S.D. Legislators Mostly Do Well in Missed-Vote Tally

Because of illness, several San Diego lawmakers have had some of the worst records in the Legislature for missing votes, a computer analysis of legislative voting records shows.

The rest of the San Diego legislative delegation has a better-than-average record for representing its constituents on the thousands of items that required official action over the past 2 1/2 years.

The late Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos), hospitalized repeatedly during his losing battle against a bleeding ulcer and cancer, was forced to skip 85% of his committee and floor votes between the start of the session in January and June 1, the day he died.

On the Senate side, Sen. Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Bonita) was forced to miss 69% of his committee and floor votes since January because of a double heart bypass, chalking up the worst voting record in the upper chamber.

And Deddeh’s senior colleague, Sen. Bill Craven (R-Oceanside), missed 36% of his votes this year because of several bouts with pneumonia.

Absences Generally Accepted

Although statistics show that these San Diego legislators have missed far and away more votes than most of their peers, they and others involved in the political process say their excuses for the long absences are generally understood by constituents who go without an official voice on thousands of items of state business.

Even in the case of chronic illness, they argue, there is no cut-and-dried way for a politician to decide whether to call it quits. Cold statistics may show that an official can’t hit the voting button as often as his colleagues, but stepping down from office is a personal decision that entails such intangibles as “desire” and “effectiveness.”

For Deddeh, who underwent heart-bypass surgery June 5, all it would take is a discouraging word from his doctor or one more coronary operation to convince him to relinquish his 40th District Senate seat, which he has held since 1982.

The June operation was his first, although he has known for five years that at least one artery was partly blocked.

“If I would have another major surgery like I had, that would be the end of it,” Deddeh said. “I would say, ‘I don’t need it.’ I’d chuck it.

“In my opinion, you are not doing your constituents, the Senate and the Legislature any good by not being there. If my health and if my doctors would tell me tomorrow that I was not able to serve, I would quit tomorrow.

“But I feel great, and I’m in excellent shape,” said Deddeh, who will be 69 next month. “I was delighted when my cardiologist told me, ‘You are in such good condition, perfect condition, that you must run for reelection!’ ”

‘Susceptible to Colds’

Craven--a 67-year-old smoker who has diabetes and is susceptible to bad colds and pneumonia--said he missed nearly two months of Senate action because of two bouts with pneumonia and gastric problems.

“I am very, very susceptible to colds,” explained Craven, a senator since 1978. “They seem to get me and bother me and I react, of course. It is obvious that I get ill and don’t feel well.”

Yet Craven said none of his constituents have complained about his missed votes.

“I have not had anybody write me and say, ‘You didn’t vote on such-and-such, and I’m mad,’ ” said Craven, who has served in the Senate since 1978. “I have to say, from the standpoint of my people, they feel I am doing the best job that I can, that I’m diligent, and I care about them--and that I can say for sure.”

Of course, illness is not the only reason that legislators in the Assembly and Senate miss votes. At times, lawmakers will be assigned to legislative committees that meet at the same time; thus, if they show up for debate and action before one panel, they will be marked absent and “not voting” on the second.

Sometimes legislators are pulled away from committee and floor action to take a telephone call, greet a constituent or talk to a reporter. And those with leadership positions might miss votes as they huddle with their colleagues to map out political strategy on any number of items.

Racking Up a Tally

In the case of the consent agenda, missing just one roll call can greatly affect a legislator’s voting average. The agenda combines rafts--at times hundreds--of non-controversial bills that are usually approved by unanimous consent, all at once. Thus, leaving the chamber for one consent agenda vote will mean the legislator can be recorded as “not voting” on dozens of bills.

Yet, even with these considerations, a legislator should try to miss no more than 10% of his votes, said Robert Naylor, a former legislator and now a Sacramento attorney.

Naylor, who served in the Assembly from 1978 to 1986 and was Assembly Republican leader for two of those years, said a legislator who misses more than 10% of the votes could be vulnerable to the perception that he is not tending to the public’s business.

The number of votes missed by each senator and assemblyman between December, 1986, and July 21--the date legislators broke for their summer recess--was compiled by Legi-Tech, a computer tracking firm used by journalists, lobbyists, government agencies and companies that have business with the Legislature.

The analysis shows whether a legislator voted “yes,” “no” or not at all on each of the thousands of bills considered during the past two sessions.

Different Voting Procedures

The tracking makes no allowance for differences in voting procedures between the Assembly and the Senate. In the Assembly, where officeholders push buttons on their desk to tally votes, a person who misses a vote is allowed to add it later to the official record as long as his vote does not affect the outcome of a bill. Senators, however, cannot change the record if they miss a roll call, which is always done verbally.

Given those differences, Assembly members missed 10.2% of their votes, and Senators missed an average of 17%, the computer tally shows.

Most San Diego County legislators were well within those ranges. Sen. Larry Stirling (R-San Diego), for instance, was on the nose with 17% of his votes missed since he began in the upper chamber in January.

In the Assembly, newcomer Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon) had the best average, with only 2% missed votes. She was followed by Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) at 6.7%; Pete Chacon (D-San Diego) at 7.8%; Robert C. Frazee (R-Carlsbad) at 7.9%, and Steve Peace (D-La Mesa) at 9.3%.

