Our favorite on-the-scene Sacramento reporter Frank Russo has the first installment of what will be a wild couple weeks in the California Legislature.  The session is scheduled to end September 14, and over 700 bills are likely to be voted on between now and then, to get to the Governor’s desk for signature.  The first batch of bills have been passed out of their respective chamber; in fact, 83 bills passed in the Senate just yesterday.  Frank highlights several that came out of the Senate and the Assembly; here are a few (on the flip).

AB 1108 (Ma) Toxic Toys- This bill prohibits the use of phthalates in toys and childcare products designed for babies and children under three years of age… It now goes back to the Assembly for concurrence in the Senate Amendments.

AB 122 (Solorio) Voter intimidation- Requires elections officials to provide a copy of the provisions of law prohibiting voter intimidation and voter fraud, and the penalties to every candidate. Senator Calderon used the example of a recent Orange County election where several thousand Latinos were sent a letter warning them not to vote. It passed on a 23 to 12 vote with the support of two Republicans, Senators Maldonado and McClintock and all the opposition was from Republicans. There was no known opposition to the bill. It now goes to the Governor.

AB 976 (Calderon) Prohibits a city or county from enacting an ordinance that compels a landlord to inquire, compile, report, or disclose any information about the citizenship or immigration status of a tenant. It passed on a straight party line 22 to 12 vote.

AB 1539 Krekorian- Compassionate release for medically incapacitated inmates with terminal illnesses. This bill provides that a court shall have the discretion to resentence or recall a prisoner’s sentence when the prisoner is permanently medically incapacitated if the conditions under which the prisoner would be released do not pose a threat to public safety. It passed on a 22-16 party line vote with Democratic Senator Lou Correa the sole member of his party voting against it. It needs to go back to the Assembly for concurrence in amendments.

AB 435 (Brownley) Wage Discrimination- Requires that all employers maintain their records of wages, wage rates, job classifications, and other terms and conditions of employment for five years, and extends the statute of limitations for a civil action to collect back wages to four years, or, in the case of willful misconduct, to five years. It passed on a straight party line vote of 21 to 15 with Democratic votes. It now goes back to the Assembly for concurrence in amendments.

AB 1429 (Evans) Requires health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies that provide coverage for cervical cancer treatment or surgery to also provide coverage for a Human Papilloma virus vaccine. It passed 26 to12 with a couple of Republican votes and all the opposition was from Republicans. It needs Assembly agreement on amendments.

AB 548 (Levine) Would require managers of multi-family dwellings to provide recycling services for their buildings. This is significant because it provides a residential recycling opportunity for more than 7.1 million Californians residing in more than 2.4 million multifamily dwelling units. It passed on a largely partisan vote of 47 to 25 and goes to the Governor.

SB 490 (Alquist) Would ban foods with transfat from being sold to kindergarten-high school students on school campuses. It passed on a largely partisan 50 to 26 vote with Republicans complaining that it trampled on local school boards’ discretion and Democrats saying the state sets the rules for schools.

Some thoughts:

• I’m glad something came out of that disgusting attempt in Orange County to intimidate Hispanic voters.  Good for Asm. Solorio.

• The Krekorian bill for compassionate release is simple common sense in a time of prison crisis.  Apparently the Big Kahuna of prison reform, Sen. Gloria Romero’s bill to create an independent sentencing commission, is being negotiated with the Governor’s office so that he’ll sign it.  We’ll see what transpires.

• AB 435 is a local version of the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act.  The Supreme Court ruled that a woman could not sue for wage discrimination because the statute of limitations had run out even though she didn’t know the extent of the wage discrimination until it was too late.

• The HPV vaccination bill should give the theocrats a jolt.  They’ve argued for some time that you can’t vaccinate and save kid’s lives because it might make them a little more promiscuous.  Showing their true priorities.

We’ll try to keep up with the major bills coming through the Legislature until the end of the session.

“I speak Spanish very well and (the letter) was offensive,” she said. “And it was offesnive and intimidating to many voters who talked to our office.”

She also said the law seemed to by on Nguyen’s side — for better or worse.

“If you read the state and federal laws, it’s very difficult to get a conviction. The laws are vague,” she said.

