California gets cold shoulder in capital
BUSH HIT LIST? Critics say president wants state to suffer for political, 
environmental actions.
By David Whitney, Scripps-McClatchy Western Service
WASHINGTON -- When Vice President Dick Cheney met with members of the Pacific 
Northwest congressional delegation to talk about the West Coast electricity 
crisis last month, Californians were kept out of the room. 
According to Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., Cheney wouldn't schedule a meeting if 
anyone from California was going to attend. 
"Cheney didn't personally tell me that, but his staff did," Inslee said 
later. "From Day One, the administration has tried to isolate California." 
It's not just the power controversy in which California finds itself on the 
outside. If it's Californians walking up the White House steps, these days 
the odds are high that no one will open the door. 
From insurance requirements on earthquake-prone federal buildings to 
proposals cutting support for alternative power sources, Democrats and even 
some Republicans are beginning to think that California is on Bush's hit 
list. 
"It's premature to say this new crew dislikes California," said Tim Ransdell, 
executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research, a 
policy arm of the bipartisan, 52-member state congressional delegation. 
"But the early signals are that California is a lower priority than other 
states," Ransdell said. 
Consider the state's plea for better treatment on budget items. 
In February, when the White House released a broad blueprint of its 2002 
budget, California lawmakers were stunned to see that it included $83 million 
in savings at the Federal Emergency Management Agency resulting from a 
requirement that public buildings be privately insured. 
On the surface, this seems like a reasonable request. But after dozens of 
insurance carriers declared bankruptcy under the weight of claims from the 
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in Northern California, no one knows whether it's 
even possible for cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco to buy 
coverage. 
The disaster insurance idea was suggested last year during the Clinton 
administration, and the entire California delegation rose up to stop it. All 
52 members, from the most conservative Republican to the most liberal 
Democrat, signed onto a letter saying that that at the very least the 
government ought to study the wisdom of shifting public money from improving 
the earthquake integrity of buildings to buying insurance. 
When Bush revived the idea in February, California Republicans thought the 
new administration didn't understand. The Republicans balked at attacking the 
idea in a joint letter with Democratic lawmakers, and instead launched a 
campaign to educate the White House on why a bad idea under the Clinton 
administration remained a bad idea now. 
It didn't work. Last week's final budget submission to Congress included the 
provision, unchanged. 
On another budget issue, the White House slashed by $135 million federal 
support that states receive for incarcerating undocumented criminals. Because 
California typically receives more than 40 percent of that pot, that cut 
alone would cost the state nearly $60 million. 
Ransdell said the administration's attitude toward the state is putting 
enormous pressure on Republicans. 
"California Republicans don't want to be in a position of criticizing the 
president at the very beginning of the administration," he said. But he said 
that as these issues heat up, he expects Republicans will soon start to break 
with the administration over issues on which they have been denied a voice. 
"I think they will fight back when they need to fight back," Ransdell said. 
The common explanation on why California is getting such lousy treatment is 
its politics. The state voted strongly for Al Gore in the November elections. 
All but one of its constitutional offices are occupied by elected Democrats. 
The state Legislature and congressional delegations are firmly in the grip of 
Democrats. 
And Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat often mentioned as a possible challenger to 
Bush in 2004, is being hammered over the power crisis. 
Several sources also noted that the contrast may be more vivid because 
Clinton and Gore were closely allied with California entertainment and 
high-tech industries and often were in the state. 
"I think by this time in the Clinton-Gore administration, they had been here 
four or five times," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute for 
Governmental Studies at the University of California-Berkeley. 
"This can be looked at in a number of ways," Cain said of the Bush 
administration. 
"The president may have decided that California is not essential to his 
re-election, and that he can win (in 2004) without the state," Cain said. 
"Also, he can use California as an object lesson to every other state that 
wants to go the route of environmentalism or openness to immigration: Let 
them suffer from their own policies." 
Leon Panetta, President Clinton's former chief of staff and a former 
California congressman, thinks the Bush administration's early treatment of 
the state is "very short-sighted." 
"The reality is that California is the sixth-largest economy in the world," 
he said. "To write it off for whatever reason just doesn't make a lot of 
sense." 

April 16, 2001