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NEWS > LOCAL


Updated: Legislators' records contrast on state chamber priorities
Nov 13, 2009
 By Marty Richman

Sen. Jeff Denham was among Republicans who agreed with the California Chamber of Commerce on all 13 of its priority issues for the session.
Photo by: Free Lance file photo
HOLLISTER

One legislator representing San Benito County agreed with the California Chamber of Commerce on all of its priority issues for this past session, while the other voted in agreement with the organization nearly 40 percent of the time, according to recently issued report.

The state chamber has issued its report, dated Nov. 6, on state legislators' floor votes on bills it tagged as priorities.

The report detailed floor votes during the first year of the 2009-10 legislative session on 13 Senate and 13 Assembly bills in six areas of special concern to the chamber. They included economic development, employment law, environmental regulation, health care, legal and taxation.

Legislators representing San Benito County had significantly different voting records on the bills evaluated by the chamber.

State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater, supported the chamber's positions on all 13 votes - with a 100 percent score. State Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, supported the chamber's positions on five of 13 votes - or 38 percent of the time.

Neither Denham nor his spokesman could be reached immediately before publication. Caballero's representatives had not seen the report yet and declined to comment at this time.

Political and issue-oriented organizations commonly publish voting record scorecards to highlight legislators' positions on narrowly focused areas.

The majority of votes on these issues fell along party lines in both houses of the California Legislature, and the voting records of San Benito County's state representatives generally reflected those same profiles.

Republicans overwhelmingly supported the chamber's positions while a large majority of Democrats opposed them. During the period of the report, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 25 to 15 in the State Senate and 52 to 28 in the Assembly.

A Free Lance analysis of the 363 Senate and 625 Assembly votes detailed in the report showed that Senate Republicans supported the chamber's positions more than 98 percent of the time while Senate Democrats provided 24 percent support. Assembly voting records show a similar divide with 99 percent Republican support and 28 percent Democratic support.

And while the state chamber has conducted its analysis annually, San Benito County Chamber of Commerce leaders recently started talks on implementing some sort of similar oversight program that would track local officials' voting trends on business-related legislation, said Jessica French, the chamber's president.

At the chamber board retreat two weekends ago, there was discussion on getting the group's government affairs committee more established and setting up appropriate rules. French said chamber leaders are at the "very, very beginning" stages of progressing on such a program.

"It's important for us to get the voting records to our membership and make them aware," French said.

Editor Kollin Kosmicki contributed to this report.

Marty Richman
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