Sacramento Bee/Capitol Alert

Lawmaking by the numbers

November 5, 2007

When Sandre Swanson joined the Assembly this year, the Oakland Democrat probably didn’t envision that he would be the only lawmaker to have every bill in his legislative package vetoed by the governor.

But that’s exactly what happened.

That’s one of the many notable facts Capitol Alert unearthed in a numerical analysis of the 2007 legislative session.

Among the others: Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata had the most bills vetoed, potential pro tem contender Sen. Alex Padilla passed more legislation than any other legislative rookie and only one lawmaker who served all year didn’t pass a single bill. (More on all that later.)

“You don’t always have to judge your legislative success by the numbers. Sometimes your job is to expand debate,” said Swanson, pointing to a pilot condoms-in-prisons program that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger created in response to a Swanson bill he vetoed.

“I wasn’t disappointed at all that my personal bills, that the governor vetoed all of them,” he continued. “I represent one of the most progressive districts in the state…that certainly gives me the freedom to not compromise in the types of proposals that I put forward.”

Swanson wasn’t the only lawmaker to end the year with a goose egg. Sen. Tom McClintock, the conservative Thousand Oaks Republican, was the only California lawmaker who didn’t pass a single bill in 2007. (Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, a Democrat who took office halfway through the legislative year, also didn’t pass any legislation.)

“Years ago, I used to introduce all those piddling little bills. Then, one year an opponent said, ‘Look at all those piddling bills he is spending his time on.’ I had to agree,” McClintock said.

“You can fill up your time a lot of little miniature bills that might get passed but don’t amount to anything or you can devote your package to the major issues that actually drive the public policy debate.”

This year, McClintock introduced 14 pieces of legislation. Only one went as far as the Assembly, SB 972, where it was bottled up after its first committee hearing.

“It’s my hope that the package that I introduced pushed the public policy debate,” McClintock said.

The undisputed reigning queen and king of passing legislation were Sen. Denise Ducheny and Assemblyman John Laird, who authored 16 and 15 new laws-to-be in 2007, respectively. They both - not coincidentally - serve as the chairs of the Senate and Assembly budget committees.

“I spend a lot of time with the administration folks; it’s the nature of the budget,” said Ducheny, a San Diego Democrat who had every one of her 16 bills signed by Schwarzenegger. “I probably, more than a lot of folks, am eminently conscious that passing bills that cost lots of money (is) futile.”

Tops among non-budget chairs for passing bills were Sen. Carole Migden, who guided 17 bills through both houses and received 12 gubernatorial signatures, and Sen. Ellen Corbett, who passed 15 bills and had 12 signed.

While measuring a lawmaker’s impact through the number of bills passed is an admittedly blunt measurement, it does offer cues into a lawmaker’s style and priorities.

Among Republican lawmakers, three broke into double digits: Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, Sen. Sam Aanestad and Assemblyman Bill Emmerson. They each authored 11 bills Schwarzenegger signed.

Many of those bills were technical in nature, focused locally or in areas in which the representatives had experience prior to getting to Sacramento.

The leading veto-getters - Perata (8), Swanson (7), Sen. Gloria Romero (7), Assemblyman Mark Leno (7) and Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (6) - represent among the most liberal pockets of California.

Some of those axed Democratic bills were expected to be vetoed - such as Leno’s gay marriage proposal - but pushed through anyway to attempt to change the public debate, a la Swanson and McClintock.

Clout can’t be measured purely by bills passed and signed.

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis passed only a single piece of legislation - AB 462, which deals with license plates on old cars - that was signed by the governor.

And Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez had seven bills signed into law - the same number as Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, the Orange County Republican who Núñez demoted to the smallest office in the Capitol.

Among the legislative rookies (there were more than 30), Padilla finished on top, passing 14 bills, nine of which Schwarzenegger signed. Assemblymen Curren Price, Ed Hernandez and Paul Krekorian each authored eight bills that Schwarzenegger signed.

Of the top 10 members who passed the most bills, eight are state senators (Laird and Assembly Majority leader Karen Bass are the exceptions).

The average Democratic lawmaker passed 8.83 bills - and had 6.12 signed. The average Republican passed 4.87 bills and had 4.57 signed.

Our methodology: We tallied up the results of every bill that reached Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk in 2007 and was tagged with a member of the Legislature as the principal author. Bills that were chiefly authored by a committee (of which there were 90, including three vetoes) were not included, nor were co-authors.