Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has whined that the assisted suicide bill was defeated because it was “demonized by the religious right.” Baloney. The religious right has about zero political power in California, particularly in the Assembly.
This bill was stopped because liberals, disability rights organizations, civil rights activists such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the California Medical Association, advocates for the poor, and others worked a vigorous grass roots campaign under the aegis of Californians Against Assisted Suicide to defeat the bill. Sure the religious right opposed it, along with the Catholic Church. 
But they weren’t the difference. Other bills these groups oppose passed the Assembly without any trouble, for example, just the other day a bill to legalize same sex marriage. (That issue is not up for discussion here.)
No, it wasn’t the “theocrats:” It was the realization by many progressives in the legislature that opposing assisted suicide is the truly liberal position.
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