Assembly Shows Its New GOP Bent

On Speaker Curt Pringle’s first full legislative day, the Assembly’s Republican-controlled committees Monday approved one bill requiring photo identification before voting and another repealing the motorcycle helmet law.

Pringle, elected speaker by Republicans on Thursday, has not yet made committee assignments, and several committee hearings were canceled Monday. But he did place three new Republicans on the Assembly Transportation Committee in time for Monday’s hearing on the motorcycle helmet bill.

Hundreds of motorcyclists, most of them wearing leathers, appeared at the Capitol in anticipation that the anti-helmet legislation would clear its first hurdle, and they cheered as the Transportation Committee approved the measure on a 9-5 vote. The measure, AB 244, was sponsored by Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside), who represents southern Orange and northern San Diego counties.

Morrow said Pringle’s election as speaker was crucial to the bill’s outcome. “If the events did not occur as they did last week, it might have been a different,” Morrow said.

While Morrow’s bill faces additional committee hearings, Monday’s action was significant. When Democrats controlled the lower house, proponents of the current helmet law managed to kill similar bills in committees four years running.

“I expect to see a whole variety of bad bills that have failed to get out as Republicans exercise Gingrich-like muscle to move their agenda,” said Assembly Democratic Leader Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

Monday’s debate followed predictable lines. Helmet proponents, ranging from law enforcement officials to physicians, contended that helmets have saved countless lives. Motorcyclists, however, maintained that the helmet law erodes their freedom.

The California Highway Patrol estimates that since the helmet requirement became law in 1992, motorcycle-related fatalities have fallen by 45%. Morrow explained the decrease in both deaths and injuries by noting that fewer motorcycles are now registered as a result of the law.

In the years since Gov. Pete Wilson signed the helmet requirement into law, bikers have become a formidable political force, working on campaigns and giving money to candidates who oppose the requirement.

“We’re playing the game to get done what we want done,” said Gred Seda, 48, who works for a Harley Davidson dealership in Rosemead and who rode on his Harley to Sacramento for the hearing and demonstration. “It’s all about freedom.”

Meanwhile, in the Assembly Elections Committee, Republicans approved by a 4-1 vote a bill, AB 286 by Assemblyman Peter Frusetta (R-Tres Pinos), requiring voters to produce photo identification--such as a driver’s license--before they are allowed to cast their ballots.

Frusetta attributed the bill’s passage Monday--it stalled last year--to “the composition of the committee. We have four Republicans and three Democrats. You can draw your own conclusion.”

Frusetta said the photo requirement “will discourage and prevent to a degree voter fraud.” But Arnoldo Torres, lobbyist for various Latino groups, called the requirement part of the “post-Proposition 187 hysteria,” and “absolutely stupid.”

“Anybody can have a driver’s license,” Torres said.