Legislators get mixed reviews
Ryan Carter
Local state legislators received mixed results on this year’s list of
“Best Business” votes selected by the California Chamber of Commerce.
The state chamber ranked members of the state assembly and senate
based on their voting records on bills the chamber supported or
opposed.
The list was published in the chamber’s Oct. 24 ALERT newsletter.
The organization took positions on 18 bills in the Assembly and 19 in
the state Senate.
“We think it is important that constituents know how legislators
voted on issues pertaining to job creation and job retention in
California,” chamber spokeswoman Sara Lee said.
Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Burbank) voted in accor- dance with
the chamber’s position four times, and against 14 times. State Sen.
Jack Scott (D-Burbank) voted eight times with chamber-backed bills
and 11 times against.
Frommer was close to the middle of the pack among assembly
Democrats. The chamber gave Barbara Matthews (D-Stockton) the highest
ranking. She voted 14 times in accordance with chamber positions and
only four times against, according to the list.
On the Senate side, Scott was close to the middle of the pack
between both parties. But though Republicans topped the pro-business
tally, Scott’s eight pro-chamber votes and 11 against represented
the second-best Democrat tally in the senate, according to the list.
“What I try to do in labor/ management issues is to be balanced,”
Scott said. “I have got great sympathy for the working person. On the
other hand, I think labor is just like manage- ment in that one can
have too much power. I try not to be ideological.”
Bills in the most recent legislative session included Senate Bill
2, which requires employers to provide health insurance to every
employee in California and their dependents or to pay into a health
insurance pool. The chamber vehemently opposed the bill, which Scott
and Frommer supported and helped get passed.
Frommer said it was unfor- tunate that the chamber’s list did not
highlight attempts by some legislators to help businesses.
Frommer said it was issues in his district that were relevant to
him, not all 18 bills in front of him.
Lee acknowledged that not all of the bills were necessarily
relevant to a given district and that the list cannot tell the whole
story about what a legislator was thinking on an issue. She suggested
that constituents supplement the chamber list with other legislative
journals.