Padilla bill raises hackles

Over the last two months, Sen. Alex Padilla, D Los Angeles, guided a controversial bill through the Senate committee process, with some help from Republicans and moderate Democrats. But Senate leader Don Perata intervened, citing a breech in senatorial decorum, and exiled the bill to legislative purgatory. Capitol Weekly.

The story of SB 1389 ultimately shows the power the Pro Tem has over the Senate. It is also a story about Padilla, a former president of the Los Angeles City Council and Sacramento freshman, who was tagged as a rising star even before he took office. The bill's Senate journey also raises issues of what some Senate observers say is an evolving set of rules of etiquette in the post term-limits era.

Senate sources say Perata killed the bill because its passage violated a fundamental rule of the Senate - defer to the committee chairmen. Padilla says he was in constant communication with the heads of both committees that heard the bill - Senate Energy Chairwoman Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, and Appropriations Chairman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch - and that any breach of etiquette was accidental.