Wright Angry After Losing Budget Post

State Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) heard through the grapevine that she was no longer vice chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee--and she isn’t happy about the lack of respect.

Days later, Wright, whose district straddles Ventura and Los Angeles counties, still had not heard it from her own caucus.

“If you’re going to stab me, stab me in front,” said Wright, who is being replaced on the committee by Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga).

In protest, Wright has vowed to create the Senate Republican Women’s Caucus. It would consist solely of Wright, the only Republican woman in the upper house.

“I don’t have any arguments with myself,” she joked. “I agree on everything.”

Wright angered her Republican peers last year when she crossed party lines and became the sole GOP member to support the Democrats’ welfare reform plan. Now she feels out of the loop.

“It isn’t a good way to start the year,” she said of the snub. “They make decisions, they make changes, and I’m never included. . . . The fellows just decide what they’re going to do, and I’m not even an afterthought.”