Campbell, Maddox kicked off several committees

Alicia Robinson

Two local assemblymen are farther down the totem pole in the

lawmaking process since being booted from several committees on which

they served.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) on Friday announced

changes to the makeup of Assembly committees that included reducing

70th District Assemblyman John Campbell’s committee memberships from

three to two and 68th District Assemblyman Ken Maddox’s committee

seats from five to one.

Nunez planned the move to reduce the size of committees that had

grown unwieldy and increase their efficiency, said Nunez spokesman

Gabriel Sanchez. But local Republican legislators disagreed.

“What happened is he reduced a lot of Republican members and made

the partisan breakdown even more slanted toward Democratic members,”

Campbell spokesman Matt Back said. Campbell was on vacation and

unavailable for comment.

Campbell served on the budget, utilities and commerce, and

insurance committees, but was kicked off the budget and insurance

committees and was added to the public employees retirement system

committee, Back said.

Maddox said he was taken off the insurance, utilities and

commerce, environmental safety and toxics and agriculture committees

and he kept his place on the governmental organization committee.

Maddox said he’s not surprised to be taken off some committees

because he’s termed out and will leave the Assembly at the end of the

year, but he hoped to keep at least two seats.

The Assembly’s 29 committees were reduced by 52 members, according

to information from Nunez’s office. The committees have been growing

since term limits were enacted in 1996 and Nunez’s goal was to

counteract that, Sanchez said.

Assembly members from both parties had complained about the

committee sizes and Nunez asked them which memberships they would be

willing to give up, Sanchez said. He denied that it was a political

move to give Democrats the upper hand.

“If you look at the numbers, more Democrats were taken off

committee assignments than Republicans,” he said. “This is something

that was done in the best interests of the house, period.”

While Campbell will continue to work closely with the governor on

the budget and other issues, Back said, he’ll no longer have a vote

in committee on the budget. Back did not expect the changes to have a

major effect on Campbell’s ability to funnel state dollars to his

district.

But not being on committees will affect the legislators’ influence

on state policy because committees are where bills live or die and

where amendments are added, Maddox said.

“We have very little say in the formation of public policy as a

result of the changes,” he said.