While John Perez allegedly has 29 votes for the speakership within the Democratic caucus, there has been no official vote of either the Democratic caucus or the Assembly as a whole. That’s going to change this week:
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is planning to hold a vote to elect her replacement on the Assembly floor this week. The two front-runners for the job – Assemblyman John Perez, D-Los Angeles, and Kevin DeLeon, D-Los Angeles — spoke for about 20 minutes this weekend, and were set to meet again today to discuss the race.
The vote would likely be a voice vote, and could come Wednesday or Thursday, as the house reconvenes to discuss education policy. (Capitol Weekly)
The two leading candidates had a conversation over the weekend, and Mayor Villaraigosa is trying to keep the peace amongst the warring LA factions over this race. The troubling thing is that nobody really knows how this is going to play out.
Also of note, it looks like Jared Huffman of Marin is quite close to Perez, as the CW article relies on Huffman for the Perez perspective. I don’t know if that means anything, but perhaps Huffman would have a more visible role in a Perez speakership.
I’ll admit I’m having trouble getting all that excited about the whole speaker vote business.
If these people are more concerned about this than, say, FIXING THE DAMN INSTITUTION, 2/3 RULE AND ALL, then how can I care which of a very bad lot gets to bang the gavel?
It seems that the best training for claiming the Speaker’s gavel might be a stint on CBS’s Survivor. The ethics of winning appear to be the same.
Maybe the CA Assembly needs a few outliers, like Bernie Sanders in the Senate, unbound by political gamesmanship and free to vote as their conscience dictates.
I know that Huffman’s having an increased role in the Assembly is not good news to me, given his willing participation in sinking the Delta under ineffective legislation.