Roberti Tries Balancing Act on Insurance Panel

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti says he is “absolutely” dedicated to finding a new Senate insurance committee chairman, to replace the resigned and disgraced Alan Robbins, “whose No. 1 interest is the voters of the state of California, not the lawyers, not the insurers.”

Roberti, a Los Angeles Democrat, said five Democratic senators have either asked him outright for his support or expressed interest in replacing Robbins, who last week confessed to accepting bribes and other corrupt dealings and agreed to a federal prison sentence.

Although it is the Senate Rules Committee that formally appoints committee chairmen, the influence of that committee’s chairman--Roberti--is usually decisive in the appointment. It was Roberti who was responsible for the appointment of Robbins to the committee chairmanship in 1981 after Robbins supported Roberti for the president pro tem position.

Roberti said that Democratic Sens. Patrick Johnston of Stockton, Art Torres of Los Angeles, Wadie Deddeh of San Diego, Charles Calderon of Montebello and Leroy Greene of Sacramento have asked about the appointment.

Saying he will take his time and indicating that the appointment will not be made until January, Roberti said his No. 1 criterion will be finding someone who has a desire and a plan for coming to grips with insurance issues long deadlocked in the Legislature.

“It doesn’t have to be a plan I’d agree with wholly, just the bulk of it,” said Roberti, who earlier this year opposed a no-fault auto insurance bill proposed by Johnston, which was supported by most insurers but opposed by the trial lawyers.

Some legislative sources contacted by The Times nonetheless said they thought Johnston might be on the inside track for the committee post because, while leaning toward the insurers on some issues, he has a reputation for being honest and independent.

Roberti, on the defensive for appointing Robbins and keeping him on the job so long, said he will confer with many of his colleagues, “get a sense of the public, see how the newspapers are going and talk to the major consumer groups” before he makes up his mind on his successor.

“People ask me, why did you appoint so and so to such and such,” the Senate leader said in an interview. “I don’t have an infinite number of people to pick from. I’m not the President of the United States or even the Speaker of the Assembly. I have to make choices from a very finite number of people sent to us by the voters, and that circumscribes the choice.

Traditionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was the one that took up and defeated Johnston’s no-fault bill, has been headed by a lawmaker who sympathized with the trial lawyer side of insurance issues, while the insurance committee has been headed by someone who usually sided with the insurers.

But Roberti indicated that such an alignment might not be followed in making the insurance committee appointment.