State Delegation Delivers Key Bipartisan Bloc

The California congressional delegation Wednesday delivered an impressive bloc of 30 votes for the North American Free Trade Agreement, with most of the support coming from Republicans.

In the final count, 17 Republicans and 14 Democrats voted for the pact. Five Republicans and 16 Democrats voted against it.

The 52-member California delegation is the country’s largest. The split among Californians reflected the vote in the full House, where 102 Democrats and 132 Republicans joined in supporting the trade agreement.

Most California Republicans favored the pact, despite the political boost it would give President Clinton. Democrats were more deeply divided as some lawmakers with strong labor ties broke with the President.

California’s stagnant economy and problems with illegal immigration further complicated the vote for some members.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), an opponent of the trade agreement, met one-on-one with Clinton in the Oval Office for more than 30 minutes Tuesday afternoon but emerged unmoved.

“I don’t begrudge him the win,” Waters said. “The President really does believe that our future is at stake and we have to open up the markets.”

Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park), who voted against the pact, said that the wildly conflicting predictions by both sides about job losses and gains “were confusing to the people of my district. I told the White House that they would have to alleviate the fears of job dislocation. They said they would get back to me. But they never did.”

Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), a vigorous supporter who has pursued a free trade agreement for more than six years, was exultant over the delegation’s showing.

“Rather than having 30 Democrats voting one way and 22 Republicans voting another, we were able to work solidly together on this issue. We had bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition.”

Dreier said California “is a microcosm of the United States. We have every single interest group represented in the state. That can have a powerful effect on some members.”

The Administration’s all-out lobbying efforts during the last week helped convert many of the delegation’s undecided members.

Of 13 uncommitted members last week, 11 wound up voting for the agreement.

Only two Californians, Rep. George E. Brown (D-Colton) and Republican Richard W. Pombo of Tracy, had not declared their positions before the vote. Brown favored the pact. Pombo wound up voting against it.

Brown, a 15-term veteran and chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, called his vote “the most difficult of his career.”

But Craig Merrilees, director of the California Fair Trade Campaign, a group that opposes the trade agreement, had no sympathy. “It’s hard for me to see how George Brown is going to be reelected with this sort of vote,” he said.