1986 by now Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters. This bill restricted investments in South Africa.

AB 221 is specifically modeled after Assembly Bill 2941 authored by former Democrat Assemblyman Paul Koretz, which passed the California Legislature last year with strong bi-partisan support. AB 2941 targeted retirement funds invested in , whose government has been involved in genocide against its own people.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.