By Patrick McGreevy and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times, June 28/29, 2011
Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Jerry Brown, whose signature more than three decades ago gave agricultural workers the right to unionize by secret ballot, vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have made it easier for farm laborers to organize.
The proposal has been the top legislative goal for years for the United Farm Workers, whose founder, Cesar Chavez, had strong ties to Brown. It would have allowed the union to bargain for employees without holding an election — by simply collecting signatures from a majority of workers on cards saying they wanted representation....
The pressure on Brown to sign the bill, SB 104, by state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), was intense. For nearly two weeks, UFW representatives flooded the Capitol, urging Brown to approve the measure. They held protests and vigils outside Brown's office and even brought Chavez's chair to the governor, inviting him to sit in it and ratify the legislation.
Steinberg's bill was a priority for Democrats this year and one Republicans fiercely opposed. The governor's veto — on the heels of a budget deal struck with Democrats alone — helps keep him in the political center. Brown has often referred to such centrism as "the canoe theory" of governing: paddling a little on the left, a little on the right and staying in the middle.
The union enlisted many of the state's top Democratic leaders to solicit the governor's signature. They included Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), who as a state assemblyman wrote the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975.
Opponents of the bill included a large coalition of business and agricultural interests....
Also see:
Emotions run high as Jerry Brown vetoes farmworker bill
By David Sidera, Sacramento Bee, June 28, 2011
....Brown said in his veto message that the bill is a "drastic change" to the state's agricultural labor relations act, and he said, "I appreciate the frustrations that have given rise to it."
However, he wrote, "I am not yet convinced that the far reaching proposals of this bill - which alter in a significant way the guiding assumptions of the ALRA - are justified. Before restructuring California's carefully crafted agricultural labor law, it is only right that the legislature consider legal provisions that more faithfully track its original framework."....
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed the legislation four times in four years. But Brown, a Democrat with longstanding ties to labor, was considered more likely to sign it....
And:
Jerry Brown's office calls Republicans 'basically moronic'
Political blog @ Los Angeles Timess, June 26, 2011
With California's new fiscal year starting Friday and no compromise with the GOP on a budget in sight, Gov. Jerry Brown's chief spokesman called Sacramento Republicans "basically moronic" for failing to strike an agreement.
Brown wants a fall election on taxes and to extend vehicle and sales tax hikes that will otherwise expire by Friday. Republicans are demanding pension, regulatory and spending policy concessions in exchange for such an election. They have balked at extending taxes.
"The Republicans in Sacramento are basically moronic. But we’re hopeful that they can realize we’re on an unsustainable trajectory here, one that is not fiscally responsible and one for which they are at least partially responsible," Gil Duran, Brown's press secretary....
And:
Brown solidified credibility with veto
By Steven Harmon, Contra Costa Times, June 26, 2011
SACRAMENTO -- In vetoing the Legislature's budget 10 days ago, Gov. Jerry Brown took some sharp jabs from members of his own party, who accused him of betraying their trust, among other things. But it was worth it for the credibility he earned with the public, political observers say.
The veto reaffirmed the persona that Brown had cultivated through his campaign as the guy who means what he says and who will make tough decisions despite the political cost....