Many faces have changed, but much about the California Legislature remains the same as a decade ago: Lawmakers consider thousands of bills and other measures, which frequently pass or fail strictly along party lines.
But those lines were notably fuzzier in the just-completed session compared with a decade ago, legislative voting records show.
The shift illustrates a Democratic-controlled Legislature now slightly more open to Republican positions, particularly from the business lobby. It has led to the scuttling or softening of workplace legislation sought by unions and environmental proposals on climate change, groundwater and fracking.
In the session that ended Aug. 31, any two Republican and Democratic lawmakers cast the same floor votes about three-quarters of the time, on average. During the 2005-06 session, Democrats and Republicans voted the same way about 60 percent of the time.
Assembly vote agreement 80 percent and above
All that corporate PAC money flooding into Democrats is paying off.
Source: Party lines got a little fuzzier in Legislature’s 2015-2016 session – The Sacramento Bee
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