concur in the Assembly amendment forcing the advisory district vote into
the bill the Assembly would recede from the amendment. As a matter of
fact Assemblyman Collum, who voted for the amendment March 9th, voted on
March 22d to recede from it. Had the anti-machine forces in the Assembly
been held together, as they could have been had the question of receding
been put up to them fairly, few other changes with Collum's would have
been sufficient to assure success for the anti-machine forces.

But in spite of the situation in the Assembly, Senator Wright, who was
by this time working openly with Wolfe, Leavitt and Warren Porter to
secure the adoption of the Leeds amendment (which as the McCartney
amendment the Senate had already rejected), was insisting that the
Assembly would not recede, and that unless the Senate concurred with the
Assembly amendment, nothing could save the Direct Primary bill from
being cut to pieces in Free Conference Committee.

Nevertheless, the Senate by a vote of 19 against to 20 for concurrence,
did refuse to concur, 21 votes being necessary for concurrence.

Senator Stetson was absent when the vote was taken, being ill at his
home in Alameda county. Had he been present he would have voted against
concurrence in the amendments. This would have made the vote 20 to 20.

Originally, on February 18th, twenty-seven Senators had voted against
the Leeds-McCartney amendment, but when Senator Wright switched to the
machine, Senators Hurd and Burnett wobbled along after him. The four
band-wagon Senators, Lewis, Martinelli, Price and Welch, tagged along
after them. This made the vote:

Against concurrence in the amendment and for the bill as it passed the