Cranston Given No Quarter on Coin Redesign

Call it Sen. Alan Cranston’s final crusade in office.

Having gained a reputation over the past two decades as a serious-minded legislator, the longtime California Democrat has befuddled and irritated his colleagues in Congress this year by devoting extraordinary energy to a pet project that is of little interest to his constituents and has nothing to do with the environment, world peace or any of the other weighty initiatives he has traditionally pursued.

The issue that has commanded so much of Cranston’s attention during his waning months in office? A proposal to redesign coins. The biggest booster of coin redesign? A 38-year-old New York socialite who is a frequent Cranston companion.

On Wednesday, Cranston suffered yet another in a string of embarrassing setbacks when the House voted 414 to 0 to pass an omnibus coin bill that specifically excluded his redesign provision. Last week the House narrowly defeated the same bill--with Cranston’s controversial amendment attached--for the second time in six weeks.

Cranston’s coin quest has developed into a sort of political oddity on Capitol Hill with no one certain why such seemingly obscure legislation has captured the intense interest of the senior senator from the nation’s largest state.

“He obviously has this insatiable passion for these coins,” said Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente), chairman of the House consumer affairs and coinage subcommittee.

Cranston acknowledged in a recent interview that he has gone to unusual lengths to get the nation’s coins redesigned. He said he has passed the redesign measure in the Senate 13 times over the past four years and last month spent hours on the telephone personally lobbying about 100 House members.

He said his proposal has merit, is supported by coin collectors and would bring the U. S. Treasury millions of dollars in new revenues.

“We’re the only Western nation that doesn’t change coins,” Cranston said. “It doesn’t make any sense not to do it.”

Yet Cranston’s motive for tirelessly promoting coin redesign has been called into question by some of his fellow lawmakers. They privately suggest that the 77-year-old senator is working on behalf of Diane Wolf, a former Reagan Administration appointee to the federal Commission on Fine Arts.

While confirming that Wolf is a social acquaintance who has lobbied extensively for coin redesign, Cranston said her involvement is “another false issue” that has been raised by members of Congress who oppose his bill.

Wednesday’s vote virtually assures that no form of coin redesign will pass the House this session, meaning that Cranston is unlikely to win congressional approval before he retires at the end of the year.

“People know that,” Torres said. “They will stall him until he is gone.”

Still, Cranston shows no signs of giving up. Changing the nation’s coins has become a crusade for the banking committee member, who was reprimanded last year for his fund-raising activities in the “Keating Five” savings and loan scandal.

Instead of following the usual practice of delegating legislation to his aides, Cranston has personally assumed responsibility for plotting strategy and working the bill, said sources familiar with his efforts.

Cranston’s initial proposal called for redesigning the “tail” side of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half-dollar by adding a theme commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. It would neither change the “head” side nor tamper with the inscription “In God We Trust.”

His unrelenting efforts have served to obstruct other coin legislation and anger those favoring those laws.

By attaching his controversial provision to the omnibus coin bill, Cranston has blocked for months the authorization of special commemorative coins that would benefit the 1994 World Cup soccer games, the Christopher Columbus celebrations, veterans of the Persian Gulf War, a foundation honoring James Madison and the purchase of White House artifacts. Those commemorative coins were approved unanimously by the House on Wednesday and now await Senate approval.

The coin legislation approved Wednesday would raise an estisazdxemated $40 million to help stage the World Cup in the United States--income that would be jeopardized should Cranston delay Senate action, said Alan Rothenberg, a prominent Los Angeles attorney and chairman of the World Cup organizing committee. Pasadena’s Rose Bowl and Stanford Stadium have been selected as World Cup sites.

Rothenberg said he is “exasperated” with the delays engineered by Cranston because congressional approval for the commemorative coin has no opposition.

“It’s been very, very difficult and very disappointing, to say the least,” Rothenberg said. “If someone had some objection on merits . . . at least I’d understand. But we’ve been held up for six months now for one senator’s obsession that does not go to the merits of the bill.”

On Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans alike attacked the Cranston provision as both unnecessary and untimely.

“People are saying Congress can’t balance a budget, can’t run a bank or post office, and (yet) we’re going to try to redesign coins,” said Rep. Alfred A. McCandless (R-La Quinta). “I think if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) said: “I just can’t believe that with so many problems in this country--children in trouble, a horrible recession and unemployment--that we’re bringing up coins.” Boxer, who is running for Cranston’s Senate seat, was one of four California Democrats who voted against coin redesign last week.

Such criticism has not dampened Cranston’s enthusiasm.

Cranston said he first became interested in coin redesign several years ago when Wolf, the daughter of a wealthy Texas oilman, began making the rounds of congressional offices and raised the issue with Roy Greenaway, Cranston’s chief of staff and an avid coin collector.

“She was very persuasive (and) I got interested,” Cranston said.

As Wolf continued lobbying her proposal, she and Cranston began dating, a source said. Asked recently about their relationship, Cranston said, “I see her occasionally.” When pressed to elaborate, he said, “I don’t see why we have to go into all these personal things.”

Wolf could not be reached for comment. She has said she wants a change in coins because the current designs are “ordinary and boring.”

Cranston has been so persistent in pursuing his coin redesign bill that, in his 23 years in the Senate, he could not recall contacting so many members at one time on a single issue. While it is not unusual for House members to call on senators regarding important legislation affecting their local constituents, it is considered rare for a senator to personally contact so many House members.

In his phone calls to about 100 legislators last month, Cranston said, he argued the merits of the bill and made two significant compromises--he reduced the number of circulating coins proposed for redesign from five to two and agreed to retain the historic eagle on the back of quarters and half-dollars, leaving little room for the Bill of Rights theme.

Among the House members contacted last month was Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey), chairman of the House budget committee.

“I was kind of surprised what he was calling about,” Panetta said. The last time he received a call from Cranston was in December, 1990, and the topic also was coin design, Panetta recalled.

Panetta voted against the Cranston measure last week. “I just think at time when we are trying to confront the recession . . . this is not something we ought to be spending a lot of time on.”

Although Cranston had succeeded in turning around about 50 legislators who had voted no in February, he fell seven votes short last week.

After the vote, some lawmakers said they felt harassed by Cranston’s tenaciousness in pushing the bill. Others said they were bothered by the amount of time that went into such a trivial issue. Several House members said their opposition stemmed in part from Cranston’s relationship with Wolf.

“I guess it makes people suspect,” Torres said. “They say, ‘Gee, it’s not really his coin design. She is really the one behind the scenes pushing for it and he is doing her a favor.’ ”

The issue is expected to be addressed by the full Senate soon. For his part, Cranston is not tipping his hand on his next political maneuver.

“When he locks in on an issue, he doesn’t give up,” Panetta said. “He is, for whatever reason, locked on this issue. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it appear again somewhere, somehow, some way.”