Rethinking Norquist's tax pledge

The question was simple enough. If Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen could do it over again, would she have signed the pledge in which she promised to never vote to raise taxes?

She paused and thought and finally said she didn't know.

"The pledge has become subject to arbitrary and illogical interpretations," the Modesto Republican said.

Olsen is one of several California Republicans who openly question the wisdom of the 33-word pledge in which politicians vow to "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."

Beltway conservative Grover Norquist promotes the pledge, using it to become a force in American politics and raise millions for his organization, Americans for Tax Reform. Though the pledge plays well in Republican-dominated regions, cracks have developed in California.

Three of the four Republicans running in the most hotly contested state Senate races reject the pledge. One of them is Assemblyman Bill Berryhill, who is running for the 5th Senate District seat against Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani. No fewer than six Republicans who have legitimate shots at winning Assembly seats are nonsigners. Anthony Cannella, a Ceres Republican representing the 12th Senate District, was one of the first to refuse to sign it when he ran for the state Senate in 2010.

Five Republicans who could win congressional seats also reject it.

Perhaps rejecting the pledge suggests Republicans are facing reality. The California GOP teeters on insolvency, registration sits at 31 percent, and the political system has changed.

An independent commission, rather than politicians, drew legislative and congressional districts that are more balanced, and the top-two primary forces politicians to appeal to moderates.

In Sacramento, Democrats hardly bother negotiating with Republicans over the budget — the most important legislation each year — because Pledge Zombies cannot talk about taxes.

As always in politics, there's a money angle. Lobbyists are frustrated by the blank stares they get when the topic turns to budgets and taxation, and interest groups are using their checkbooks to make their views known.

The California Dental Association lobbies heavily for state funding for dental services. Worried the state will cut spending deeper, dentists led a $227,000 primary campaign to boost Republican Assembly candidate Frank Bigelow — a cowboy-hat-wearing Madera County supervisor who rejected the pledge.

Bigelow faces a November showdown for the Mother Lode seat against Rico Oller, a former legislator who embraces the pledge.

Marty Wilson, who oversees the California Chamber of Commerce political operation, said the chamber's top priority this year will be to elect Republican Assembly candidate Peter Tateishi, former chief of staff to Rep. Dan Lungren. Chamber support could translate into hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars.

Tateishi said he rejected the pledge not because he expects to raise money, but because he doesn't "believe in signing pledges." He also wants to be "be at the table" during taxation discussions.

Olsen's doubts about the pledge came into focus on the final day of the legislative session when she voted for Senate Bill 1455, a bill to extend small fees on vehicle and boat registration and tire purchases to promote alternative fuel, reduce air pollution and fund the retrofit of older diesel engines.

That night, Jon Fleischman, a conservative Orange County blogger and Norquist's enforcer in California, issued a not-so-subtle warning on his Flashreport: "Moving forward, (Americans for Tax Reform) will be working to educate Californians as to how their representatives in Sacramento vote on this important matter."

Olsen shrugged. Business and industry groups, including oil and agriculture, backed the measure, which included provisions to help farmers in her district. She was one of three Assembly Republicans, independent Nathan Fletcher, and two Senate Republicans to vote for the measure.

"This was really important to my constituents," Olsen said. "They're the ones I'm accountable to, and no one else."

It was for naught when one Democrat voted against it and another Democrat ducked the vote. The bill died, but will re-emerge next year.

Taxes could be especially important in 2013, particularly if voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30, to raise taxes by $6 billion a year.

Los Angeles investor Gerald Parsky, who has advised Republican presidents and governors, is leading the opposition to Proposition 30, arguing, correctly, that the mix of income and sales tax hikes in Proposition 30 is bad tax policy.

If Proposition 30 fails — and it barely led in the latest polls — Parsky promises to return to Sacramento with a plan to overhaul the tax system that would include some tax increases. Similar attempts, including one that Parsky championed, died ignominiously.

If Parsky follows through, Republican legislators could become relevant, at least those who, like Olsen, doubt the wisdom of pledging allegiance to a guy from Washington, D.C. Parsky, hardly a tax-and-spend liberal, called the Norquist pledge "counter-productive."

True, Republicans would be in the unfamiliar position of actually having sway in Sacramento. But they could learn. Who knows, maybe they could do some good for their districts and for the state.

E-mail: dmorain@sacbee.com. Twitter @DanielMorain.