Who’s Boss? Confusion Grips Atty. Gen. Office

When Deputy Atty. Gen. Robert Katz cast his ballot Tuesday, he expected to learn that night whether his new boss was named Dan or Arlo.

Two days later and with more than 300,000 absentee votes yet to be counted, Katz was still wondering.

“I guess coin flips are not part of the Constitution,” said the 24-year prosecutor, who is assigned to the Department of Justice’s Los Angeles office. “Although maybe if we had an initiative on (coin flips) that day may come.”

These days, a nervous uncertainty grips the attorney general’s office, as the outcome in the nip-and-tuck race between Republican Dan Lungren and Democrat Arlo Smith remains too close to call.

With all votes from polling places reported, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Smith holds a lead of almost 29,000 votes. But absentee ballots traditionally tilt toward the GOP, so the final results of the race will remain unclear until next week, or possibly longer.

Election officials in California’s 58 counties began counting the mail-in votes Thursday and will file their first reports with Sacramento early next week. “We’re hoping that a big chunk of them will be counted (by Tuesday),” said Cindy Lotz of the secretary of state’s media office. “But counties have until Dec. 4 to complete their official canvass.”

At the attorney general’s mid-Wilshire offices, the talk at lunch and in the hallways focused on the virtual dead heat between Smith and former five-term Rep. Lungren.

“Everybody is kind of scratching their head,” said veteran Deputy Atty. Gen. Sam Overton. “There’s a lot of speculation about what does it all mean. I think everybody has about the same quality of crystal ball that the various campaigns had--all kind of fogged over.”

A random check showed that some deputies have been taking the situation in stride while others express concern over the delay in transition.

Compounding matters, they said, is the possibility that a new attorney general would radically change the tone set by John K. Van de Kamp, a Democrat who ran the 3,000-employee deartment. Although Smith and Van de Kamp were close on many issues, there are vast philosophical differences between them and staunchly conservative Lungren.

“We’re concerned about Dan Lungren’s environmental stands,” said 14-year deputy Robert Collins, referring to the former congressman’s frequent votes against pollution control measures while in Congress. “Although that’s not to say he wouldn’t uphold the laws.”

Several staffers of the office’s torts and consumer rights sections also expressed worries that Lungren might de-emphasize their units to plow more resources into the office’s criminal section.

“There is gallows humor about dismantling various sections,” said five-year Deputy Atty. Gen. Joel Davis. “The lack of finality is very frustrating. Even if it’s a disappointment, it would be good to know now what’s hanging over our heads.”

Regardless of which candidate takes office in January, the 325 employees of the attorney general’s Los Angeles office are facing the additional trauma of moving to new offices in the downtown Ronald Reagan state office building in early January. With issues such as parking and security services unresolved, office morale is already low, according to one longtime civil law staffer who asked to remain anonymous.

Smith and Lungren themselves remained out of sight Thursday as the absentee ballot counting began. However, campaign workers for both sides kept a watchful eye on the ballot count in major counties, which began a day after the Smith camp questioned the possibility of absentee ballot fraud.

Such talk--not to mention the tenacious nature of the two lawyers vying for the state’s chief legal post--has fueled speculation that the ballot battle could eventually wind up in court. Then there’s the question of who would issue the legal opinion on the winner.

Could the attorney general’s office be asked who the attorney general is?

“Well, that’s very interesting,” said Katz, who has served under four attorney generals. “I’ve seen nothing quite like this.”