But the analysis also shows that four San Diego county legislators had relatively high numbers of missed votes. They were:

* Craven, who has missed 30.3% of his votes since December, 1986. The senator’s missing-vote percentage has remained fairly steady during the past 2 1/2 years.

“Obviously, I would consider it acceptable or I wouldn’t do it,” Craven said about his missed votes. “I would have to say that under the circumstances, I don’t know whether that is particularly high.

“There are votes and then there are votes,” said Craven, who added that many of the issues that come before the Senate are of no import to his North County district.

“Some votes are very, very consequential. For example, let’s take the vote about (banning the sale) of automatic weapons. I was on that vote. The budget vote, I was on that vote. Those things that have a consequence of some degree of import, I think generally that I would be there.”

* Deddeh, who has missed 28.5% of his votes during the same period. The Bonita lawmaker was well within the Senate’s 17% average all of the prior session, which covered December, 1986, through September, 1988.

However, his voting percentage took a decided turn for the worse after a routine examination in early June revealed that he needed immediate heart-bypass surgery. The operation meant he missed all of the committee and floor votes between June 5 and July 21, giving him the Senate’s worst record since January.

“In my opinion, you’re not supposed to miss any votes if you are there,” Deddeh said. “In my case, I had no choice, but I don’t want to miss any votes.”

* Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas), who has missed 17% of her votes since December, 1986, which is 7% more than the average of her colleagues.

Mojonnier blamed her higher-than-average non-voting record on the fact that she had surgery in June, 1988, and was out three other times this year because of the flu.

“Other than that, I don’t know why I would have missed any votes,” she said.

* Bradley, whose average for missed votes was 25.8%.

Bradley was fighting cancer during the previous legislative session, and he missed only 18% of his votes between December, 1986, and September, 1988, the computer tally shows.

But his number of missed votes skyrocketed since the first of the year, when he weakened and had to be hospitalized for extensive periods for a bleeding ulcer and liver cancer.

Crucial Merger Vote

On at least one of those occasions, Bradley’s absence represented a crucial loss for San Diego forces scrambling in the Legislature to head off the proposed SDG&E; merger. Killea sponsored legislation that would have required a public vote on the merger, and the measure was assigned to the Assembly’s Utilities and Commerce Committee, of which Bradley was a member.

During Bradley’s absence, the Killea bill came up for committee consideration. But, lacking Bradley’s presence and support, it failed by one vote--although Killea tried to persuade her colleagues on the panel to cast a “courtesy” vote for the measure on behalf of the ailing San Marcos Republican.

Bradley had no clue that his health would deteriorate so rapidly before he decided to run for reelection in November, 1988, said Herb Williams, the assemblyman’s close friend and political consultant.

“When you are running for office, and the cancer count is under control and you’re feeling good and the doctor says everything is OK, what prevents you from running again?” Williams said.

Bradley’s 1988 reelection wasn’t the first time that his constituents sent him back to Sacramento after he was found to have cancer. They reelected him in 1986, a year after doctors discovered the disease and arrested its progress by implanting a chemotherapy pump in his liver.

Williams said Bradley agonized over that 1986 decision and decided to continue with politics when he was convinced that the cancer was under control. His health remained relatively good until last January, when the bleeding ulcer and liver cancer flared.

Williams said voters understand when a politician can’t perform all of his duties because of illness, adding that public officials aren’t under any more of an obligation to leave their jobs because of ill health than the average worker.

‘Individual Rights’

“I think it is unfair to look at the politician and have a set of standards that are different than anyone else,” Williams said. “When should the reporter step down? When should I step down as the president of my company? When should the clinical psychologist step down that works for me?

“At the point when they are no longer productive, when they can no longer contribute. We’re talking individual rights here.”

Even in political campaigns, where challengers criticize the record of incumbents, it is rare to see someone attack a public official on the issue of his health, said Williams, a Republican consultant for 26 years.

The only case Williams said he could remember was the 1980 campaign that successfully unseated the late U. S. Sen. Jacob Javitz of New York, who died in 1986 after suffering from what is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Williams said that those who try to attack an ailing official on his absenteeism will likely feel a backlash from voters, who often sympathize with the ailing official as someone doing his best under difficult circumstances.

“For instance, you might have a candidate who misses 25% of his votes because he has asthma attacks,” Williams said. “Do you attack him on that?

“If you do, you will have your lunch handed to you.”

THE VOTING RECORD

Missed votes for area state legislators between December, 1986, and August, 1989. Averages calculated from vote tallies supplied by Legi-Tech, a computer tracking system used by lawmakers, lobbyists, governmental agencies and others in Sacramento.

SENATE

% Missed Average 17.1 Bill Craven (R-Oceanside) 30.3 Wadie Deddeh (D-Bonita) 28.5 Larry Stirling (R-San Diego)* 17.0

* Since Jan. 1989.

ASSEMBLY

% Missed Average 10.2 Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos)** 25.7 Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas) 17.0 Steve Peace (D-San Diego) 9.3 Robert C. Frazee (R-Carlsbad) 7.9 Pete Chacon (D-San Diego) 7.8 Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) 6.7 Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon)* 2.0

** Died June 1