A Lesson in the Politics of Power

It was easy to see that Alan Robbins was plotting. He was biting his lower lip and his eyes were narrowed, warning signs that the state senator was engaged in serious business.

Robbins, a Democrat representing a conservative area of the San Fernando Valley, was trying to revive a bill that meant much to him as the Legislature moved toward adjournment. But he faced an obstacle, a fundamental rule of politics: Power comes from the alliances you build, the friendships you make, and the favors you do over a long period of time.

In this case, his obstacle was Assemblywoman Maxine Waters, who was trying to defeat Robbins’ bill. Her intensity was apparent from the way she confronted Assemblyman Richard Katz on the Assembly floor and dragged him over to a meeting with Speaker Willie Brown. As usual, she was combative, ready to work out a deal with Brown after defying him on an issue a few minutes earlier.

Waters could do that because she was one of the handful of people who got Brown elected Speaker several years ago. Since then, she has helped save his speakership from frequent assaults and is one of the few whose advice he trusts.

Robbins, on the other hand, operates without long-term allies. He is the ultimate legislative loner--smart, tough, crafty, keeping his plans to himself. Because of those qualities, colleagues are wary.

The issue was a piece of legislation known as “The Bill That Won’t Die,” or “The Freddie Krueger Bill,” after the man they couldn’t kill in “Nightmare on Elm Street.”

The measure had been defeated or vetoed in past sessions, but always was revived. In fact, it had just been killed--some thought--two weeks before.

The bill would eliminate the Southern California Rapid Transit District and set up a super agency to run transit. Robbins has long maintained that the RTD is poorly run and has not served his suburban constituents well.

Waters’ district is in South Los Angeles, in the predominantly black area south of the Santa Monica Freeway. This is an urban, liberal, Democratic area.

The question of whether it’s good or bad to reorganize the transit district didn’t really concern Waters. What worried her was the RTD bus drivers, many of whom are black residents of South Los Angeles. To South LA, the RTD is a great source of steady, well-paying jobs, and Waters did not want anyone messing with that.

Suburbanites dominate the Los Angeles County legislative delegation. Republican Gov. George Deukmejian is sympathetic to them. On this day, the word from the Robbins camp was that the senator was gaining support.

With constituents’ jobs at stake, Waters wanted to see the bill defeated. There was no one else to do it. She constitutes just about all the political influence South Los Angeles has in the Legislature. Political, personal and legal troubles have weakened her colleagues.

Nor would there be much help from city officials. The RTD, with two board members nervously waiting amid a crowd of lobbyists outside the legislative chambers, were counting on Waters.

At midday, Robbins felt he had breathed enough life into the bill to bring it before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Waters began to fight. At 3:15 p.m. on the Assembly floor, she talked to Katz, a sometimes Robbins ally and chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, and John Vasconcellos, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. She asked Katz if he was part of the anti-RTD move. “He assured me he was not,” Waters said.

The three of them got together on the Assembly floor with Speaker Brown. A strategy was arranged. The bill would be killed in the Ways and Means Committee. At 6 p.m., it was dead. “I don’t see enough votes on my committee to pass it,” said Vasconcellos. “So I won’t bring it up.”

The swift and deadly blow was a graphic example of how political power in Los Angeles depends on alliances in Sacramento. How much power does Maxine Waters have? As much as she can obtain from her alliance with the Speaker. If Brown goes, so goes her power.

Such power is tenuous, and that’s what troubles urban political leaders competing against the suburbs. Robbins, of course, will be back next year with the same bill. He never gives up. That’s the real lesson in political science.