Senator Seeks to Delay Stem Cell Bonds

Setting up a showdown with backers of California’s embryonic stem cell research agency, a state senator vowed Monday to press for a quick vote on legislation that could delay selling a $3-billion bond to finance research.

Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento), an original backer of the stem cell initiative approved by voters in November, has emerged as a leading critic, contending that the measure fails to guarantee that poor people would benefit from any research gains.

Ortiz plans to press for a Senate vote as early as Thursday on legislation aimed at placing before voters a new proposition that she says would ensure low-income people would have access to cures discovered using the state-funded research.

“There is no true delivery of therapy to Californians as it stands now,” Ortiz said, adding that the measure offers only a general statement on the topic.

Warning that Ortiz’s effort could delay the measure from going into effect, scientists and patient advocates serving on the oversight panel fanned out across the Capitol on Monday urging legislators to oppose Ortiz’s bill, Senate Constitutional Amendment 13.

“I don’t know what her motivation is,” Caltech President David Baltimore said, as he prepared to meet with legislators. “But I know the result is extremely dangerous and could undermine the whole reputation of the state as a leader in stem cell research.”

Baltimore is one of 29 members of the initiative’s Independent Citizens Oversight Committee. The panel convened at the Sacramento Convention Center, listening to Ortiz and several foes of her measure, and then launching its lobbying effort.

Board member David Serrano Sewell, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, held up his pills and said he and others who have ALS have little time to wait.

“Anything that impedes implementing our effort, I would have to question,” he told Ortiz.

Panelist Dr. David A. Kessler, dean of the UC San Francisco medical school, noted that Ortiz’s bill says the state “shall” make any therapy available to poor people. But he added that the initiative’s goal was to finance research rather than solve the problem of how to provide medical care for all Californians.

“You are going to try to solve something that none of us in decades has been able to ... solve,” said Kessler, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner.

The board set up meetings for 21 panel members in the offices of several key senators and Assembly members. Robert Klein, the panel’s chairman, and others said they would urge that lawmakers vote down Ortiz’s bill.

“I would like to reach a compromise, but I don’t think we will,” said panelist Joan Samuelson, a lawyer on the oversight committee who represents people with Parkinson’s disease.

Ortiz must obtain a two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature to place her bill before voters. If she were to succeed, her proposition would appear on the next statewide ballot, which could be in November if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger convenes a special election, as he has suggested. Her bill would not require the governor’s signature.

Californians approved Proposition 71 by 59% to 41%. It authorized the largest research effort ever into stem cells, which backers believe could help treat and cure illnesses such as juvenile diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, as well as spinal cord injuries.

So far, the state has been unable to sell the $3 billion in bonds because of lawsuits aimed at blocking Proposition 71. The state generally will not sell bonds -- and investors won’t buy them -- if lawsuits threaten to invalidate measures authorizing their sale. To help pay bills until the bonds are sold, Ray and Dagmar Dolby donated $5 million, arranged by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Ray Dolby is founder of Dolby Laboratories.

Ortiz’s critics say her measure would further delay the bond sales until after the next election and could result in more suits.

Ortiz, saying that she has long supported stem cell research, argued that her proposition could help avert future litigation that might slow the bond sales.

She pledged that if the Legislature’s attorney or state bond attorneys tell her she is “jeopardizing bonds, or my criteria and language is too vague and will encourage litigation, I will not move the measure forward.”

“I’m driven by that, but it has to be based on the attorneys I’m working with,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz initially sought to expand requirements that panelists comply with strict conflict-of-interest and open-meeting standards. She said her concerns on that issue have been resolved, and she remains willing to confer with panelists to work out other issues.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) has not decided on whether to permit a vote on the measure Thursday, a Perata spokeswoman said.

Two fellow Democrats -- Sen. Joe Dunn of Santa Ana and Sen. Jackie Speier of Hillsborough -- denounced Ortiz’s effort.

“This research must get underway as soon as possible,” said Dunn, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who said he expects to hold a hearing on Ortiz’s measure.

Dunn said Ortiz’s bill is backed by Senate Republicans. He said their endorsement was based on ideological opposition to embryonic stem cell research.

“In my view,” Dunn said, “there are many Republicans who would like to slow it down and end it as a first choice. It is simply their ideological view of stem cell research. That’s fine. I respect their view. But this was established by voters of California, and we need to respect their wishes.”