FERRET-SEARCH@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG
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Date: | Thu, 14 Nov 1996 14:05:00 -0800 |
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>>From: Lee McKee <[log in to unmask]>
>>Subject: California politics
>This is probably a reasonable suggestion. The California legalization
>efforts have concentrated so much on Republicans to our knowledge that the
>Democrats could see this as a partisan issue. Approaching candidates of
>both parties and trying for a bi-partisan sponsorship of any legislation
>will almost have to help.
(This is actually a response to Bill Killian.)
You are correct in that the ferret issue *should* be non-partisan. That was
made impossible for years because of one individual: Willie Brown.
As head of the Assembly for over a decade, he was untouchable in office. He
brought pork to his home base (San Francisco) and ruled with an iron fist,
controlling the entire flow of Democrat Assembly cash; he was politically
secure enough to take "unpopular" cash directly and redistribute it at will
to other candidates; in this manner, money from Tobacco, logging and other
such industries could finance a race for a guy who could claim to "never
EVER" recieve such tainted funds - he could get them from Willie instead.
The first Ferret Legalization bill was authored by Jan Goldsmith, a
Republican from SoCal who was on Willie's "excement list" to such a degree
that Willie decreed that *nothing* with Jan's name on it would ever become
law.
The second attempt died in a Senate committee on grounds that "it was F&G's
ballgame by rights" more or less. I'm still interested in how much pressure
DFG and the commission brought to bear to make that happen - because at
least according to Randy Cristison, that was a mistaken decision.
Our Senate is still mostly Democrats; on this and most other "personal
freedom" issues the Assembly has of late been *for* personal freedom (since
the Republican takeover) and the Senate, against. The assembly voted 60-7
in favor of advising F&G to legalize ferts this summer, but we do *not* have
that kind of support in the Senate. (Note: the "other issues" include
Medical Pot, Gun Control/Permits, Needle Exchange, etc.)
One problem: Pete Wilson the Republican is anti-fert, and this is making the
Commission bolder, if anything. It's also why doing another run at the
Legislature is extra-difficult.
[Posted in FML issue 1754]
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