That was my fabulous Congresswoman, Loretta Sanchez, speaking to OC Register reporter Martin Wisckol about Attorney General Jerry Brown’s decision NOT to pursue criminal charges against Tan Nguyen for intimidating over 14,000 LEGALLY registered voters. Now maybe it really is quite difficult to get a conviction for a charge like this, but it shouldn’t be impossible. Chris Prevatt took another look at state election law at The Liberal OC, and he arrived at quite an interesting conclusion.

Follow me after the flip to see the law for yourself, and decide whether Jerry Brown really wants to enforce the law here…

Here’s what Chris dug up at The Liberal OC:

18540.  (a) Every person who makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence, or tactic of coercion or intimidation, to
induce or compel any other person to vote or refrain from voting at
any election or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular
person or measure at any election, or because any person voted or
refrained from voting at any election or voted or refrained from
voting for any particular person or measure at any election is guilty
of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 16
months or two or three years.

  (b) Every person who hires or arranges for any other person to
make use of or threaten to make use of any force, violence, or tactic
of coercion or intimidation, to induce or compel any other person to
vote or refrain from voting at any election or to vote or refrain
from voting for any particular person or measure at any election, or
because any person voted or refrained from voting at any election or
voted or refrained from voting for any particular person or measure
at any election is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in
the state prison for 16 months or two or three years.

18543.  (a) Every person who knowingly challenges a person’s right
to vote without probable cause or on fraudulent or spurious grounds,
or who engages in mass, indiscriminate, and groundless challenging of
voters solely for the purpose of preventing voters from voting or to
delay the process of voting, or who fraudulently advises any person
that he or she is not eligible to vote or is not registered to vote
when in fact that person is eligible or is registered, or who
violates Section 14240, is punishable by imprisonment in the county
jail for not more than 12 months or in the state prison.

  (b) Every person who conspires to violate subdivision (a) is
guilty of a felony.

OK, the law seems quite clear. This letter clearly violates state law. So why didn’t Jerry Brown take this case to court, and at least try to achieve justice for all the voters in Orange County who were nearly scared away from the polls by Tan Nguyen?

I have to concur with Chris here:

We all know that the letters went to 14,000 legally registered voters.  As registered voters these individuals are entitled to the right to vote, without intimidation or obstruction by anyone.  The only way a voter may be challenged is if an  elections official has specific and compelling evidence that the voter is not eligible to vote.  Elections officials are the only people who may directly intervene to stop someone from voting illegally.

I’ve got ju[s]t one question for AG Moon Beam and his Senior Assistan[t] AG in San Diego; How on earth can you conclude that section 18543 was not violated when eligible voters were challeneged without probable cause, by a mass and indiscriminate mailing to legally registered voters?  I cannot find anything in the code that talks about “intent.”  It is that act of intimidation that is the crime.  From what I can see, intent is nothing more than icing on the cake.

I just don’t get their reasoning here.

Neither do I, Chris. Neither do I.

“The right to vote is fully protected under the XV Amendment of the US constitution. Anybody that uses any intimidation tactics should be prosecuted with the full power of the law. When Mr. Nguyen or anybody else uses the printing materials such as letterhead of an anti-immigrant organization it shows intent to intimidate. How more clear can it be? I feel disappointed that it was LULAC that had to call the State Attorney General’s office to find out the results of the investigations rather than the AG call us. When I spoke with Mr. Schons he said that the case was closed back in February, they really dropped the ball. We are going to ask the US Attorney General to fully investigate this issue.”

That was Orange County LULAC President Benny Diaz, speaking to The Liberal OC about how he found out that Jerry Brown would not be pursuing a case against Tan Nguyen for illegally intimidating over 14,000 legal voters. So why didn’t Jerry Brown follow through on the case that Bill Lockyer was trying to make? And what do the people in Orange County who had the misfortune of having front-row seats to the Tan Nguyen debacle have to say about what happened yesterday?

Follow me after the flip for more…

Here are a couple more comments from The Liberal OC on Tan Nguyen and Jerry Brown’s decision not to prosecute him t the fullest extent of state law:

While Tan Nguyen is clearly not out of the woods yet, given the federal voting rights investigation that is still ongoing, he has clearly gotten a pass from Attorney General Moon Beam.

Frank Barbaro, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County commented tonight saying;

“This is a classic case of wrong without remedy. Everybody agrees that what Tan Nguyen did was very wrong, and was done with the intent to discourage people from voting.”

