Yea, Team

Unlike his predecessors, Gov. George Deukmejian does not seem to have presidential fever. But there is the possibility that Deukmejian would be considered as a possible vice presidential running mate in 1988.

This would pose a knotty political problem for the governor, and for the Republicans. If Deukmejian were chosen and elected, he would have to leave California in the hands of a Democratic governor. In this hypothetical situation, Deukmejian would resign and Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy automatically would become chief executive of the nation’s largest state for the rest of the term. That is a very real reason that Deukmejian might have to take himself out of consideration.

That is a reason, but only one of many, for the Legislature to consider now a state constitutional amendment to provide for the nomination and election of California’s governor and lieutenant governor as a team.

Having a governor of one party and a lieutenant governor of the other is a relative rarity in California. But it has happened twice now in the past two administrations: Deukmejian and McCarthy, and Democrat Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Republican Mike Curb in 1982. The result is that California has a chief executive who is not inclined to permit the lieutenant governor to do much, if anything--particularly since No. 2 might run against No. 1 in the next election. The Constitution gives the lieutenant governor very little authority, or budget, that the governor does not want him to have.

The two officials do not have to be members of competing political parties to come up with Capitol odd couples. With each elected on his own, it is almost tradition in California for governors and lieutenant governors to go through their respective terms almost like strangers, even though they are members of the same political party. Consider Brown Jr. and Mervyn M. Dymally, or Ronald Reagan and Robert H. Finch.

The situation would be different if the two had to run as a team from the outset of the campaign. The chief executive would have a lieutenant governor whom he could trust and to whom he could assign worthwhile duties. The governor would not have to worry about mischief-making by the lieutenant/acting governor when the governor was out of the state.

Most important, the lieutenant governor would be better prepared to assume the chief executive’s job with a minimum of disruption, if that became necessary. That, after all, is the major reason for having a lieutenant governor in the first place.