Foie gras: the unaligned issue?

One of the consequences of strong partisanship is that most, if not all, issues eventually become partisan ones. As recently as the early 1980s, abortion and handguns, to give two prominent examples, were not strongly partisan issues; Republican legislators and voters were no more likely to support access to them than Democrats were. But over time, they became absorbed into the party dimension, and today you can know a politician's stance on these and other issues just by knowing their party affiliation.

So it's always interesting to catch an issue that hasn't yet become a partisan one. Note the state of California's impending ban on foie gras (fattened goose liver), which goes into effect on July 1st. (I blogged about this at Enik Rising the other day.) Now, notably, the ban, which was authored by a Democrat and originally passed the state Assembly and Senate on strong party-lines votes (with Democrats supporting the ban and Republicans opposing), was signed into law by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Currently defending the ban is Schwarzenegger's fellow Austro-Californian Wolfgang Puck. I don't know Puck's party affiliation, but he recently took part in a huge Hollywood fundraiser for Obama, so that should tell you something. State Democratic Party chair John Burton, who originally authored the ban as a state senator, continues to defend it.

So you could say this is largely Democrats in favor of banning animal cruelty, and Republicans in favor of protecting businesses, with Schwarzenegger leaning left, as he sometimes does. But note the flavor of this delightful piece in the Atlantic: chefs that serve foie gras are the little guy, and they don't have the kind of money to defend themselves they way, say, the beef industry does. And I have no doubt that many of these chefs who are organizing in defense of foie gras lean Democratic. Anthony Bordain, for example, seems to lean strongly left, and Thomas Keller has donated exclusively to Democrats in recent years.

It may be that in the years since the ban worked its way through the legislature, the issue has transformed somewhat, particularly as liberal-leaning chefs have embraced artisanal organ meats. I don't know that this will ever rise to the level of a fully partisan issue, especially since the level of interest and appeal to the masses is extremely limited here. But if you're eating at a California restaurant in the days leading up to July 1st and a protest starts outside, look to see who's participating and if you can tell whether it looks more like a Tea Party or an Occupation. I'm curious.