ELECTIONS : Angry Ed Davis Says he Would Again Support Gay Rights Bill

Republican state Sen. Ed Davis of Santa Clarita, attacked by a conservative Northern California assemblyman as the “GOP’s leading crusader for homosexual rights,” said Friday that he would vote again if he could for legislation banning job discrimination against gays.

In an angrily worded, seven-page letter, Davis also attacked Assemblyman William Baker (R-Danville) for engaging in “internal political cannibalism” by soliciting money to help defeat Republican Assembly incumbents and candidates who support abortion rights.

Baker, a member of Assembly GOP leader Ross Johnson’s inner circle, stirred controversy in party circles with an April 30 letter asking a Washington-based anti-abortion group to give money to opponents of two Republican Assemblywomen from San Diego and two GOP candidates for San Fernando Valley-area Assembly seats, Hunt Braly and Rob Wilcox.

Braly, who supports abortion rights, is on leave from his job as Davis’ top aide to campaign against Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), an abortion foe, in the 37th Assembly District. Wilcox, an ex-Davis aide who also favors abortion rights, is running against four other GOP candidates for the 38th Assembly District seat of retiring Assemblywoman Marian La Follette (R-Northridge).

Davis said Baker’s remarks about him were an apparent reference to Davis’ 1984 vote in favor of Assembly Bill 1, which would have prohibited employment discrimination against homosexuals had it not been vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian.

“Let me tell you, Bill, if that piece of legislation were before me today in the same form, I would vote for it again,” Davis wrote.

“Anyone who would dispense with rights for homosexuals runs the risk of jeopardizing the rights of every other disfavored minority. . .Discriminating against them for employment really means that you and others of your disposition would see that these people did not work at all and would instead be subject to some kind of a handout. . .”

But Davis said that he supported a 1988 ballot initiative to give sexual-assault victims the right to petition a judge to have defendants tested for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The measure was widely opposed by gay-rights groups, he said.

Davis criticized Baker for fomenting “this kind of hatred” against homosexuals while Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) is running for governor.

“Are you sufficiently homophobic that you want people who could be considered gay to vote against Pete Wilson?” Davis asked.

A Baker spokeswoman said the assemblyman was unavailable for comment Friday.

Davis also assailed Baker for referring to GOP Assembly candidates who favor abortion rights as “abortionists,” asking the assemblyman if he knew “how many fine Republican women you alienate with this mean-spirited nonsense.”

Referring to Baker’s support for several church-backed Assembly candidates, Davis warned him against “attempting to put together a ‘Christian Republican Assembly.’ ”

“Bill, don’t you remember from your history lessons that, when we formed this country, we took a strong position for separation of church and state,” Davis wrote.