Rising or Falling, Robinson Is Still a Legislative Star

His cherubic likeness adorned the cover of a California Journal issue on the “rising stars” of state politics.

Richard Robinson, the “clever, shrewd . . . ruthless” Democratic assemblyman from Orange County, could very well be Speaker of the Assembly someday, the magazine said.

Or perhaps even a U.S. senator, added Robinson, with enough uncharacteristic modesty to call it a long shot.

But that magazine was published in November, 1982.

Today, when political insiders talk about Robinson’s political future, they question his survival.

Republican strategists say they will spend up to $500,000 next year to make the third time a charm for Anaheim real estate broker Richard Longshore, who lost to the six-term lawmaker by a mere 256 votes in 1984.

But neither that close call, a contentious divorce that left him heavily in debt nor the taint of having his name linked to former Anaheim fireworks manufacturer W. Patrick Moriarty has changed the diminutive former Marine, whose reputation for abrasiveness and for being the Legislature’s shrewdest tactician are about equal.

Just as he did when there was a Democratic governor, Robinson continues to carry legislation of major statewide significance--sometimes at the behest of the Administration, sometimes not to its liking.

A Robinson-sponsored budget bill made possible Gov. George Deukmejian’s frequent boast that he balanced the state budget in 1983 without raising taxes.

Variety of Issues

During the just-ended legislative session, he authored bills devising the creative financing scheme to launch Deukmejian’s ambitious prison construction program. Another Robinson bill would have required that all California school buses meet federal safety standards, but Deukmejian vetoed it.

And, the very last measure that Deukmejian signed into law before the deadline for acting on this year’s bills was a Robinson measure essentially shifting the costs of operating Municipal and Superior courts from counties to the state.

Deukmejian had vetoed a similar measure a year earlier.

“He’s (Robinson) the Legislature’s lawyer,” said B. T. Collins, who was chief of staff for former Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. “I mean he is their best parliamentarian. He knows every rule. He knows all the ways to push things through, he knows how to block them . . . and he knows just when it is time to pull back.”

Collins, a registered Republican who is now vice president of Kidder Peabody & Co., the giant Wall Street investment banking firm, remembers when he first met Robinson in 1976.

‘Screamed and Yelled’

New to the governor’s staff, Collins was sent to lobby Robinson for the governor’s plan to create the Native American Heritage Commission and, at the same time, deliver an unwelcome message: Brown, who was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, would renege on a promise to attend a Robinson fund raiser in Anaheim.

“He screamed and he yelled at me something awful. Then he gave me (pledged) that vote,” recalled Collins. “And, it was crucial. His was the 41st (deciding) vote. I’ll never forget it.”

Robinson, a 42-year-old Alabama native, is viewed as one of the most complex and paradoxical personalities on the state political scene.

His enemies concede he is smart. Friends say he is brash and arrogant. Admirers say he can be vindictive. Detractors say he understands and manipulates the legislative machinery better than anyone.

“You either like him or you don’t,” said Michael Drake, a longtime friend who worked with Robinson as a telephone company technician before he went into politics. “There is no in between.”

Colleague’s View

“He’s not a totally pleasant person,” added former Assemblyman Chet Wray, a Democrat who represented a district adjacent to Robinson’s before losing in 1982. “But you have to respect his ability and his initiative.”

“Were he slightly less abrasive, he would definitely be in the leadership, I mean the very top leadership, of the Assembly.”

Robinson has tendencies, say close confidants, that border on being suicidal in a political sense. But he has also repeatedly demonstrated an uncanny knack for rising like a phoenix when his demise looks imminent.

In 1980, he helped plot the overthrow of then-Speaker Leo T. McCarthy, backing Los Angeles Assemblyman Howard Berman in a bitter power struggle. But after compromise candidate Willie Brown put together a coalition of McCarthy forces and Republicans to emerge victorious, Robinson was appointed Democratic Caucus chairman, one of the Speaker’s chief lieutenants.

He was ousted from that post early last year, after Democrats complained that Robinson was becoming too cozy with the Republican governor.

Prestige Quarters

With the post, Robinson also lost his large fifth-floor office, which overlooks the Capitol courtyard and has a back exit from the inner chamber.

But in a symbolic resurgence, he was reassigned to that office a few months later. Robinson, who admits he has “a significant ego,” had boasted at the time of his “involuntary resignation” he would get those quarters back.

Robinson, who is often at his Capitol office late at night, says tenacity has been the secret of his resilience.

“If you work at your job and know . . . the issues,” explained Robinson, “you will always be utilized, whether it is by political enemies or by the loyal opposition.”

Robinson says he definitely intends to run again. But he does little to quell speculation that his next race might be for Congress or the state Senate, instead of reelection to the Assembly seat he has held since 1974.

Campaign Ammunition

Should he run for reelection, Robinson said he expects his opponent will run “a dirty campaign.”

Moriarty associate Richard Raymond Keith has said he told investigators that Robinson and other politicians engaged in sex with prostitutes paid for by Moriarty. Moriarty has pleaded guilty to seven counts of mail fraud relating to bribery and illegal campaign contributions and is scheduled for sentencing in federal court next month.

Robinson has called Keith’s statements “ludicrous,” but says he expects that the campaign against him will include such “specious charges.”

Such a campaign would backfire in his favor, Robinson predicted.

But Orange County political activists close to Robinson say there are clear signs the allegations are eroding his support.

Disappointing Turnout

Attendance at a $200-a-plate Robinson fund-raising dinner in Newport Beach last September was much lower than expected, and several lawyers who had long been Robinson supporters alluded to those charges when they called to say they would not attend, those politicos said.

“It was real depressing,” said one campaign worker, who asked not to be identified. “It used to be that anybody who is important showed up at Dick’s dinners--judges, lawyers, Indian chiefs. Everybody. But not this time.”

Fellow Orange County Assemblyman John Lewis (R-Orange), a key Republican strategist, said Longshore, who has already been endorsed by the Assembly Republican Caucus, is more in tune with voters in Robinson’s district.

Nearly 52% of the district’s voters are Democrats, but Lewis said “it is a very conservative district.”

Avoiding Labels

Robinson says he does not like labels, but considers himself a conservative on fiscal issues and a liberal “on civil liberties, on the Constitution and on the ability of individuals to make their own decisions.”

His “pro choice” stance on abortion will most likely be used again, as it has in the past, Robinson predicted. But he said he can survive that, too.

“You can’t legislate morality,” said Robinson. “I think a lot of my conservative colleagues don’t understand that.”