With some legislative sleight of hand, Democratic lawmakers moved Thursday to thwart Amazon.com's ballot fight over California's new online sales tax.

But there's no guarantee Democrats can get the Republican support needed to make their plan work.

Democrats cooked up new legislation that's similar to the law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown and being challenged by Amazon in a ballot referendum.

The main difference: The new bill carries an "urgency" clause and would require two-thirds approval by both houses of the Legislature. Under the state constitution, urgency bills can't be overturned by a referendum, Democrats say.

In another twist, the Democrats have tweaked the legislation to gain support from a pivotal player: eBay. The Internet auction house had previously opposed the online sales tax.

"The coalition now is huge," said Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, who's pushing the new plan.

Amazon could not be reached for its reaction, but the plan was blasted as "an outrageous ploy" by one of the firm's biggest allies, Republican George Runner, a member of the State Board of Equalization.

"We're basically putting the ball in Amazon's court," said Bill Dombrowski of the California Retailers Association, a coalition of powerful brick-and-mortar stores supporting the online tax.

The move suggests Democrats and their brick-and-mortar allies were concerned Amazon could win at the ballot box, said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College.

"Amazon is popular; taxes aren't," Pitney said. "That doesn't mean Amazon is a lock to win, but I wouldn't count it out."

Brown signed the existing law, which passed on a majority vote, in late June. It says online retailers must begin collecting sales tax from California customers. Backers say Amazon and others, by not collecting sales tax, have enjoyed an unfair advantage over brick-and-mortar stores. The tax would raise an estimated $200 million a year.

Amazon refused to collect the tax and announced it would take its case to voters.

That touched off an immediate debate over the legality of using a referendum to overturn a budget-related law. Democrats said Amazon can't do it and have been threatening to sue. Amazon said the referendum is kosher – and has spent more than $5 million gathering signatures.

The referendum has been shaping up as a California classic, putting the giant of Internet commerce against traditional titans like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble.

For now, anyway, the matter will also play out in the Legislature, where Democrats and the brick-and-mortar coalition will search for Republican votes to gain passage.

Because it's so late in the legislative year, Democrats had to "gut and amend" an existing bill, AB 155, to get their plan rolling. AB 155 would repeal the 2-month-old law and enact a new version.

To get two-thirds passage, Democrats would need two Republican votes in each house. The existing law – the one signed by Brown in June – passed with only one Republican vote in the Assembly and none in the Senate.

In an early test of the new plan, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved it on a party-line 6-3 vote without any Republican support.

Nevertheless, Hancock said, she's confident of finding Republican votes.

Dombrowski said Democrats made a key change to get support from eBay.

Existing law exempts out-of-state eBay sellers who do only $500,000 a year worth of business in California. The new law would raise the exemption to $1 million (eBay's in-state sellers are treated like brick-and-mortar retailers and have to collect the tax already).

"That broadens the business support and, we believe, adds Republicans," Dombrowski said.

eBay said it supports the new legislation because it offers "adequate protections for most small business retail entrepreneurs that use the Internet."

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Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066. Dan Smith of The Bee's Capitol Bureau contributed to this report.

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