Key Campaign Role Seen for New Katz Aide

An experienced Washington political operative recently hired by Assemblyman Richard Katz as a consultant to the Assembly Transportation Committee will eventually play a key role in Katz’s 1990 campaign for lieutenant governor, political insiders say.

Katz (D-Sylmar), who chairs the Transportation Committee, did not deny Wednesday that Mary Lucille Kaems might work on his prospective statewide campaign. But he maintained that she was hired by the committee to handle transportation issues, including passage of Katz’s proposal to increase the state gas tax and defeat of a proposed federal gas tax hike.

“Mary was hired to do a job with the Transportation Committee and that’s the job she’s doing,” Katz said of the $4,100-a-month senior consultant, who began work this week.

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He insisted that the highly recommended Kaems was not hired with an eye toward a lieutenant governorship bid, which Katz vows he will undertake only if Democratic incumbent Leo McCarthy decides not to seek reelection.

But a Democratic source who asked not be identified said: “As the political campaign unfolds, will she be more and more involved in it? The answer is yes.”

Among other things, Kaems, 34, previously worked as a policy analyst for the National Dairy Advisory Board in Washington, did advance work for Michael S. Dukakis’ presidential campaign and was an intern with two California assemblymen. Her lack of expertise in transportation issues has raised eyebrows among some legislative staff members.

“She has a background in policy analysis, fiscal analysis and is able to learn the transportation issues just like everybody else is,” responded Katz, who pointed to his own lack of knowledge of transportation matters when he was appointed committee chairman in 1984.

“The requirements are that people be intelligent, that they be willing to do the job and that they be hard-working.” He also said Kaems’ familiarity with the workings of Washington would be an asset.

In addition to her Dukakis experience, Kaems ran the unsuccessful 1986 Democratic congressional campaign of Shasta County Supervisor Stephen C. Swendiman against Rep. Wally Herger (R-Yuba City). She was also a summer intern with Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced) in 1985. Before starting her new job Monday, she attended last weekend’s state Democratic convention in Sacramento.

Katz said he used an unfilled position on his 39th District legislative staff to hire Kaems as a Transportation Committee consultant. He noted that it is a “fairly accepted practice” for legislative aides to switch to campaign staffs when elections roll around.

But he maintained that he had not even discussed his potential race for lieutenant governor with Kaems, an assertion that she subsequently corroborated.

“I have an interest in transportation,” Kaems said, recalling her involvement in the early 1980s in Chico, where she served on the city parking commission and helped alleviate bicycle congestion. “I just haven’t worked on it in awhile.”