Democratic Party of Orange County Vice-Chair Rima Nashashibi, who is an American-Palestinian born in Jerusalem, was a bit more blunt;

“The letters were offensive, to me and they were offensive to the legally registered voters who received them. At the time Tan Nguyen’s involvement in this attack on the voting rights of U.S. citizens was revealed, both Democrat and Republican leaders condemned his actions. Despite the decision of the State Attorney General on this matter, I hope GOP Chairman Scott Baugh will continue to stand by his repudiation of Tan Nguyen’s acts of voter intimidation.”

Tan Nguyen has never apologized for his actions and he needs to be held accountable. Hopefully, this will occur at the federal level. Only time will tell. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Yes, Tan Nguyen should be held accountable for sending this letter to over 14,000 legally registered voters in Central Orange County. So why didn’t Jerry Brown do that? Why didn’t he pursue a case against Tan Nguyen? Why didn’t he stand up for Californians’ right to vote… And NOT be intimidated away from doing so?

I really don;t like speculating about these matters. That’s why I’d like an answer from our Attorney General. Why didn’t he do his job of prosecuting those (like Tan Nguyen) who commit crimes against innocent people (like scaring them away from the polls)? Why, Jerry? Why?

Here’s a new angle to being “soft on crime”… Why didn’t Attorney General Jerry Brown file suit against Tan Nguyen for intimidating legal Latino voters? Claudio Gallegos lets it rip at Orange Juice:

The California Attorney General’s office announced today that Tan Nguyen will not face charges in the fraudulent letter he sent out to disenfranchise Latino voters. Former Attorney General Bill Lockyer quickly moved into action to ensure Nguyen was held accountable. Unfortunately he did not have enough time in his term left. Democrat(although I am hesitant to call him that at this point) Jerry Brown took over as Attorney General. His spokesman Gary Schons is quoted as saying

“We had to prove that they intended to intimidate lawfully registered voters. We found no evidence that they intended to intimidate lawfully registered voters. In fact, the first line of the letter said, ‘If you’re a lawfully registered voter, we encourage you to vote.’ A lot of people missed that.”

No kidding a lot of people missed it Mr. Schons, it was meant to be missed. Even Republicans were calling for his head.

So is there something that Jerry Brown missed here? Follow me after the flip for more…

Here’s the rest of what Claudio has to say at Orange Juice:

If there was no criminal intent, please explain why Tan did the following actions:

1) Use a fake letterhead of an anti-immigrant organization instead of his own campaign letterhead?

2) Why did they use a fake name at the end of the letter?

3) Why was Tan refusing to answer the simplest of questions regarding this letter?

4) Why did Tan Nguyen’s story change about 10 times?

The intent was clear, to intimidate Latino voters and stay covert. Pure and simple. In the 2006 election I voted for the Green Party candidate for Attorney General because I felt Rocky Delgadillo should have been our nominee and dinosaurs like Jerry Brown need to move aside for our generation. Thanks for confirming I made the right vote. And I will continue to vote Green whenever Jerry Brown is on the ballot.

Tan Nguyen was the most obviously guilty man since OJ Simpson, yet he will walk away unpunished. Let this be a lesson to you all, include some obscure hidden sentence in a letter, intimidate and disenfranchise voters and you will not be held responsible for your actions. Thanks alot Jerry, I see your softness on crime extends to those who seek to disenfranchise minorities’ right to vote.

Well, it hurts me to say this… But perhaps, Claudio and blogswarm are right here. Jerry Brown really failed all of us in Orange County who were hoping for some real actions against the illegal voter intimidation antics used by Tan Nguyen in his despicable “campaign” against my fabulous Congresswoman, Loretta Sanchez. Now why he couldn’t he stand up for all of us voters in Orange County? And for that matter, why can’t he stand up for all the voters in this state who should NEVER be intimidated in the way that those 14,000+ legal voters were?

Maybe Jerry Brown shouldn’t have been our choice for Attorney General if he wasn’t really interested in doing his job.

Remember Tan Nguyen? Yes, that Tan Nguyen! Well, he’s now legally free and clear… Or at least, he is on the state end. Here’s what the AP has just learned (via OC Register):

The state Attorney General’s Office said today that it will not file criminal charges against a former congressional candidate whose campaign mailed letters warning immigrants against voting.

