State Senate Democrats

In your Nov. 29 edition you carried an article about David Roberti. In it was the statement that he became president pro tempore of the state Senate in 1981 by defeating me, “after Senate Democrats suffered serious losses at the polls in 1980.”

That is not true. Only one Democratic member of the Senate was defeated in 1980, and that loss was hardly my fault. Throughout the course of that year I repeatedly asked that member, Albert Rodda of Sacramento, to accept help from me. Unfortunately, he consistently refused to let me do anything for him.

Al Rodda was my seatmate on the floor of the Senate and my very close friend, as well as a splendid public servant. I wanted very much to do what I could to assure his reelection, but his reply to every request that I made to him to accept assistance from me was, “Jim, I’m not in any trouble. I know my district better than you do, and I wish you’d respect my judgment in that regard.”

The Democrats in the state Senate never suffered any serious losses at all while I was president pro tempore. On the contrary, any examination of the records of the Senate will show that the number of Democrats in that body increased substantially during those 10 years.

JAMES R. MILLS

Del Mar