The dance is in full swing. The musicians are playing hard and the dance floor is aglow with lights shining on the party clothes of the whirling dancers.
Then the music stops. Someone is without a chair and that person is "it" in the now commonplace game of Abstention musical chairs, the Assembly Democrats latest craze.
Look closely and you will see who is calling the tunes; it's the Chamber of Commerce. The one who is without a seat is the one who abstains, in a high stakes game that has Democrats pitted against their own constituents.The Chamber likes this strategy for those Dems it controls who would not feel comfortable voting no on a bill important to their constituents.
In round one, we saw Marc Levine (District 10, a solidly liberal District) without a chair when the dance tune ended and his fellow Assembly members were voting on whether to give the Coastal Commission the power to levy fines on those who don't play by the rules.
That was the vote that kept the bill from going through.
And now, we read in Beyond Chron about Southern California Democrat Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) taking his turn at being odd man out, abstaining on the bill that would have raised the minimum wage in the state to $15 an hour. Dead bill. Happy Chamber.
One can only think this is an orchestrated move, keep the targets moving, get a different so called moderate Democrat to abstain on important bills, and maybe the people won't catch on.
And maybe they won't as Levine sailed to first place in a hotly contested primary election, facing the lone Republican in the race. (Three Democratic challengers virtually guaranteed the result, especially after some of Levine's top donors sent out a nice flyer on behalf of the frugal Republican). The top two primary is the best gift the Republicans ever got. Now, they don't need a majority in the legislature; they just need willing corporate Democrats who are happy to dance to their tune.
And a complacent, or distrustful, electorate. The perfect storm?
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