Wilson Holds Off Vote on 2nd Nominee : Politics: Governor avoids a showdown with Democrats by calling for a delay in Senate committee’s vote on his appointment of ex-Rep. Norman Shumway to PUC.

For the second straight day, Gov. Pete Wilson retreated Wednesday from a showdown with hostile Senate Democrats, this time backing off his attempt to win confirmation of a retired Republican congressman as a member of the state Public Utilities Commission.

Shortly before the Senate Rules Committee was scheduled to vote on former Rep. Norman Shumway of Stockton, Wilson appealed for a one-week delay and summoned Shumway to his office for a private conference.

Insisting that the governor still “absolutely stands behind” Shumway, Wilson aide Franz Wisner said Wilson sought the postponement “to ensure that when there is a vote, it will be an affirmative one.” He said Wilson hopes Democrats will “put partisan considerations aside.”

On Tuesday, Wilson, in the face of certain defeat by the Democratic-controlled Rules Committee, postponed indefinitely his appointment of former state Sen. James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park) to a $92,460-a-year seat on the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board. The governor sought no new hearing date for Nielsen, a move considered tantamount to withdrawal of the nomination.

Wilson’s setbacks are indicative of the confrontational atmosphere shaping up between the Republican governor and his Democratic opponents in the Legislature.

“We are tired of getting dumped on by the governor,” said a frustrated veteran Senate Democrat, who asked not to be identified, conceding that Democratic opposition to Nielsen and Shumway was, in part, a tit-for-tat pay-back.

Among other things, Democrats are angry about Wilson’s veto of reapportionment bills, his support of term limits for legislators and his proposed welfare-cut ballot initiative that also would suspend the Legislature’s power over state purse strings.

Shumway, a conservative Republican who retired from Congress in 1990 after serving six terms, was opposed at an earlier hearing by representatives of national senior citizens organizations who claimed that he compiled one of the worst voting records in the House on senior citizen issues.

He must vacate the Public Utilities Commission seat next month unless he is confirmed by the Senate. Shumway has argued that he would never have been reelected if his performance on senior issues was a bad as portrayed by opponents.

While Wilson held up the vote on Shumway, the committee did approve confirmation of Daniel W. Fessler, a University of California law professor, to both the PUC and to the unsalaried California Transportation Commission. The PUC post pays $92,465 a year.

Appointees to the Public Utilities Commission are of special interest to senior citizens on fixed incomes because the commission sets rates for privately operated natural gas, electricity and telephone companies.