An analysis conducted by the San Jose Mercury News demonstrates that sponsored bills are far more likely to become law than bills without sponsors.
Sponsored bills made up 60 percent of the legislation passed in the 2007-08 legislative session. Almost half of the 1,883 sponsored bills became law.
The portion of non-sponsored bills introduced by elected officials shows a marked disparity and appears to favor private rather than public interests, according to the report.
Lobbyists write bills, shop for willing lawmakers to introduce them, and line up support. This is the path of sponsored bills, stealthy but favored inside the state Capitol.
The fortification of the lobbyists’ status beside the Legislature’s two governing houses – the Assembly and Senate – has been known as California’s “Third House.” Lobbyists function almost as a shadow legislature today, the newspaper concluded.
The report stated that “when an interest group writes a bill, only its interest is represented.”
Former state Senator Tom McClintock, the only legislator who did not author a single sponsored bill, was quoted as saying that “It’s a general rule that sponsors are bureaucracies seeking more power, or companies seeking more money.”