Gov.’s Group Vows to Fight Base Closings in State

Officials of a group assembled by the governor to fight any effort by the federal government to close military bases in the state vowed a vigorous campaign Thursday, including politicking in the corridors of power in Washington.

The base closure process is supposed to be immune from politics, but former Rep. Leon Panetta, co-chairman of the California Council on Base Support and Retention, said keeping politics out of anything in Washington was nearly impossible.

“Having been in Washington for 30 years, I know there isn’t any process that’s completely closed,” he told reporters at a Capitol briefing.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has vowed that California will present a more unified front than it did in 1995 during the last round of base closings, when the state lost more Department of Defense jobs than the rest of the U.S. combined, according to a report by the Washington-based California Institute for Federal Policy Research. Since 1988, 24 major bases in the state have been closed.

“What we do not want is to repeat the mistakes of the past,” said Panetta.

Panetta noted that California lawmakers from both major political parties serve as chairs of congressional committees on rules, appropriations, armed services and ways and means. The members of the California delegation “seem to be very unified,” Panetta said. “This is one where we could have a bipartisan effort and mean it.”

The state has 62 major facilities with 188,104 military and civilian employees, more than any other state. The Department of Defense payroll and contract value for California tops $42 billion.

The Defense Department is set to release its proposed list of closures and realignments on May 16. The list then goes to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, appointed by President Bush, which will hold hearings before submitting its own list to Bush by Sept. 23. If the president approves the list, it will be forwarded to Congress.

In 1995, when communities were largely left to mount their own lobbying efforts, the state lost 16,362 military and civilian jobs due to base closures. The rest of the country, combined, lost 15,058.

Panetta said the state would emphasize California’s “military assets,” such as mountain ranges, deserts and an ocean for training purposes, as well as universities, research institutes and private industries often called on for assistance.

Panetta said the governor was “very engaged in this process.... He’s ready to do whatever it takes.” In the past rounds of base closures, California’s arguments “were not made very effectively,” he said.