Roberti Takes Office as Valley’s Newest Senator

Normally reserved and low key, state Sen. David A. Roberti spent much of Thursday smiling as he was officially sworn into office as the San Fernando Valley’s newest legislator.

Squeezing the ceremony between meetings on the state budget impasse, Democrat Roberti praised his supporters, dozens of whom had flown up from Los Angeles, for their help in his hard-fought special election victory last month in a Van Nuys-based district. He later treated a few hundred well-wishers to a celebratory barbecue.

Roberti, who spent more than $1 million of his campaign war chest, downplayed his reputation as a fund-raiser and powerful politician and instead credited these “volunteers” with giving him the edge when he had “to win a race in the tussle of hand-to-hand political fighting.”

In the hard-fought June election, Roberti outdistanced Republican Carol Rowen for the remaining two years on the term of former Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), who resigned last year and pleaded guilty to federal political corruption charges.

The lines of Roberti’s own Hollywood-area district were redrawn last year, leaving him without a seat and prompting him to move into the Van Nuys district abandoned by Robbins.

During Thursday’s brief Senate ceremony in which he was flanked by his wife and father, Roberti suggested that his switch in seats made him “probably the first person” who could claim to represent two different Senate districts in a single day.

Roberti also joked that it was probably “the first time that a freshman state senator” has also been the leader of the Legislature’s upper chamber.

Roberti, 53, was first elected to the Senate in 1971 and became Senate leader nine years later. Even before moving to the Valley, Roberti had sought to subordinate some of his own staunchly liberal views to maintain a consensus within the Senate Democratic caucus.

Roberti’s political metamorphosis was noted by David Honda, a Republican who lost to Rowen in the primary election and then backed Democrat Roberti. Honda, who watched Thursday as Roberti took the oath of office, said the senator has begun to demonstrate to him a change in attitude, and cited a willingness by Roberti to accept some budget cuts he otherwise might have opposed.

Others pointed out that Roberti earlier this year sought to repeal a law that exempts hot foods prepared for airline passengers from the state sales and use tax. The measure failed to win passage in the Senate, but Roberti has not used his clout as Senate leader to press for a new vote on the proposal.

In an interview Thursday, Roberti acknowledged that the change in his political base may be somewhat accelerating a moderation of his positions. He noted, for instance, that tax issues have a much higher priority among Valley-area voters than in his former Hollywood district. This change, Roberti said, “is something I have to be aware of every time I vote.”

Such serious matters took a back seat Thursday evening at the barbecue held near Fairy Tale Town in Sacramento’s William Land Park. Roberti, who typically appears in a suit and tie, was dressed in a sport shirt, slacks and sunglasses as he mingled with the crowd, which dined on ribs and hot dogs while South American music played in the background. He promised to stage a similar bash for supporters in the Valley.

Although he was both host and guest of honor, Roberti wore a name tag. A lobbyist prepared Roberti’s wife, June, a name tag of her own: Valley Girl.