Wilson Avoids Setback, Halts Farm Post Vote

Seeking to avoid almost certain defeat, Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday asked for an indefinite delay of a Senate confirmation vote on his appointment of former Republican Sen. James W. Nielsen to the state farm labor board.

The GOP governor acted scarcely 24 hours before Nielsen, a former Senate GOP floor leader who was defeated for reelection in 1990, was scheduled to appear before the Democratic-dominated Rules Committee for approval to the $92,460-a-year post.

For weeks, approval of Nielsen’s appointment to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which he had attacked in 1978 in his first Senate campaign, had been in trouble as Democrats grew increasingly hostile toward Wilson and looked for a target to fire at.

Additionally, Democrats and organized labor are angry that Wilson appointed an outspoken critic of farm worker unions to an agency which, among other duties, must mediate disputes between farmers and agricultural employees. In the Legislature, Nielsen was a premier spokesman for agriculture.

“We have asked for a postponement of the confirmation hearing in order to give (Nielsen) more time to address the concerns that have been raised by some members of the Legislature,” Wilson spokesman Franz Wisner said.

Wisner insisted that Wilson still stands behind Nielsen as a board member, but “given the current situation, the governor felt it was best at this time to ask for a postponement.” The committee agreed to Wilson’s request and set no new date for a confirmation vote.

“I consider that this will lead to a withdrawal of Nielsen’s nomination,” said Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles). He said if the governor appointed Nielsen to some other post, “we’d look at it probably in a different light.”

Nielsen has served on the board for almost a year without confirmation. Unless he is confirmed by the full Senate by Feb. 22, he must leave.

“Sen. Nielsen’s close identification with the agriculture industry has made it very difficult for some of us who want a more dispassionate appointee,” said Roberti, a close ally of labor, which strongly supported creation of the board in the 1970s.

Usually, the Senate routinely approves the confirmations of former legislators. But it set a precedent in 1983, when Senate Democrats sided with labor and handed GOP Gov. George Deukmejian an embarrassing setback by rejecting former Assemblyman Victor Veysey as director of industrial relations.

The Democratic opposition to Nielsen was widely regarded as a counterpunch at Wilson. Democrats in both houses are still angry at his veto of Assembly and Senate reapportionment plans while members of both parties are mad about his endorsement in 1990 of Proposition 140, which established term limits and reduced the Legislature’s budget by nearly 40%.

Roberti said he has been under pressure from both Senate Democrats and members of the Democratic State Central Committee to “get tough” with Wilson, a potential White House contender in 1996.

For his part, Nielsen indicated that Wilson’s appeal for a delay in the confirmation hearing caught him by surprise. Earlier in the day, Nielsen said he feared that he might become the victim of Democratic “concern about reapportionment and Pete Wilson.”

“The governor is winning all these strategic things and the Democrats need to win one,” he said before learning of the governor’s request for a delay. Later, Nielsen told a reporter, “The moment is a little tense.”