Partisanship Stronger Than Dirt

The state Senate is routinely accused of all sorts of things, but it drew the line Thursday on dirt.

Democrats defeated a Republican-sponsored bill that would have designated dirt esoterically known as “San Joaquin soil” as California’s official state soil.

The dirt would have joined in law such notables as the California dogface butterfly, which is the official state insect; the garibaldi, the state’s marine fish; and the saber-toothed cat, our state fossil.

The straight-faced bill, by Sen. Dick Montieth (R-Modesto), said that San Joaquin soil is “the essence of California” and is unique because it “supports the mima mound topography, which is a geomorphic feature of hillock or hummocky terrain.”

There was no debate, but as a group of eighth-grade students from Madera who had researched the soil watched, the bill fell three votes short of the 21 needed for passage. Seventeen Republicans and one Democrat voted for it. One Democrat voted against it and the others abstained.

But members of both parties indicated that the merits of the bill had less to do with its defeat than payback partisanship did.

Earlier in the week, Republicans rejected a bill containing Democratic amendments that would have given state employees a 3% raise. Democrats retaliated Thursday by sinking the dirt bill.

Later, President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) scolded members of both parties for unnecessary partisanship and disorderly behavior.

Moments later, Sen. Ross Johnson of Irvine, the GOP caucus chairman, angrily engaged Lockyer in a nose-to-nose confrontation. The exchange broke off with Johnson shouting a profanity at Lockyer and stalking out of the chamber.

Lockyer told reporters the two leaders were discussing the “erosion of civility in the Senate.”