Rep. Dixon--a No-Win Job for Head of House Ethics Panel

By some measures, Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Culver City), the newly elected chairman of the House Ethics Committee, has just been given the worst job in the House.

“No one wants that job,” an aide to the House Democratic leadership said. “You lose every way. The public doesn’t think you’re doing enough. The members think you’re doing too much. It’s always going to be a no-win situation.”

Dixon agreed that the task of heading a committee that puts congressmen in the uncomfortable spot of investigating claims that their colleagues have violated ethics laws is “a job I would not have sought, but when the Speaker asked me to chair the committee, I felt I had a responsibility.”

Whatever the drawbacks of the assignment, however, it is not surprising that the chairmanship was offered to Dixon. In his six years in the House, the 50-year-old Californian has won a reputation as a quiet trouble-shooter, skilled at working within the system.

Last year, for example, as chairman of the Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee, it was Dixon’s task to settle a host of complaints--including allegations by candidates Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson that they had been denied their fair share of delegates--before they erupted into controversies that would have disrupted the aura of unity that the party was trying to project.

“I don’t believe in the ripeness theory, that a problem is created and then it’s ripe for solving,” Dixon said in an interview. “It’s better to resolve potential conflicts and problems before they arise.”

‘I felt I had a responsibility’ But some of his fellow black Democrats have criticized Dixon as being too pragmatic, too willing to go along with the mainstream.

When Dixon was chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1983, he angered several other black congressmen by refusing to force a House vote on the caucus’ traditional substitute for the House Budget Committee’s budget proposal. The caucus substitute usually falls far short of getting the votes needed to pass, but it offers congressional blacks an opportunity to publicly press for more liberal social programs and defense spending cuts.

Dixon later said that behind-the-scenes negotiations to include some of the caucus’ proposals in the mainstream budget document had been more effective than a confrontation on the House floor would have been.

“Our purpose, hopefully, is not to go down to defeat with honor,” he recalled. “Our purpose is to have some success.”

As Ethics Committee chairman, Dixon hopes to propose making House financial disclosure standards more precise. Those standards became the center of political controversy last year when Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine A. Ferraro was accused of breaking the law by claiming that her husband’s finances were exempt from disclosure.

As the reports are now structured, Dixon said, they leave too much to the judgment of individual members. Otherwise, he said, the committee’s agenda is “quiet--and I’m glad it’s quiet.”

Although Dixon may prefer things to be calm, he made his way into Congress in a struggle among some of Los Angeles’ most powerful political forces.

A former chairman of the state Assembly’s Democratic Caucus, Dixon had the backing of a political organization led by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and then-Assemblyman Howard L. Berman, now a congressman from Studio City. But he was pitted against candidates backed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and Mayor Tom Bradley. Dixon emerged with just enough votes to avoid a runoff.

He was appointed to the powerful House Appropriations Committee and a year later became the first freshman congressman to chair an appropriations subcommittee.