March 17, 2008

De La Torre says he's 'in the dark'

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, who was removed Thursday as chair of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee, said there was "no reason" he could think of for the dismissal.

"I am as in the dark as you are," De La Torre said in an interview late Friday.

"I've voted the right way. I've helped my colleagues. I've done everything I thought a member of the California State Assembly was supposed to do," the South Gate Democrat said.

Just last Wednesday, he said, he helped round up the votes to pass legislation, at the urging of the legislative leadership.

Both De La Torre and Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, were stripped of chairmanships on Thursday. The pair had both run unsuccessfully for speaker against Assemblywoman Karen Bass, who won over the majority of her Assembly Democratic colleagues in late February.

De La Torre said he spoke with Bass on Thursday night and "she said she didn't know anything about this."

That makes his demotion solely the decision of current Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, who, as De La Torre notes, "has had a rough few months here with a couple of major losses," such as health care and Proposition 93.

Like Portantino, who said he was "confused" by the move, De La Torre said he didn't understand why he would be punished for campaigning – within the agreed upon rules – for speaker.

"I never bad mouthed anybody. It was a very above-board campaign for everybody," he said. "There's nothing there."

While Portantino was given the news via fax, De La Torre was called by Jon Waldie, the top aide to the Rules Committee, which De La Torre had chaired.

A member of Núñez's leadership team, De La Torre has had a hand in how – and what – legislation moved through the lower house, as all bills are steered through the Rules Committee.

As a candidate for speaker, De La Torre had lobbied his Democratic colleagues with the promise of a "more member-friendly or member-centric" speakership.

He promised "a little more of an open process" as some members have bristled at the top-down approach of Núñez and his aides.

In the end, however, he fell short and fell victim to a private leadership decision.

"There was no reason given," he said.

Posted by Shane Goldmacher on March 17, 2008 7:40 AM