If at first you don't succeed, try to maneuver around Nicole Parra.
That seems to be the motto of Sen. Dean Florez, who the AP reports this morning is planning to steer his package of bills to regulate the lettuce and spinach industry away from the Assembly Agriculture Committee, which Parra chairs.
The two Central Valley Democrats represent overlapping districts, but have a fierce rivalry.
Florez's package of legislation, which he authored in response to the 2006 E. coli outbreak, came to a screeching halt in Parra's committee in late June.
As Florez presented one of his bills, which seemed destined for defeat, he accused the Parra-chaired committee of waiting "for something bad to happen."
Parra interrupted: "Senator, I'm going to warn you, this is not the message this committee is sending."
"I know you're going to go out to the press and probably say that if someone else dies, it's on our back. Well, don't blame the members of this committee, senator," Parra continued. "Blame me if you have an issue, but that is not the message that we want to get out of this committee."
Capitol Alert has the audio of the heated exchange, so listen in.
So in January Florez plans to ask the Assembly leadership to ship the bills out of the Ag panel and to the health panel, the AP reports, where they could find a friendlier audience.
Ultimately, the bills would have to return to the Agriculture Committee, but hopefully "with a little more momentum," Florez said.
Read here for background on the feud.
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