CAPITOL JOURNAL : Democrats’ Act of Sweet Revenge Turns Sour

Senate Democrats had Gov. Pete Wilson right where they wanted him. They blamed the Republican governor for robbing their political futures and he needed their votes to confirm an important appointment--Wilson’s nominee for a spot on the powerful Public Utilities Commission.

Perfect opportunity for revenge. Vote down the confirmation of ex-Rep. Norman Shumway--a conservative Republican at that--and hand Wilson a humiliating political defeat. Perfect opportunity, maybe, but an opportunity turned down.

Shumway got his confirmation to the PUC last month, good for six years, by a lopsided vote first by the Senate Rules Committee and then by the full Senate.

How it happened was a case of new twists to old stories about politics forming strange alliances, with the key role played by a combative consumer advocate--self-proclaimed “liberal Democrat atheist” Sylvia Siegel, 73, who wound up siding with the Republican nominee.

Shumway, who retired from Congress in 1990, was appointed by Wilson last year to the PUC, whose decisions on electricity, natural gas and telephone rates affect the pocketbooks of virtually all Californians.

On the basis of his record in Congress, Shumway drew heavy fire at a Jan. 15 hearing of the Senate Rules Committee from representatives of senior citizens organizations. Over his denials, they portrayed him as hostile to programs such as Medicare, which are important to the elderly. But a vote was postponed until Jan. 22. Then it was postponed again, until Jan. 29, when Wilson, clearly lacking favorable votes from Democrats, delayed it for still another week.

The nominee’s record, however, was not the whole problem. More to the point, Shumway had gotten tangled up in a power play between Wilson and Senate Democrats. Last fall, Wilson vetoed the Legislature’s Democrat-drawn reapportionment bills, and when the Supreme Court redrew the district lines, the Republicans appeared to benefit.

Afterward, Democrats had indicated to Wilson that as a pay-back, his nomination of former Senate GOP Leader James W. Nielsen to the Agriculture Labor Relations Board was dead. They hinted that Shumway might be the next victim.

But legislators can defy the governor of California only so long before the immense retaliatory powers of the chief executive are unleashed. For starters, the governor can veto your pet election-year pork barrel bills or, worse, raise campaign funds for your election opponent.

Thus it was that Senate Majority Leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) let it be known that the “problems” of Shumway were not as “severe” as those of Nielsen. Translation: Shumway probably would be confirmed under the right circumstances.

Enter consumer advocate Siegel, never one to be ignored on the utility front where she has racked up a string of victories. Siegel sent word to the Rules Committee that she would support Shumway, despite the opposition from senior citizens on fixed incomes who fear higher utility rates.

Seeing a way out of the political box for everybody, Roberti grabbed it. For Democrats, he said, “Silvia Siegel is not insignificant in these kinds of issues.”

After all, it was Siegel, seizing on the Arab oil embargo and the energy crisis in 1973, who established herself and her organization, Toward Utility Rate Normalization, as an influential voice for consumers before a PUC that historically was viewed as pro-utility. Among other fights, TURN championed lifeline telephone and electricity rates and helped lead the pioneering movement to convert waste heat to electricity.

On Feb. 11, Siegel appeared before the Rules Committee and said of Shumway: “I wouldn’t give you two cents for his congressional record,” but added that when she puts hard questions to him, “I know I get an honest answer.”

She testified that under the holdover appointees of former GOP Gov. George Deukmejian the morale of the PUC’s staff of professional regulators was “terrible.” She said Shumway’s leadership was needed to “get this agency back in shape.”

The committee approved Shumway on a 4-1 vote. The full Senate confirmed him 32 to 1 on Feb. 14, one day before he faced leaving the $92,465-a-year post for lack of Senate approval.

So Shumway got his job, but along with it a warning. At the hearing, Siegel looked Shumway dead in the eye and told him she was “sticking my neck way out” for him and she will be watching how he votes on the PUC.

“My knees don’t work well,” said Siegel, who walks with a cane, “but I can still kick ass.”