Diplomacy and War: the Styles of 2 GOP Women

To the casual political observer, Assemblywomen Marian W. La Follette and Cathie Wright appear to be cut from the same conservative Republican mold.

Wright (R-Simi Valley) and La Follette (R-Northridge) both were elected in 1980, in the tax-cutting post-Proposition 13 era, and have similar voting records. Both are white, close to the same age, and are among a small but increasing number of women in the state Legislature.

Both represent oddly shaped districts born of Democratic reapportionment--Wright, the 37th, and La Follette, the adjoining 38th.

And both have their eye on the 19th District state Senate seat now held by former Los Angeles Police Chief Ed Davis (R-Valencia).

Study in Contrasts

But the similarities between La Follette, 59, and Wright, 57--the only two women to represent the San Fernando Valley area in the Legislature--end with their voting records and political ambitions. Their political styles are a study in contrasts.

La Follette’s colleagues consider her a team player--a quiet, ladylike politician who makes friends easily and translates the solid relationships she develops with both Democrats and Republicans into legislative support.

“When you’re a member of the minority party, you have to develop good lines of communication,” La Follette said.

On the other hand, Wright has a reputation for being a loner. She is known as a fighter who is direct, aggressive, tough--someone who gets what she wants by sheer tenacity.

“You can’t please everybody,” said Wright. “If you don’t make enemies in making your decisions, then you’re not doing your job.”

“Their styles are 180 degrees apart,” said Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), reflecting an opinion often heard. “Cathie can be tenacious and combative. Marian is a facilitator, a negotiator and a genuine power behind the scenes.

“Each has her niche. If a pitched battle is raging, I’d bring out the big guns of Cathie Wright. That’s where she’s in her element. If I needed someone to negotiate a dispute, the quiet di1886154605invaluable. She has the style and finesse it takes to calm the waters.”

Both Wright and La Follette are seen as representing their constituents well, although, being members of the minority party, neither has been the author of any landmark legislation.

Recently, La Follette helped lead opposition to the creation of a diamond lane on the Ventura Freeway. She believes the lane would be dangerous and unpopular with motorists.

Characteristically, La Follette joined Davis, McClintock and state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) in heading off the special commuter lane. Typically, the effort included polling constituents on their opinions.

Although Wright also opposed the diamond lane, Davis said, she did not work with other Valley legislators to defeat the plan.

When asked to support McClintock’s resolution opposing the special lane, Wright said she would not favor a resolution based only on the poll by La Follette and Davis. A more scientific poll should be taken by a professional consultant, she said.

As for her legislative goals, Wright said, she will continue to strongly oppose any attempt to locate a toxic waste dump or a state prison in the Santa Clarita Valley. She was a leading force in heading off a prison in her district last year.

Last year, Wright wrote a successful bill that permits the Castaic Lake Water Agency to buy from sources other than the State Water Project because of future water shortages predicted in the fast-growing Santa Clarita Valley.

Despite their similar positions in life, Wright and La Follette are not friends, according to political insiders. The two most often are on opposite sides of the room at large Sacramento social functions. And they have had small behind-the-scenes tiffs now and then.

In 1985, a year after La Follette persuaded the state to turn off six metered lights controlling eastbound access to the Simi Valley Freeway between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Hayvenhurst Avenue, Wright asked the state Department of Transportation to turn them back on.

La Follette was responding to constituents’ complaints about having to wait to get on the freeway, and Wright was responding to complaints that traffic had slowed because there was no regulation at the on-ramps.

Wright won the point, and the lights went back on.

Last October, when Wright was asked to confirm rumors that she would seek the state Senate seat held by Davis, she replied, “Marian La Follette’s been running all over my district. Why don’t you ask her?”

Wright said she definitely will run for that office in either 1988 or 1992. She did not rule out opposing Davis, who has said he will not step down in 1988.

By contrast, La Follette said she will run for the state Senate “only if there’s an opening” or if a new Republican state Senate District is created through reapportionment in 1991.

Not surprisingly, Davis described Wright’s attitude toward other legislators as “contentious” and La Follette’s as “one of friendship.”

Both women gained some political clout this year through committee appointments. Wright is a member of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee. La Follette was named vice chairwoman of the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.

For the most part, La Follette has received all of the committee assignments she has requested. She has been most interested in education, transportation and criminal justice issues.

Wright’s luck has been uneven regarding committee assignments. In 1983, she received none of the assignments she wanted because she repeatedly defied Terry Goggin, then a Democratic assemblyman from San Bernardino and chairman of the Assembly Criminal Justice Committee, of which Wright was a member.

Political Spoils

In 1985, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who, the year before, denied committee chairmanships to Republicans because they did not vote for his speakership, rewarded the minority party with leadership posts on less important committees when they joined in an acclamation to reelect him.