Tan Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, was trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez last year when his campaign sent out 14,000 letters to Hispanic immigrants claiming they could be deported or jailed for voting. The controversy erupted just three weeks before the Nov. 2 election. […]

But they could find no criminal intent, Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

“We had to prove that they intended to intimidate lawfully registered voters. We found no evidence that they intended to intimidate lawfully registered voters. In fact, the first line of the letter said, ‘If you’re a lawfully registered voter, we encourage you to vote.’ A lot of people missed that,” Schons said.

So does this mean that the man behind the infamous “Immigrants Can’t Vote” intimidation letter is off scott free? Not exactly. Follow me after the flip for more…

So does this mean that Tan Nguyen is finally free of all legal troubles? Not quite. The US Justice Department is still investigating him. Here’s the latest from Total Buzz:

In the previous item here, I said that former congressional candidate Tan Nguyen has been cleared by the state attorney general. However, I just got word from Cynthia Magnuson at the U.S. Department of Justice that their voting rights section is continuing to investigate the matter.

That was good news to Los Amigos’ Amin David, among those who decried the Nguyen tactic.

“We’re hoping (the Justice Department) sees through to the intent,” David said.

“We were quite upset about that letter,” David said. “It did indeed have a streak of meanness, of intimidation. The intent was very clearly to keep people from voting.”

Well, that letter really did read like it was meant to scare voters away from their legal right to vote. And clearly, Tan Nguyen was associating himself with the types of anti-immigrant extremists who would like nothing more than to see thousands of legal Latino voters disenfranchised. There’s probably still a case against Tan Nguyen to be made.

I guess we’ll see whether or not the feds find enough evidence to make one.

Are you sick and tired of seeing headlines like this regarding voter intimidation in Orange County? Have you had enough of candidates using scare tactics to prevent legally eligible voters from actually exercising their right to vote? Do you want to make sure that we never, ever see anyone trying to scare people away from the ballot box ever again?

Well, here’s our chance to do something about voter intimidation in California. My Assembly Member, Jose Solorio (D- Santa Ana), is actually teaming up with Republican Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) to offer some real solutions here. Follow me after the flip to find out more.

Here’s what Solorio’s office has to say about this:

Assemblymen Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) and Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) have introduced a package of two bills that seek to prevent voter intimidation, such as the case witnessed in Orange County in 2006. 

“I am proud to partner with Assemblyman Van Tran to help discourage future voter intimidation cases from occurring in Orange County or elsewhere in the state.  Our bills will ensure that candidates are aware of the state’s voter intimidation laws and deter future offenses by stiffening the penalties for voter intimidation,” said Assemblyman Solorio. 

“Freedom to vote is one of the most important rights Americans’ have.  Our laws must protect every citizen’s right to vote and allow us to vigorously prosecute anybody who tries to intimidate voters,” said Assemblyman Van Tran.

AB 122 (Solorio) requires election officials to give potential candidates for elected office a copy of the provisions of law that prohibit voter intimidation and the penalties for violating those provisions of law.

AB 46 (Tran) would increase penalties for an individual convicted of committing voter intimidation by making it a felony, punishable by a minimum of 16 months or up to three years in prison.

Both bills have passed the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting with bipartisan support.  AB 122 passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee last week and AB 46 is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee tomorrow. 

The bills were introduced in response to an October 2006 letter that was mailed out by the campaign of a U.S. Congressional candidate to some 14,000 Latino voters in Orange County in an attempt deter them from voting in the November election.  In fact, Assemblyman Solorio received one of those letters himself. 

The letter incorrectly stated “you are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or your are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time, and you will be deported for voting without having a right to do so.”  This statement is extremely misleading at best because immigrants can vote if they become citizens.  In response to this voter intimidation effort, the Secretary of State’s office sent letters to these 14,000 Latino voters who received a letter reassuring these voters of their right to vote. 

Isn’t it about time that we pass something like AB 122? Isn’t it about timke that we protect people’s right to vote from such horrid and nasty scare tactics? Isn’t it about time that we pass something like AB 46? Isn’t it about time that we prosecute these folks who try to scare voters away from voting?

If you care about our right to vote, it might be a good idea to call your Assembly Member and ask him or her to support these bills. Our right to vote is just too precious to lose. Or be scared away from.