April 16, 1999
by Julio Calderon
Former Chairperson of Statewide MAPA
The demise of Republican Assemblyman Rod Pachecho as minority leader of the California State Assembly may come as a surprise only to the four Latino Republican members of the assembly. Latinos generally believe in loyalty and fair play... it is in our cultural nature, but alien in the realm of policies-especially true of partisan minority politics.
Latino/Chicano organizing was fondly described by its own and its detractors by using the fable of the Mexican Crabs. A man was catching crabs on a pier. He had two buckets, one had a lid on it, and the other was uncovered. When asked about the uncovered buckets of crabs, he said, "These are Mexican crabs, they never make it over the top. Just as one gets near the top, another one pulls him back down."
What, you might ask, does this have to do with the Assembly GOP Caucus. In simple terms, rather than give new leadership a chance, they prefer the posture of losers. The same leadership that led them to their greatest debacle last year will lead the assembly into next year's elections. These same tactics and the same rhetoric and the same failure to raise the funds needed to mount a solid campaign will be in play.
These leaders that failed to develop a message that reached across to all Californians, especially Latinos, will be in charge of the message for the millennium. Rather than develop rhetoric based on logic and truth, they will continue that of hate and division.
Republicans in the Assembly, must have doubts about their votes, or should, since the loudest cheers over their decision to out Pachecho come from Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. His glowing terms describing Scott Baugh as someone he can work with and his negative comments about Rod Pachecho begs as an important question.
Democratic leaders never applaud any actions Republicans take that are detrimental to Democrats, so why is Villaraigosa so over-joyed about then dumping Pachecho?
There are a couple of theories that come to mind right away. The first is that since the worst things he can say about Pacheco is that they didn't get along with him, and that "he doesn't even speak Spanish." Well, neither do half of the Latinos in the Democratic Assembly Caucus and most of them are from East Los Angeles. And since when is the minority leader supposed to "get along" with the majority leader?
The other theory is that having a Latino Republican in such a visible position makes it more difficult for Villaraigosa to maintain the Democratic hold on the Latino voters. The Democrat's mantra against Republicans has always been that they are racist white males, a description difficult to sell with the brown skinned Pacheco in the GOP limelight.
Now that the group led by former minority leader Bill Leonard have retaken control of the assembly GOP Caucus, Villaraigosa can point to the fact nothing has changed in regard to Republicans and their attitude toward the Latino community-to steal a phrase-The more things change, the more they stay the same. So will the attack by Democrats during next year's elections.
What concerns me is that these same people are trying to position themselves to lead the George W. Bush presidential campaign in California next year. How will their inflexible, archaic positions on issue saddle the Bush campaign.?
My sentiments go to the Latino GOP Assembly Caucus. They came to Sacramento loyal to their party's beliefs and agenda, believing that they were part of a team determined to move our state into the future. The lesson in this attack on Rod Pacheco is that when you are not in the seat of power, the Speaker's Office, they will eat their own for what little power is left in the Legislature for the GOP.
Under these conditions there is no need to elevate rhetoric to a statesmanship level. The Democrats will call the Republicans racist and homophobes, and the Republicans will call Democrats anti-family, gay loving-tax spenders.
There is no promise of new, bold ideas for California's 2,000 elections.
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