At the request of Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), Brown named Wright chairwoman of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee. But she lost her new post shortly afterward when she defied Brown by voting for a bill he strongly opposed that would have required minors to obtain parental consent or a court order before receiving an abortion.

“Willie took my committee away,” Wright complained recently.

But she said he named her to the state Commission on the Status of Women the following year. And, this year, at the request of Nolan, she got a spot on the coveted Assembly Rules Committee, which, by assigning a piece of legislation to committees for review, often can determine its success or failure.

Wright’s Sacramento office is filled with memorabilia--three large boards containing numerous campaign buttons, many plaques of various types and pictures of Wright with Republican leaders. A poster features an elephant with a sign that reads, “It’s better to be a stomper than a stompee.”

Two stuffed condors on display signify that Wright’s district was dubbed the “Condor District” at its creation in 1981 because, she said, only the condors native to the area can travel unimpaired to and from its different parts. The district stretches from the western edge of the San Fernando and the Santa Clarita valleys in Los Angeles County through Simi Valley and surrounding communities in Ventura County and then through several mountain ranges to include Lompoc and the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County.

Despite its size, Wright said, she attends as many as three events in one evening in different areas of her district. More than once, she said, she has hired a plane to transport her to and from events.

Simi Valley Residence

Wright, whose husband died three years ago after a long illness, lives with her daughter, Victoria, 22, in Simi Valley, the community she once served as mayor. Last month she bought a home in Sacramento because, she said, she wanted more security than in her Sacramento apartment building, where she was mugged last year.

During her move last month, Wright displayed her feistiness. Late in the afternoon of the day when she occupied her new place, as two visitors waited in her office, she argued at length with a gas-company representative about when workers would connect her gas.

Told she must wait until the next day, Wright retorted, “Just hook me up.” At one point, she asked, “Do you know who I am?” When that got no response, she abruptly ended the conversation, saying, “I’m going to call your lobbyist.”

The next day, Wright announced triumphantly, “I got my hot water last night.”

Wright readily admits that she is blunt and outspoken. She said the traits are probably the result of her Italian heritage and her Pennsylvania upbringing.

“They talk fast there,” she said. “That’s how I acquired the habit. There, you say what you have to say and get it over with. You speak your mind.”

La Follette also said her upbringing is responsible for certain aspects of her philosophy, including her conservatism and her thriftiness. For example, she said, she immediately bought a home in Sacramento rather than spend money on rent.

“I guess that comes from my father,” she said. “He is of German descent. Dad never spent anything frivolously.” La Follette grew up in the Valley in a middle-class home and became a teacher before marrying and raising four children.

La Follette’s Sacramento office has an organized, efficient look. Files are in order. Books are in place. There are few pictures or plaques on the wall. The most noticeable adornment is a collection of elephants.

La Follette said she usually begins her day there at 7:30 a.m., arriving home at about 9 p.m. after attending three or four social functions after office hours.

Legislators actually work two weeks in one, she said--from Sunday night through Thursday in Sacramento and from Thursday night through Sunday in their districts. An aide handed her about two dozen invitations--the result of two days’ mail, much of it from her district. “Most, I accept,” La Follette said.

La Follette’s district includes a variety of Valley foothill neighborhoods from Northridge to Burbank.

Started in 1969

She entered politics in 1969 when she was urged to run for the Los Angeles Community College Board by her second husband, John, a trial attorney, because of her involvement with education. She won the election and served on the board until 1975, when she was defeated by Ira Reiner, now Los Angeles County’s district attorney.

“I don’t think he thought I’d take politics this far,” La Follette said of her husband. “But he’s accepted it well, and I think he’s proud of me.” The La Follettes live in Northridge.

La Follette said she plans to introduce legislation prohibiting the display of sexually explicit materials in newspaper racks in response to complaints from parents in her district.

She said she also will carry a bill this session on behalf of several Valley area churches to grant religious organizations immunity from civil actions because of counseling given. The bill is the result of an unsuccessful lawsuit by the parents of a young man who committed suicide after consulting with a minister at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley.

Wright also puts in long days in Sacramento and in her district. She said this year she plans to reintroduce a bill to establish a statewide program for troubled youths modeled after a Ventura County project created by earlier legislation she wrote. The model program provides a way for mentally disturbed children who get into trouble with the law to be treated while remaining at home rather than being incarcerated.

Wright also will introduce legislation to allow tax credits of 50% for employers to start up child-care centers. Other legislation would require health clubs to set up trust accounts for membership fees before a club could be opened.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) classified both Wright and La Follette as “nice, smiling middle-class ladies” with whom he rarely agrees politically.

But Assembly Speaker Brown, who called both women “hard-working legislators” who are “conservative as hell,” said he saw them as very different.

“Cathie is much more opinionated,” he said.