A Throwback to an Earlier Age

His enemies call him a ‘bully’ and a ‘petty tyrant.’ His defenders see a soft--even tender--side. The man in question is Louis J. Papan, a heated, abrasive state assemblyman in this era of cool and sophisticated politicians.

His political enemies have labeled him “a bully” and “a petty tyrant.” Gov. George Deukmejian has accused him publicly of “political extortion.”

In an era when politicians have become cool and sophisticated, Assemblyman Louis J. Papan is heated and abrasive--a throwback to an earlier age.

By his own description, the 57-year-old Democrat from Millbrae is loud-talking, emotional and highly partisan--a man of volatile temperament that he attributes to his Greek ancestry.

He readily admits that he sent a fellow legislator to the hospital with a single punch 10 years ago, although he said he is embarrassed by the incident. He has no similar regrets about the day that he, in his role as the powerful chairman of the Rules Committee, took Capitol parking privileges away from Deukmejian’s top staffers.

Scuttled Toxics Bill

Known for the unrelenting pursuit of his goals, Papan is also the man who almost single-handedly last year scuttled the governor’s proposal to create a new toxics cleanup agency. But, say his defenders, his motives were not as crass or as arbitrary as his Republican adversaries have made them appear.

They say there is another side to the combative, intimidating Papan--a softer, even tender, side, explained to a considerable degree by the death five years ago of his 21-year-old son, John, who suffered most of his life from a cruelly debilitating disease. Papan’s wife has been afflicted with a chronic disorder of the immune system, lupus erythematosus, that has required periodic hospitalization.

These personal traumas have made Papan a champion of the physically and mentally disabled, and he has pushed through the Legislature a number of bills adding money for special education and rehabilitation programs. “It comes easily when you’ve had this kind of experience,” he said in an interview.

Papan’s voice broke and tears came to his eyes when, with some reluctance, he talked about his son.

“He had what they call Papan’s syndrome,” the legislator said, explaining that the case was named after his son because it was unique. “The guy was well until he was a year and a half and then he had a stroke, and we later found out he had a bad vascular system, one that was not sufficient to support body growth. When you don’t get a lot of (blood) perfusion, you get a lot of pain. . . . And in spite of those things, he was one great guy.”

Papan conceded, however, it is the image of bully that comes across in public. “Yeah, yeah, I’m a son of a bitch,” he said with a smile. “I’m going to bring my mother up here and introduce her to everybody to show them that I have a mother.”

Understanding the two sides of Papan’s personality helps to explain how he became the central figure in a bruising battle between Republicans and Democrats over rival plans to create a new toxic waste cleanup agency. Lawmakers on both sides agree it was because of Papan that Deukmejian did not get the new agency that he wanted in the final hours of the 1985 session.

As a result, the fighting has continued and now represents probably the most bitter partisan clash of the 1986 legislative session.

Like most of his colleagues, Papan said he was prepared to vote in September for a compromise toxics cleanup plan that had resulted from long, successful negotiations between Deukmejian and legislative leaders. But he also was worried about the fate of another bill--a measure of his own that would protect 20,000 aged, blind or disabled couples from the threatened loss of health care benefits that could cost each of them up to $150 a month.

$3 Million Price Tag

With a price tag of $3 million a year, the Papan bill seemed innocuous enough by the standards of California state government, which during the current fiscal year is spending an estimated $50.7 billion in state and federal money. “Is that a hard vote for Republicans?” Papan now asks, pointing out that the GOP supported his measure in the Senate, where it passed 37-0.

But the Deukmejian Administration opposed the legislation. The governor did not actually want to cut the income of these medically needy couples, but he would have frozen their incomes at current levels for several years. Papan’s bill would have assured them an annual cost-of-living increase.

Assembly Republicans sided unanimously with Deukmejian. And without at least seven of their votes, Papan had no chance of attaining the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

“Lou was shocked,” recalled an aide, Michael Thompson. “Initially he was angry. But then he realized that his anger wouldn’t get him anywhere.”

So the Rules Committee chairman called his fellow Democrats into a private caucus and made an impassioned plea on behalf of his bill. And they quickly agreed to retaliate against the governor and the GOP by holding the toxics bill hostage until Republicans acquiesced to the Medi-Cal measure.

While that decision may smack of old-fashioned horse-trading, Democrats defend it out of a personal loyalty to Papan and a sympathy for what he has experienced in his life. And, anyway, they were right to stick up for thousands of disabled people, some Democrats assert.

‘Cared About the Bill’

“People defer to him on this kind of issue. We all saw the problems he had when his son was so ill,” said Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-El Monte), author of the ransomed compromise bill that would have given Deukmejian his toxics agency. “He (Papan) really cared about the bill.”

Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles) said: “You can’t really distinguish the author from the bill. Lou’s experience with his son is well known to virtually everyone in the chamber. I saw the failure of his bill as a betrayal and personal rebuke (to Papan).

“He is brusque, demanding and persistent, but underneath he is a good, decent person.”

But Republicans disagreed with Papan on principle. Because they see him as a fiercely partisan bully, they refused to give him the votes that he needed. And they continued to refuse even after Deukmejian Chief of Staff Steven A. Merskamer personally asked them to recant so the toxics plan could pass.

“Papan started this thing,” GOP Assemblyman Don Rogers of Bakersfield said. “He held the governor’s reorganization plan (creating the new agency) hostage in order to cram his bill through. It was an attempt at pure power politics. We made it clear he’s not going to intimidate us.”

So the Assembly adjourned for the year without passing either measure, leaving both to be resolved during the current session.

‘We’ve Had Enough’

“We agreed to stand up finally to this petty tyrant. We’ve finally said, ‘We’ve had enough,’ ” Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale commented immediately after adjournment. Deukmejian accused Assembly Democrats of “political extortion” and added, “I think Mr. Papan can certainly carry much of the blame for what happened.”

Papan said recently, somewhat facetiously, of the normally mild-mannered governor’s criticism: “Well, I just wanted to see if he could exhibit any emotion. If that’s the extent of it, I’m worried.”

But while Papan publicly gives the impression of enjoying his tough-guy image, privately it upsets him. When his two daughters were younger, he confided, he knew that they were reading unfavorable newspaper stories about him--stories about “Leadfoot Lou” Papan who regularly got speeding tickets and opposed equipping the California Highway Patrol with radar, about insurance man Papan who sponsored bills protecting the insurance industry, and about Assembly leader Papan who repeatedly has tried to rewrite the law to allow morticians to use income from pre-need funeral trust fund accounts. That controversial funeral proposal has been vetoed four times--three times by Deukmejian and once by his predecessor, Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Several of Papan’s supporters attribute his speeding tickets to the period when he was shuttling back and forth from Sacramento to San Francisco, where his son was hospitalized. But his driving habits continue, long after his son’s death. He has had four moving violations in the last year and a half.

“I’m the worst driver in the world,” he said.

Seeking Senate Seat

But Papan is so confident that voters in his working-class district just south of San Francisco still support him that he has decided to run this year for the state Senate seat being vacated by Sen. John F. Foran (D-San Francisco).

Papan regards as his proudest achievement during 13 years in the Legislature his authorship of a series of reforms in state employee pension funds. But more than any bills that he has sponsored or positions he has taken, it is his style and his mannerisms that have shaped his reputation among most legislators--many of whom he dismisses as self-righteous “virtucrats.”

“You’re not supposed to raise your voice, and you’re not supposed to use your hands to express yourself,” he said, “and when you do, there’s something wrong with you.”