Say it like "Pay-daze," not "Purr-ezz"

Kudos to John A. Perez on being elected Speaker of the State Assembly this morning. He has overcome a lot of challenges on his way to this post, although I suspect being related to powerful Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hasn't hurt much. The state political media is making a big to-do about Perez's being the first openly gay Speaker in history. It's even been suggested by some that his sexuality was what prevented Perez from being elected by a unanimous vote.

(The Republicans rarely vote against the Democratic nominee for Speaker these days, because of their essentially permanent minority status; but this morning, pearl-necklace-attired Assemblymember Audra Strickland nominated her party's leader Sam Blakeslee for the top post. He lost on a completely unsurprising party-line vote of 48 to 26.)

For all the media attention it's getting, however, I doubt Perez's sexual orientation will have any substantive effect on public policy during the five or so years he might potentially serve. For one thing, the Legislature has already done about all it can do for gay rights; last year's Senate Bill 54, by Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), is more likely than not the most substantial piece of gay-rights legislation we're likely to see debated under the Dome for a long time. Besides, with center-left Democrats commanding a solid majority in both the Assembly and Senate, almost any LGBT equal-rights bill is certain to pass, no matter who is Speaker.

A more significant development to watch will be whether or not Perez serves the full five years he is constitutionally eligible to serve as Speaker (provided, of course, that he is re-elected to his Assembly seat in 2010 and 2012), and if so, what impact he has on the institution and the legislation that comes out of it. Most Speakers in the post-term limits era (aka the post-Willie Brown era) have served pretty short terms. Antonio Villaraigosa and Bob Hertzberg, two of the more memorable holders of the office in recent memory, each served a shade over two years; most of the others haven't even made it that far.

Fabian Nunez, probably the most powerful and influential Speaker since Brown, served for a little over four years, and the jury is still out on whether or not he had any long-term influence on public policy or state politics. Sure, the state's most significant piece of environmental legislation so far this century, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, technically bears Nunez's name in the bill title; but it's pretty well known that Assemblymember (now Senator) Fran Pavley was the lead negotiator on the bill, along with representatives of the Schwarzenegger administration. And Nunez's mild healthcare reform proposal of 2007 was vetoed by the Republican Governor because it didn't provide enough health coverage.

So maybe there isn't much power to the Speakership, but if there is, I wish Perez the best of luck in using it. And even if there isn't, think of all the great jokes Capitol insiders can throw around: "So a gay Latino from Los Angeles and a bodybuilding action-movie star from Austria walk into a bar..."

A quick note on the homophobia thing: Like I mentioned briefly earlier, there's been some speculation that the reason Republicans didn't symbolically line up and vote for Perez like they have for every Democratic Speaker in the last decade has something to do with Perez's being openly gay. For my part, I really doubt it; I just think that, coming out of the hyper-partisan year that was 2009, and heading into what looks like an even nastier, more divisive election year, the Reps felt the need to assert themselves. Good for them. And who knows? Maybe they'll one day be able to nominate a candidate for Speaker who has a chance of winning.