In a vote after midnight on trailer bills attached to the budget, the Senate deadlocked 17 to 17 on Emmerson's legislation.
"None of us were in the mood for extraneous special interest crap thrown at us in the wee hours of the morning," said Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), explaining her vote against the bill.
Firms and executives affiliated with Anschutz have given $2.7 million to political committees in California in the last five years, including $583,000 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign accounts.
The bill's original intent was to improve the state's whistle-blower law, but all of the language was gutted Tuesday and replaced with the billboard proposals.
Opponents of the plan to put billboards on the L.A. Convention Center were angered to find out about the Emmerson bill after the vote.
"It's outrageous," said Dennis Hathaway of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight. "These issues are supposed to have transparency and public input. They are trying to keep everything below the radar. It's not the way democracy is supposed to work."
The Emmerson bill was one of several last-minute measures unrelated to the budget that failed to win approval, including legislation to provide incentives for film companies to stay in California, to relax air quality standards for new power plants in Vernon and to help pave the way for construction of a power plant in Riverside County.
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patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
Times staff writer Jordan Rau contributed to this report
