You Will Vote With Your Party or Else

The Dems in Sacramento expect their party members to fall in line and vote the way they mandate, and when one strays, there's hell to pay:

SACRAMENTO -- Hanford Democrat Nicole Parra was booted from her Assembly office Monday, a punishment for bucking her party on Sunday night's budget vote.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass sent Parra packing not to smaller Capitol digs -- the usual reprimand for rebellious members -- but out of the building entirely. Parra landed across the street in a legislative office building where no other lawmakers are quartered.

Parra has vowed to not vote for the state budget unless lawmakers also agree to put a water bond on the November ballot -- a priority of the farmers in her district who have long pushed for new dams.

On Sunday she kept her pledge and was the only Democrat present who abstained on a Democratic budget proposal that was never expected to pass. The budget bill requires a super majority and failed because no Republicans voted yes.

Hours later, on Monday morning, Parra's staff was already packing up.

"I knew that I would be punished some way, somehow," Parra said. But she said Valley residents should be "disgusted" at the way she was punished.

"I represent the same amount of people the speaker represents," she said. "Why should my constituents, because I'm fighting for them, not have access to me in my office in the Capitol building?"

Let me ask you this, now that Parra has been banished to the hinterland of legislative offices, how likely is she to support the Dems on future bills? The bill was going to lose anyway, so her abstention did nothing to change the outcome. However, if I were her, I'd make sure the party regrets that move when they need me on future votes.