AND IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY< PLEASE E_MAIL: AND CALL YOUR SENATOR TO SAY THANK YOU
FWD:
Before the overwhelming vote in opposition to AB 1634, I was hanging out outside of the Senate chambers with Mark Hennelly, CHfC, COHA, and Ed Worley, and Paul Payne, NRA. There were about 100 other lobbyists in the hallway too. When AB 1634 came up and Senator Padilla started his speech about the AKC, my cell phone started to blaze. The messages were something like: "DO SOMETHING!!!
As I started to contact senators on the floor, Chris Wagaman, on Senator Correa's staff showed up with the flier off the AKC website. At about the same time another staffer from Senator Dave Cox's office came running up with his copies of the AKC flier. Both said, "you know, as soon as Padilla opened his mouth, our phone lines lit up like crazy".. They assumed the same was happening in every senator's office. Both rushed into the Senate chambers to distribute the fliers. (Lobbyists, by the way, cannot go into those chambers). But, this shows the behind the scenes support we were receiving from senators' staff. There are a lot of dog and cat people working in the capitol.
When Chris came out, she said she spoke directly with Padilla, who told her, "No, the AKC is neutral, this just means they are upset with Levine, not AB 1634." (Wrong!). I remember Senator Lou Correa's comments when he visited with us and Lassie in the hallway a month earlier. Correa: "whats the bill number?" Lassie: "Its AB 1634." Correa; "who's carrying it?" Lassie: "Lloyd Levine". Correa; "oh sh#@ not HIM?" as he walked away with a disgusted look. That was my first clue, Correa might not vote for AB 1634.
I had been saying we needed 6 Democrats, and I counted 10 who I thought might vote "No". My original picks were, of course all 15 of the Republicans, with only Maldonado as a question mark---but not much of one. In the Dem column I picked Correa, Ducheny, Florez, Migden, Oropeza, Scott, Calderon, Kuehl, Steinberg and Yee. Well, as you know I was wrong. We didn't pull 10, We got 13. And we got Calderon, Kuehl and Steinberg to abstain, which were "No" votes.
On the first go around, I think we picked up 5 or 6 Democrats. When Senate pro Tem, Perata and Migdon from San Francisco, voted our way on the first vote, I knew we had this bill beat. But, we had to wait an anxious hour for the vote to be lifted. Senator Padilla was the only Democrat to talk on the bill while on the Republican side, Dutton, Cox and Runner got up to speak against it. I was very pleased with Cox, 'cause I recognized a number of my talking points that he covered. Its always nice to find out they really listen.
During the wait Chris would come out with news; like: "Lowenthal and Simitian are coming off the bill!" As the hour waned, the news kept getting better. Finally, after what turned out to be a very long hour they called for the absentees. Thats when we ended up with 27 ayes and 5 no's.
You cannot imagine the elation and satisfaction I felt at that time. What blew me away were Kehoe not voting and Ridley-Thomas changing his vote from "Aye" to "No." Both had been staunch allies of Lloyd Levine.
Following the vote, I met with Kelley Moran and his two German Shepherd dogs on the North lawn. While we talked Jeff Leacox, the AKC lobbyist came out, so we asked him what gives with AKC? His answer? "There was nothing wrong with AB 1634!" "It would not have harmed breeders!". I asked him what as all about this so-called 12th amendment, but then his phone rang and he mumbeled something and left.
The two NRA lobbyists took Mark and me to lunch to celebrate. There has been some questions about the NRA, but I have to tell you, these guys have been with us from the very beginning and like PetPAC never waivered. The other group are the hunters, especially the California Houndsmen for Conservation. Every time AB 1634 came up in committee a herd of these gentlemen showed up.
From the very beginning I have been saying if we are to defeat the AR's, we will need a coalition made up of all types of dog and cat people. Thats why PetPAC isn't called DogPAC. In a little over a year ago, we started with three of us, and we have grown to 45,000, dog and cat owners and clubs from throughout the breeding, working, police K9, service, hearing impaired, hunting, sporting and non-AKC community, as well as many cat clubs and of course the support of CFA. And before you think this is a PetPAC commercial, Please remember, I have always included the thousands of individual dog and cat people who have fought tooth and nail (forgive the pun) to kill AB 1634.
I even mentioned to the NRA guys, that for 25 years I represented law enforcement officers and unless legislation had something to do with their golf game, I could never field many to help. That is not true with the pet community. I plan to wax eloquently at a later time, but please know I am thrilled to have been working with everyone.
And for the record. let me just tell you, there will be no "good parts of AB 1634" that will survive next session.
Bill Hemby
Posted on Aug 24, 2008, 9:45 PM from IP address 208.106.99.77