Next to electing Barack Obama President of the United States come November, Assembly Democrats biggest dream is picking up the six assembly seats needed to achieve a two-thirds super-majority and, therefore, no longer needing Republican votes to pass a state budget or increase taxes.
But Assembly Speaker Karen Bass might have thrown a monkey wrench into that effort.
To achieve their super-majority, Democrats must not only pick up six assembly districts currently held by a Republican – a tall order by itself – but must also hold on to the sole competitive assembly district that is currently held by a Democrat, which is the 30th Assembly District (AD30) represented by Nicole Parra.
This is the same Nicole Parra that had her office thrown out of the Capitol building (an historic first) as well as all all bills she had pending killed by Speaker Bass as punishment for refusing to vote aye with other Democrats on last weekend’s proposed budget — because they would not agree to put a water bond on the ballot.
AD30 is at the top of the Republicans’ Target List. Parra is termed out this year, making this an open seat and their nominee, retired Highway Patrol officer Danny Gilmore, narrowly lost to Parra in 2006 by a margin of 1,600 votes out of 54,000 votes cast.
The Democratic nominee to succeed Parra is Fran Florez, the mayor pro tem of Shafter and mother of state Senator Dean Florez.
The Parra and Florez families are fierce political rivals. This rivalry came to a head in 2004 when Parra’s father, Pete Parra, was defeated for re-election to the Kern County Board of Supervisors by Mike Rubio, then a 26-year-old staff aide to Sen. Florez.
Parra has been hinting that she might endorse Republican Gilmore in November but most local voters were treating the possible endorsement as part of a personal feud.
But due to the heavy hand of Speaker Bass, Parra has become somewhat of a local folk hero among many of her constituents and has drawn much praise from local political leaders throughout her Central Valley district for putting the interests of her "water starved" district ahead of party politics and, therefore, making an endorsement from her much more potent.
In fact, Fran Florez is now running radio commercials in the district that praises her long-time nemesis for her “independence.”