BODY POLITIC

Politicians are used to dropping in the polls; it’s an occupational hazard. But dropping from an airplane is something else entirely. Late last fall, two Republicans in the State Senate--Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach and Bill Leonard of Big Bear--went to an airport in Lodi, near Sacramento, and took the plunge. Now, they want to bring their colleagues down with them.

It was the first time for both of them. Bergeson, 64, had made up her mind to try sky diving when Leonard, 44, heard the news. “I started to tease her about it,” he says. “The next thing I know, she called her office and (told her staff to) ‘make room for one more on the plane.’ Once out the door, it was really fun.”

“It gives you a different perspective on things when you are looking down from 10,000 feet,” Bergeson says. She and Leonard hope to bring several legislators the next time. And, in true bipartisan spirit, Bergeson said that Democratic members of the Legislature are welcome to come along. She didn’t indicate, however, whether they would be provided with parachutes.