With Two Years to Go, Don’t Look for a ‘Lame Duke’

When George Deukmejian steps from the corner office of the Capitol to the penthouse office of a Los Angeles law firm in two years, I suppose that most Californians will remember him with the same nostalgia, fondness and boredom evoked by names like Dwight D. Eisenhower or Ozzie and Harriett Nelson. But when historians look back, his Administration should prove solid and substantial in a political world of hollow symbolism.

For those pundits who were conditioned by years of the glittery Ronald Reagan or the jittery Edmund G. Brown Jr., Deukmejian seems like an unimaginative, uninspiring and unambitious manager who may be able to balance a budget but who lacks any vision of the destiny of a great state. There is a restlessness and impatience with normalcy that sometimes seems indigenous to California politics. But such a view ignores not only the governor’s accomplishments, but also the conditions under which they were achieved. And that’s a great deal to ignore:

--A state that was printing IOUs to pay its bills was turned into one of the most solvent governments in the world, without a tax increase.

--After four years of budget deficits, the process was reformed to include reserves to meet otherwise catastrophic developments like Proposition 98, the school-funding initiative.

--An economy that had been lagging behind the nation leaped ahead of it, driven by lower corporate taxes, less regulation and aggressive promotion.

--An education system that had fallen to 50th among the states in per pupil expenditures was boosted to 24th through several very tight budget years.

--A prison system packed with 145% of the felons it was designed to hold was nearly doubled in the largest California public works project since the State Water Project of the 1960s.

--A Supreme Court that had become so partisan that three of its members were removed by voters was replaced with one so fiercely independent that it has received praise from all quarters of the legal community.

And yet, we are told, the unfinished business of California--transportation, insurance and tort reform, water, housing--calls for bold leadership that quiet, self-effacing George Deukmejian has been unwilling or unable to provide.

Once again, such critics ignore the obvious. Although in Deukmejian there may beat the heart of a Ward Cleaver, there also sparks the mind of a Clausewitz--a very shrewd tactician who understands the complexities of battle.

Faced with a bitterly partisan and hostile Legislature, with commanding and belligerent majorities in both houses, a chief executive who boldly launches new initiatives would see them instantly cut to shreds. Those who doubt this should remember the one time Deukmejian forgot. After five years of Democratic calls for tax increases, the governor last year proposed a “tax adjustment” to raise an additional $550 million, simply to offsetlosses caused by earlier tax reductions. The hoots and jeers from those same Democrats scuttled the plan not because it was bad policy, but because it was Deukmejian’s policy.

In restructuring state government, he has used his political power--the budget and the line-item veto--to accomplish indirectly what would have been foolish to attempt with “bold and imaginative leadership.” He has avoided rushing headlong into the opposition’s stronghold, and has instead lured it into imminent deadlines and politically untenable choices where the only escape has been acquiescence.

He has also mastered a second reality that evaded Reagan at incalculable public cost. A governor with a hostile Legislature can be assured that every member he personally lobbies will exact a heavy price of pet projects and district boondoggles that the state simply cannot afford.

Instead of playing “Let’s Make a Deal” with a Legislature renowned for its insatiable appetite, Deukmejian has played, and usually won, an intricate political chess game filled with forks and traps and an often shrewd use--and disuse--of his power. Deukmejian, both by temperament and necessity, has finessed and maneuvered to get what he wants, and sometimes with spectacular results.

By announcing his retirement two years and a full legislative session before leaving office, Deukmejian has removed himself as a target of partisan sniping and opened up a rare opportunity for the Democrats to enact his programs without fear that a Deukmejian legislative success would work against the next Democratic nominee.

But he has also wrapped himself in the mantle of a senior statesman. And from this position of political invulnerability, he could campaign aggressively against recalcitrant legislators who are not yet ready to retire.

Either way, the governor is in a stronger position today than at any time in his tenure, and speculation of what one journalist has called “a lame Duke” Administration, or retrospectives such as this one, may be two long and eventful years premature. Deukmejian’s favorite observation of California might well be said of his Administration, “The best is yet to come.”