Montoya Known in Capitol Circles as a Strong-Willed, Combative Loner

Sen. Joseph B. Montoya is known in Capitol circles as a combative and strong-willed loner, an outspoken man who will not go along just to get along with his Democratic Party or legislative colleagues.

Montoya once called Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco a “pathological liar.” He accused the state’s political watchdog agency of using “Gestapo tactics.” And he refuses to automatically follow orders from Democratic leaders because, he says bluntly, “I’m not in the Communist Party.”

The veteran lawmaker from Whittier, indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday, has concentrated as chairman of the Senate Business and Professions Committee on special-interest legislation dealing with doctors, dentists, accountants and other professionals.

It was these narrowly crafted bills, and Montoya’s habit of collecting campaign contributions and speaking fees from their sponsors, that drew the attention of the federal agents whose investigation resulted in the accusations of racketeering and extortion leveled against Montoya and former top aide Amiel A. Jaramillo.

Vigorous Defense Vowed

Montoya, 50, declined Wednesday to discuss the specifics of his case, but declared that he will plead innocent to all the charges.

“I have complied with all laws and will vigorously defend my position in court,” Montoya said in a prepared statement released by his El Monte office. “The only place where this case should be discussed is in the courtroom. Fairness dictates that the judicial process be allowed to take its proper course without bias or interference from the press. . . . Due to the nature of the proceedings and upon the advice of my attorney, I will issue no further comments nor answer any questions relating to this case.”

Montoya’s response was consistent with the low-key profile he has kept since the gravity of his legal troubles began to sink in late last year.

Capitol staff members say Montoya has been attending committee sessions more regularly and cooperating with colleagues in an effort to reestablish ties with lawmakers with whom he had not been close. But Montoya’s recent demeanor contrasts starkly with the kind of spontaneously colorful remarks and actions that have characterized his 17 years in Sacramento.

Feuding a few years ago with Speaker Brown over a bill backed by Montoya to restrict the abortion rights of teen-agers, the senator called the Assembly leader a “pathological liar” who “cannot tell the difference between lying and telling the truth.” Another time, Montoya used his car to try to block Brown’s exit from the Capitol garage in an effort to “make a point” with the Speaker. The Speaker managed to escape.

When a Times reporter last year asked Montoya how he had come to purchase 18 properties valued at nearly $2 million--he was a $14,000-a-year social worker when he was elected to the Legislature in 1972--the senator described his technique as the “Joe Montoya Success Formula.” The state attorney general’s office and the Internal Revenue Service are now investigating Montoya’s property dealings.

Early last year, Montoya gave this appraisal of the conflicts involved when lawmakers raise money from groups and businesses with an interest in issues before the Legislature:

“We’re all on the borderline of being felons (because) there are votes being switched for money. If we’re not there, we’re on the verge of it.”

Montoya was born in Rocky Ford, Colo., on April 30, 1939, and moved to California with his parents at the age of 15. As a teen-ager attending La Puente High School, Montoya earned money in the summers by picking crops. He served four years in the Air Force and graduated from UCLA with a degree in political science. Montoya is married and has four children.

First Elected in ’68

In 1968, at the age of 28, Montoya was elected to the La Puente City Council. He went on to serve as mayor of that city before being elected to the Assembly in 1972.

As an assemblyman, Montoya concentrated on redevelopment law and vocational education. He was named in 1977 to a commission that nominated federal judges for then-President Jimmy Carter.

After winning a nasty 1978 campaign against Democratic Sen. Alfred H. Song of Monterey Park, who at the time was under investigation by the FBI but was never indicted, Montoya moved to the state Senate.

In the upper house he represents a heavily Democratic, blue-collar district covering the western portion of the San Gabriel Valley.

As a senator he developed a reputation as a hard-nosed fund-raiser who was not bashful about asking for money from special interests and on at least one occasion sought to limit the power of the state agency responsible for enforcing the state’s campaign reform laws.

Montoya’s 1986 bill, which failed on the Senate floor, would have required investigators for the state Fair Political Practices Commission to give warning to individuals under investigation.

And, even as the FBI was secretly investigating him, Montoya co-sponsored Proposition 73 on the June, 1988, ballot. Although the campaign-finance measure was billed as a “reform” and placed the state’s first limits on legislative fund raising, critics blasted the initiative as a ruse meant to take votes away from the more stringent Proposition 68.

Montoya has never participated in the clubby atmosphere of the Senate. He has kept his own counsel on the issues and is not known to socialize much after hours with his colleagues.

“He hasn’t been an insider in his own caucus, from my observation, and he hasn’t been part of one faction or another, liberal or conservative,” said Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), who has served with Montoya since 1982. “He’s rather independent.”

Montoya has also maintained his distance from the Democratic Latino political establishment in East Los Angeles. Even so, until the indictment Wednesday, he was expected to easily win re-election next year.

“A lot of us admire Joe for his courage,” said a Latino community leader and businessman who asked not to be identified. “Sometimes we wince when he’s outspoken. But you always know where he stands. He’s a gutsy guy. He chose to be the voice of independence and therefore became a voice of opposition to the traditional Eastside liberal clique.”

Montoya himself has conceded that his independent streak has won him no popularity contests among his Democratic colleagues.

“The bottom line is that with many of these liberals, if you do not sing their tune, you are not acceptable,” Montoya said in 1986. “I’m not a woman’s libber, I’m not an extreme environmentalist. Balance in my political being has worked well for me.”