Pollard column: 'Mod squad' lockout has Parra steamed
BY VIC POLLARD, Californian columnist
SACRAMENTO -- Few lawmakers try harder to get along with colleagues than Kern County Assemblywoman Nicole Parra.
So it was surprising when she used words like "shocked" and "uncalled for" when asked to comment about the Senate's liberal Democratic leader, Don Perata, punishing three moderate Democratic senators by locking them out of their offices Monday morning.
Their "crime" was attending a dinner last Thursday evening to raise money for the "mod squad," a group of moderate, business-friendly Democrats chaired by Parra.
Perata refused to discuss the reasons for his action, but it was the worst-kept secret in Sacramento that he was sending a message: He will tolerate no ideological sub-caucuses that try to exert independent influence within the larger Senate Democratic Caucus.
The three locked-out senators were Ron Calderon of Montebello, Lou Correa of Santa Ana and Gloria Negrete-McLeod of Chino. Perata had the locks on their office doors changed before they returned from their districts after the weekend.
Although they had been allowed back in by midafternoon, the incident dominated conversation in the Capitol all day Monday. It was the latest example of a powerful legislative leader meting out punishment to members of his own party for acts considered to be disloyal or disobedient.
For the last few years in the Assembly, the "mod squad" has consisted of 10 to 12 moderate Democrats who team up with Republicans from time to time to defeat or force amendments to bills opposed by business.
They have been instrumental in killing or watering down a number of measures, including bills to allow renters to withhold information from landlords and give the state more authority to regulate toxic substances.
Parra herself led the mod squad charge last year that defeated a bill to overhaul the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, which has been criticized by environmentalists for being too easy on the agriculture and oil industries.
Up to now, there has been no counterpart in the Senate. But Calderon, Correa and Negrete-McLeod are all former members of the Assembly group that have moved up to the Senate, and observers say they could form the nucleus of a potential Senate version of the mod squad.
Parra, elected from the conservative-leaning 30th Assembly District on the west side of the valley, has been a member of the Assembly group from the start. She was elected chairwoman of the group last September as the Legislature adjourned for the year.
On Monday, she wouldn't discuss the issue, saying to the Los Angeles Timesonly that "It seems like a Senate internal issue."
But by Wednesday, when I called, she was steamed about Perata's treatment of Democratic lawmakers who have to answer to conservative constituents like hers.
"I'm an elected official and my district and my constituents are just as important as the leadership's districts and constituents," she said.
"And for Sen. Perata to lock them out of their offices, I think is uncalled for. I'm shocked."
She also dismissed Perata's complaints about sub-caucuses.
"In the Senate they have members of the Latino Caucus and the Women's Caucus and they vote as a block," she said. "And I'm a member of both of them."
She noted that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, at least as liberal as Perata, has been more tolerant of the mod squad.
"The Assembly speaker has a more open relationship with the (moderate) caucus," she said.
The Thursday night fundraiser was an attempt by Parra to boost its influence. She said it raised $232,000 that will be used for mod squad travel expenses and to pay staff to analyze the impact of bills.
It was followed last Friday by a daylong "policy retreat" attended by eight members of the caucus at a Sacramento hotel.
Parra also said she has changed the group's name to the New Democrat Caucus, in line with the moderate congressional New Democrat Coalition co-founded by her former boss, ex-Rep. Cal Dooley.
But she acknowledged the new title is unlikely to replace the more colorful "mod squad" in the minds of most Capitol folks.
Vic Pollard's column appears every other Thursday. E-mail him at vpollard@bakersfield.com.
Most CommentedMost Popular
The only person so far to file nominating papers to run for the Ward 7 Bakersfield City Council seat has a criminal history that includes two misdemeanor driving under the influence convictions during the last decade.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said Monday the misidentification by the coroner's office of a woman who was shot and killed Sunday was "unacceptable" and "shouldn't happen in today's world." Youngblood said during an interview at his office the misidentification was based on "assumptions"...
For Golden Empire Transit District's administrative staff, a 2 percent raise means their performance was less than satisfactory. And yet that's the only offer GET is making to its more than 250 striking bus drivers and mechanics in the first year of a proposed two-year contract extension.
There's so much wrong with how a possible sexual assault at a local high school was handled, it's hard to know where to start. In October 2009, an Independence High School teacher's aide found two autistic teens in a school bathroom naked from the waist down, with the boy pressing against the...
Married for almost 62 years, Don and Maxine Simpson didn't let death keep them apart for long.
Marking the city's first triple homicide in years, masked men stormed an east Bakersfield apartment late Wednesday evening and fatally shot three people.
One of the biggest names in Kern County petroleum production is moving swiftly to spin off its California operations in a move expected to boost investment in -- and in some cases modernize -- local oil fields.
A Bakersfield police officer shot and killed a man Wednesday afternoon in southeast Bakersfield after he allegedly splashed gasoline on a woman — whose young children were in the car — tried to light her on fire and then advanced on the officer.