Van de Kamp Hits Lawmakers’ Ethics Measure

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp suggested Tuesday that state lawmakers sabotaged their own proposal to improve the Legislature’s ethical conduct by linking the plan to a likely pay raise.

Van de Kamp, who is sponsoring a rival ethics ballot measure, said legislative leaders may well have guaranteed the defeat of their proposed constitutional amendment by including the creation of a commission empowered to give legislators an unlimited salary increase.

“You have to think there is some kind of effort afoot,” Van de Kamp said at a breakfast with The Times’ Sacramento Bureau. “They know the consequences of putting things like this to the voters. I don’t think you can mix the ethics with the pay. It’s a sure loser at the polls.”

Van de Kamp is in the midst of a feud with Democratic legislative leaders over his own ethics initiative, which among other things would restrict outside income for legislators and prohibit them from serving more than 12 consecutive years in office.

Van de Kamp also said that if he were elected governor, he would not be tempted--like some governors in the past--to run for President or vice president during his first term.

The attorney general also said that if elected, he would not serve more than two terms as governor--the same time limit that would be imposed for statewide constitutional officers by his ethics initiative.

Van de Kamp is running against former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein in the Democratic primary in June. The winner is expected to face U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, who so far is running unopposed in the Republican primary.

Van de Kamp hopes to distinguish himself by pushing three initiatives for the general election ballot in November, 1990. One of the measures would be his ethics proposal, which would ban honorariums, limit gifts and provide public financing for political campaigns.

A second initiative would raise corporate taxes to finance anti-drug efforts, and would call for construction of prisons in the Mojave Desert for drug offenders.

Van de Kamp is also backing a sweeping environmental initiative that would prohibit the use of known cancer-causing pesticides on food, tighten safeguards against offshore oil spills, preserve old-growth redwoods, plant millions of new trees, restrict chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and expand health protection for farm workers.

The unprecedented plan to sponsor three initiatives on the same ballot would provide the attorney general with a comprehensive platform for his gubernatorial campaign. It would also allow him to raise money for the initiatives outside new state limits on fund-raising for his gubernatorial campaign.

Nevertheless, the attorney general said he is not attempting to circumvent the campaign law. None of the advertising for the initiatives will promote him personally, he said.

“People have said this is a cynical attempt to evade campaign expenditure laws,” he said. “We’re doing more for the initiative campaigns than the initiative campaigns are doing for us.”

Van de Kamp contends that his plan to limit the terms of legislators would reduce the influence of special-interest groups.

“Some of these people need a sabbatical very, very badly,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Legislature reached bipartisan agreement on its own ethics package that will go before the voters in June. The proposed constitutional amendment would ban honorariums and restrict gifts for lawmakers, but only if voters also agreed to establish a salary commission that would have independent authority to set legislators’ pay.

“I think that is absolutely the wrong way to go about dealing with those separate issues,” Van de Kamp said. “I think ethical reform comes first. Ultimately, down the line, having a pay commission recommend to the Legislature what salaries should be makes some sense.”