Parra to endorse GOP's Gilmore for Assembly

Published online on Monday, Sep. 22, 2008

SACRAMENTO -- Hanford Democrat Nicole Parra will cross party lines to endorse a Republican to fill her Assembly seat next year, she said Friday.

Parra's support of Danny Gilmore angered Democratic Party leaders, but comes as no surprise because she has been praising Gilmore for months.

"I will endorse Danny Gilmore in the near future and I will campaign for him and do commercials," Parra said in an interview. Gilmore, a retired California Highway Patrol officer from Hanford, is running against Democrat Fran Florez, mother of state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, a longtime Parra rival.

The race will be one of the most hotly contested legislative races of the year as Republicans, who are severely outnumbered by Democrats in the Assembly, try to steal the seat.

The termed-out Parra won three Assembly elections by appealing to Republicans in the 30th Assembly District -- covering Kings County and parts of Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties. But she also relied on campaign contributions from the California Democratic Party and other Democratic lawmakers. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said Parra's move betrays that support.

"After her Democratic colleagues worked year after year to get her re-elected, spent millions of dollars, walked hundreds of miles for her, at the end of her legislative career to poke them in the eye like this, I think, is an insult," she said.

Earlier this year, Bass booted Parra from her office as punishment for withholding her vote for the state budget unless lawmakers agreed to put a bond on the ballot for water projects.

Parra stuck to her pledge and abstained on the main budget bill on Tuesday. But on Friday, she voted "yes" on two bills that finalized the budget deal.

Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines of Clovis welcomed Parra's support of Gilmore. Assembly Member Juan Arambula, a Democrat from Fresno, is sticking behind Fran Florez, a Shafter City Council member.