State Senate calls on Davis to apologize for accent remark
By Ann E. Marimow
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - The state Senate passed a resolution Tuesday that calls on Gov. Gray Davis to apologize for joking about the accent of GOP recall candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was the first time in decades that legislators formally asked a sitting governor to apologize.
Republican Senate Leader Jim Brulte said he brought up the issue Tuesday only after Davis' office told him there would be no apology for remarks the Democratic governor made over the weekend.
Four Democrats, including Fremont Sen. Liz Figueroa, joined with 15 Republicans to approve a symbolic resolution that calls on Davis to apologize ``for his anti-immigrant remarks.'' The measure passed by 19-2 vote.
``This is just a gentle reminder that he is held to a higher standard,'' Figueroa said.
Over the weekend, in an aside to a supporter at a union picnic, a reporter overheard Davis say, ``You shouldn't be governor unless you can pronounce the name of the state.''
`Laughable' politicking
Davis has said he was ``just kidding around'' in a private conversation. Peter Ragone, his campaign spokesman, said Tuesday, ``I think that Jim Brulte's politicking is laughable.''
``I expect that the next thing the Republicans will do is pass a resolution calling on Arnold Schwarzenegger to apologize for his support of 187, for his personal attacks on Cruz Bustamante and for his lack of specifics on issues,'' he added, referring to the 1994 voter-approved initiative that would have cut off social services to illegal immigrants, and an unflattering comment the actor made about the lieutenant governor's appearance. Bustamante is the only major Democrat running to replace Davis.
Despite Davis' effort to shrug off his comment as a joke, Republicans have pounced on the accent issue, trying to turn it into a political liability for the governor just as polls show the effort to recall him is losing steam.
Davis' comment also came under attack during a Los Angeles debate Tuesday. Green Party candidate Peter Camejo called the governor's remark ``very revealing,'' adding, ``implied in that is a racist comment.'' Camejo, who is bilingual, also jabbed at Davis, saying, ``I've never heard him correctly pronounce `Sacramento' or `Los Angeles,' '' using a Spanish pronunciation of the city names. Independent candidate Arianna Huffington said Davis insulted ``the 9 million Californians who were not born in this country.''
The two appeared, along with Bustamante, at a debate sponsored by the Greenlining Institute and New California Media, a group of minority journalists.
In a conference call Tuesday, California Republican Party vice chair Mario Rodriguez called on Davis to apologize to Schwarzenegger, as well as to Huffington, who speaks with an accent from her native Greece.
``I found this to be very offensive,'' Rodriguez said. If a Republican made such a remark, he said, Democrats would have attacked immediately. ``If it was any Republican who, jokingly or not, made this comment, he would have been taken to the cleaners.''
The Senate's action marked the first time in at least three decades that legislators had called on a sitting governor to apologize, according to longtime Secretary of the Senate Gregory Schmidt.
The measure was initially introduced by Brulte on Monday. The Rancho Cucamonga Republican said he would have withdrawn the resolution had Davis agreed to apologize.
But Davis did not, and Brulte said the governor should not be held to a different standard than other politicians. While not equating the two remarks, Brulte noted that in June the state Legislature called on U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, R-North Carolina, to apologize for implying on a radio call-in show that the internment of Japanese Americans was in their best interest.
Senators are now drafting a letter to send to Davis.
Strained relations
The reprimand on the Senate floor was another sign of Davis' frayed relations with Senate Democrats at a time when he most needs them. Lawmakers all but abandoned the governor's request to keep a prominent Democrat off the second half of the recall ballot when they endorsed Bustamante last month.
Only two of 25 Senate Democrats voted against the measure, while the remaining 19 abstained from voting.
Resolutions can pass the Senate with only a majority of those present and voting, instead of a majority of the 40 senators needed to pass most legislation.
One of the Democratic votes against the measure was by Los Angeles Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, the champion of controversial legislation Davis just signed to allow illegal immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.
The other ``no'' vote came from Sen. Sheila Kuehl of Los Angeles, who said Davis' comments didn't compare to Coble's. Schwarzenegger ``can take care of himself,'' she said. ``He's not individually an oppressed group. Far from it.''
San Mateo Sen. Jackie Speier, however, did not vote, instead calling the move a ``recall power play'' that distracted from serious legislative business.
``Have any of us ever said something about Arnold's accent? I wouldn't want to take a lie detector test,'' she said. |
