‘92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : Political Clout, Brown’s Battle Put the Spotlight on California : Delegates: The largest state contingent could be at the center of convention drama. Feinstein and Boxer are also expected to draw attention.

Back when national Democratic Party conventions were exciting, the joke went that even as the presidential nominee delivered his final acceptance speech, the California delegation was still caucusing, in heated disagreement over some issue or another.

Today, while the California delegation--like the party as a whole--is more sedate, pundits and convention participants continue to look to the Golden State’s representatives for high drama.

At this year’s Democratic convention, California will provide the numbers, Hollywood celebrities, high-profile female candidates, AIDS activists and several key speakers.

And, thanks to the loyal support that former governor and quixotic presidential hopeful Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. enjoys among a sizable portion of the state’s delegation, California may also provide the fireworks.

With a total of 406 delegates, California is sending by far the largest contingent to the convention, which opens today in New York City. The next largest is New York state with 290.

A look at the convention floor map shows the physical dominance of the California delegation. It occupies the largest space, and its 58 alternates exceed the size of most state delegations.

“California is the 800-pound gorilla at the convention,” said David Mixner, a Los Angeles political consultant and a delegate committed to the soon-to-be-nominee, Bill Clinton.

Among the state’s delegates, nearly a fourth (157 men and women) are committed to voting for Brown. Angry that his ideas are not being taken seriously by Clinton, many of Brown’s supporters are considering some form of protest--from picketing Madison Square Garden, the main venue for the week’s proceedings, to storming out of the convention hall.

“I don’t know how that protest will take place,” said party activist and Brown delegate Celestine Palmer of Los Angeles. “I know there probably will be some protest.”

Other Californians are assured of a place in the spotlight. In recognition of the huge importance of the state’s 54 electoral votes, a number of the delegation’s leaders have been given visible convention roles. For example, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) co-chairs the Democratic Party Platform Committee; Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who heads the California delegation, will be among those presenting the platform Tuesday night; Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal Allard (D-Los Angeles) is among a handful of speakers who will help set the stage for Clinton’s acceptance speech Thursday night.

The Californians also expect to attract attention by virtue of the party’s two female candidates for the U.S. Senate. The presence of former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) on the Democratic ticket can give the Clinton campaign a boost in the state, delegates say, because of their appeal to female voters and voters who want change.

The California delegation will supply what may be one of the more poignant moments of the four-day gathering. Elizabeth Glaser, a Clinton delegate who is founder of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Los Angeles, will take the podium Tuesday night and talk about what it is like to lose a child to AIDS.

Glaser, wife of actor and director Paul Michael Glaser, was infected with the virus 11 years ago during a blood transfusion, and one of her children died of the disease in 1988. A second child, a 7 1/2-year-old son, is infected with the AIDS virus.

“It’s a very personal message (for the convention) that has a great deal of hope and some frustration about what little has happened” in the way of AIDS research, Glaser said. “This speech is about my life, and it comes from my heart. . . . I have a lot at stake.”

(A second HIV-infected person from California, environmentalist and Clinton aide Bob Hattoy, will also address the convention. But he is not a member of the state’s delegation.)

In line with affirmative-action rules set by the national Democratic Party, California has formed a delegation that reflects the state’s ethnic diversity. Although state Democratic officials fell short of their goals in most categories, they say the delegation is the most diverse of any in the nation.

The gender split is exactly 50-50. Sixteen percent of the delegates are black, 21% are Latino, 7.5% are Asian-American and one percent are American Indians. Gays and lesbians make up 7.5% of the delegates, and people with disabilities make up 6.9%.

Linda Griego, deputy mayor of Los Angeles and the delegation’s Hispanic whip, said she hopes that Latinos attending the convention from throughout the nation will be able to overcome regional differences and work together on issues of common interest.

“I think there will be a real concerted effort to do a lot more work together, to go as a coalition,” she said. “In the last (convention), I didn’t really feel this. . . . You would go to the Hispanic caucus and the Texans were Texans and the Californians were Californians. It will be interesting this time to see if we can get past that.”

Some delegates said they hoped the diversity of the California contingent would help focus the political debate on such issues as the plight of inner cities and the state of race relations. Some convention discussion is expected to focus on the Los Angeles riots as the ultimate symbol of the failure of the Bush and Ronald Reagan administrations.

For excitement, though, all eyes will be on Brown and his troops, who are continuing to push a reform agenda that calls for rolling back congressional pay raises and endorsing term limits.

Clinton delegates, his campaign staffers and California party leaders--some of whom are chagrined at the potential for theatrics by Brown’s backers--are publicly careful to say that the native son and his supporters have a right to make his positions and opinions known.

Healthy debate is fine, they say. Just as long as things don’t get out of hand.

“Any effort to squelch debate would be a mistake,” California party Chairman Phil Angelides said. “Let them have their say, have an honest dialogue, make them feel a genuine part of the team. . . . We’ve lost so many times, we’re not exactly in a position to write off anyone.”

Indeed, state party leaders know that they need Brown’s supporters in November if they hope to win California.

Brown delegates, meanwhile, are “not just angry, they are furious,” said Robert Nelson, a Brown delegate and astrophysicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. They are frustrated in part because they know they don’t even have enough forces to bring a platform fight to the floor.

“Bill Clinton and his delegates are holding all the cards,” Nelson said. “Unfortunately, all we hear . . . is they are trying to beat us into submission. Most of the (Brown) people around the state would rather die than be beaten into submission. They would rather see real compromise.”