San Francisco Chronicle

John M. Hubbell, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Wednesday, June 1, 2005

Sacramento -- Landmark votes expected this week in the Assembly on same-sex marriage and physician-assisted suicide appear so close that their outcomes could rest on a sole lawmaker's last-minute deliberations on morality, faith and the role of government in society, according to interviews with several undecided Democrats.

With the Assembly poised today to take up AB19 by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to legalize same-sex marriage in California, many Democrats said Tuesday that they remain undecided on the issue even after months of debate. With Republicans uniformly opposed to the measure, Leno said passage would likely come with only the minimum-required 41 votes -- maybe one more if he's lucky.

"The struggle for some members may be whether they do their job as to voice a public sentiment from their district, or to lead those constituents to a place ... (they) may not know they wish to go," Leno said.

The margin facing proponents of legalizing physician-assisted suicide -- who may seek a floor vote Thursday or Friday -- is similarly slim after months of lobbying on their bill, AB654, by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, and Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka. If signed into law, the bill would make California the second state in the nation to allow certain terminally ill residents to obtain lethal prescriptions to hasten their death.

With Assemblyman Mike Gordon, D-El Segundo (Los Angeles County), sidelined from the Legislature by a lengthy illness, backers can spare only seven Democratic votes in the face of similar Republican opposition. Four Democrats have already either voted no or abstained on the assisted-suicide bill in committee hearings, and two others said they either oppose the bill or are leaning that way -- which puts the margin for passage at one vote.

"It's a tough year for those of us who are regarded as progressive, but (are) more centrist progressive, if there's such a thing," said Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco. "It's taken a lot of intellectual capital to deal with these issues."

Even with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger viewed as socially moderate, an open question remains as to whether the Democrat-controlled Legislature can muster enough votes to send him the term's most progressive legislation. Mullin's dual positions demonstrate the climate facing such legislation in the Assembly this week -- a time when all bills must clear their house of origin and begin their journey through the opposite house.

While calling himself a strong supporter of Leno's same-sex marriage bill, Mullin said he'll either oppose or not vote on the assisted-suicide bill if it comes to the Assembly floor later this week.

"I'm an old guy," he said Tuesday. "I've gone through lots and lots of people I knew that have passed, and I have generally been supportive of the idea that pain management toward the end of life is better now than it has been."

Like many lawmakers, Mullin said he decided his vote on the bill only after two months of self-debate. For some, that struggle seemed to be continuing on both issues Tuesday.

"Marriage? Some argue it's a religious institution, and I'm struggling with that, to be honest with you -- I'm struggling with that a lot," Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, said outside the Assembly chambers. ". . . At the end of the day, the question for me is a question of life and death -- and I think life and death is a matter for God. But there is a strong argument that that's everybody's individual decision."

Still, he said on the latter bill, "I'm leaning 'no.' "

Assemblyman Jerome Horton, D-Inglewood (Los Angeles County), said he would oppose the assisted-suicide bill in part because of concerns about how it could affect minority communities with less access to health care. "We're creating a rich man's suicide," he said.

Yet Horton's deliberations also led him to recall the 1999 death of his mother, Percyl Horton, from cancer, he said, highlighting how each lawmakers' personal experience may dictate the fate of the social legislation to come before the chamber this week.

"One of the reasons she chose to live was she got so much family support, " Horton said. "If you take the person that doesn't have the family support, are they going to make a medical decision or a social decision? I don't think it's appropriate for someone to make a social or economic decision to die."

Despite a phalanx of opposition, the fact that the same-sex marriage and assisted-suicide bills survived two committee votes to make it to the Assembly floor is significant, with many lawmakers citing personal reasons for backing the legislation.

Assemblywoman Betty Karnette, D-Long Beach, said Tuesday she would back Leno's bill because it would create more stability in society. And she plans to vote for the assisted-suicide bill based on experience with "relatives and my own mother," she said.

But if several others had reached conclusions on either issue, they weren't saying. Assemblyman Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, said he was still undecided on both bills. Late Tuesday afternoon, he and Berg sat at Vargas' desk on the Assembly floor, engaged in a pleasant, animated discussion.

Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Leimert Park (Los Angeles County), was a man of even fewer words. Asked in the Assembly antechamber how he would vote on either bill, he underscored the unpredictable nature of the week, pretending to wet his index finger before lifting it up and measure the direction of the wind.

E-mail John M. Hubbell at jhubbell@sfchronicle.com.