ASSEMBLY : Struggle for Upper Hand in Lower House

Joe Shumate, Gov. Pete Wilson’s top political operative, parked outside his Sacramento apartment around midnight recently after a long day of strategizing for Republican candidates and causes. Pulling up behind Shumate was Bill Cavala, his neighbor and rival who fills a similar role for Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

“Glad to see you’re not working later than I am,” Cavala said to Shumate, to which the Republican replied: “Oh, I just came home to change my shirt. I’m going back to the office.”

Shumate was only kidding, but he might have been serious. From Eureka to San Ysidro, politicians, their aides and volunteers are working day and night this fall in a furious struggle for control of the the state Assembly.

The Legislature’s lower house has been in Democratic hands since 1970, and under the leadership of Brown for almost 12 years. Today, the Democrats hold a 47-33 majority, and they hope to defend that edge when voters go to the polls on Nov. 3.

Republicans, led by the governor, have other plans. They began the year with dreams of a majority, and some still have faith that such bold gains are possible. The more realistic among them are talking now of improving their position to 38 or 39 seats in the 80-member house, perhaps enough to threaten Brown’s grip on the speakership.

Atop this battle sit Wilson and Brown, who are locked in an intense fight for power in the Capitol.

The two men are raising money by the fistful and handing it over to friendly candidates in a dozen or more key Assembly races. The money, almost all of which comes from businesses, labor groups and professional associations with an interest in legislation, is the supply line that feeds and arms the troops at the front.

The governor and the Speaker are both seasoned fund-raisers, each with a style of his own.

Brown prefers the lavish event that allows people to play as they pay--black tie affairs featuring an unlikely mix of live music and political speeches. Earlier this month, for example, the Speaker held a 12th-anniversary gala at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. A thousand donors or more paid $1,200 each for dinner and entertainment.

One Democratic source said that the event was Brown’s most successful ever, taking in well over $1 million. The Speaker has already begun shifting the proceeds to Democratic candidates in hot races that could decide the balance of power in the Assembly.

The governor, on the other hand, is gravitating this year toward smaller gatherings like the dinner party held last month at the Sacramento home of a longtime friend, businessman Ward Connerly. For a donation of $5,000 each, 10 couples sat at dinner with Wilson and his wife, Gayle. Tickets for a larger gathering, scheduled for later this month at the Capitol Club, are a less hefty $1,000.

Both Brown and Wilson also make guest appearances at fund-raisers held by the candidates they are backing. The Speaker, for example, showed up at a $125-per-person cocktail party on behalf of Assemblywoman Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), who faces a tough reelection battle against Republican Jeffrey I. Marston, a former legislator.

Similarly, Wilson was the guest of honor at a $125-each event for Republican Assembly candidate Larry Bowler, who is running against Democrat Katherine L. Albiani in a tight Sacramento-area race.

Wilson is also relying heavily on direct mail to raise money in smaller amounts for legislative candidates and for his ballot initiative, Proposition 165, which would cut welfare benefits and transfer some of the Legislature’s budget powers to the governor.

In one mass mailing targeted at likely donors, Wilson exuded: “We literally have the chance to recapture the Assembly. . . . If we lose this year, we may never get another chance.”

Through mid-October, Wilson had raised $5 million this year for both the ballot initiative and his own campaign committee. Brown had generated only half that--about $2.5 million--directing most of the proceeds to selected Democratic candidates and voter registration. Sizable chunks of the cash go to hire troops for the political wars. The chain of command in these armies is kept deliberately fuzzy, in part to confuse the enemy. But two figures near the top who are known widely to be influential with their bosses are Shumate and Cavala.

Shumate, a rotund, old-style pol who loves to eat and talk, in past years worked as an independent political consultant, managing legislative campaigns for a number of moderate Republicans. Earlier this year, he joined Wilson’s office as a deputy chief of staff but recently left the state payroll to work full time for the Governor Pete Wilson Committee.

Cavala, his Democratic counterpart, is a bookish man with a mysterious aura about him. Known by some as Dr. Cavala because he holds a doctorate in political science from UC Berkeley, he peers out from behind straight dark locks that hang down almost to his eyes, and when he speaks, his voice rarely climbs above a whisper.

Cavala has known Speaker Brown since both were members of a Young Democrats club in the Bay Area in the mid-1960s. Cavala joined his friend’s staff in 1982 and has worked for the Assembly off and on ever since, coordinating political strategy and managing Brown’s effort to redraw the political districts after the 1980 and 1990 censuses.

Rival crews coordinate the Assembly campaigns from offices a few blocks apart, each within a loud holler of the Capitol steps. Intelligence gathered from there is used to help the leaders decide where to deploy more resources and where to pull back because their candidate has no chance to win.

The Democrats are headquartered in a second-floor office sandwiched between a shoe store and a low-cost roast beef joint popular among Capitol staffers. Inside, a sticker on a window reads “Friends don’t let friends vote Republican.”

Ensconced in the boss’s office is Gale Kaufman, who recently left Speaker Brown’s payroll to coordinate the Assembly Democratic effort. She operates with a crew of three full-time employees, all of whom are Assembly staffers on leave from their government duties.

The regulars are reinforced by a reserve brigade of volunteers--legislative employees who flood into the office every day after work to call potential voters throughout Northern California.

Kaufman’s Republican counterpart is Rob Lapsley, a clean-cut Air Force veteran and former Assembly GOP staffer who heads Opportunity ‘92, the coordinating committee for the unified Republican effort to win more legislative seats.

Lapsley’s office, much smaller than the Democratic bunker, is in a building across the street from the Statehouse and above the Capitol’s favorite frozen yogurt shop. His third-floor digs feature a view of the heating and air-conditioning ducts on the roof of the building next door.

Like Kaufman, Lapsley downplays his role.

“This is where we shuffle all the papers,” he says.

There are no phone banks in the Republican office, and there is no space for an army of volunteers to assist Lapsley, a secretary and an intern, plus two representatives who roam the state checking in on the campaigns. Lapsley, in an interview, repeats the oft-heard charge--denied by Democrats--that the majority party’s leaders force their paid staff to volunteer for the campaign effort.

“We think that’s wrong,” Lapsley says. “We think it’s heavy-handed to make it mandatory.”

At least two Republican candidates--incumbent Dean Andal in the 17th District and Larry Bowler in the 10th--have sent mailers to voters describing themselves as “Willie Brown’s worst nightmare.” Another candidate, W. Brad Parton in the 53rd District in Los Angeles County, has sought to link his opponent, Debra Bowen, to Brown because both are attorneys.

“Willie Brown doesn’t think we have enough lawyers in the state Legislature,” says a Parton mailer, “so he’s trying to send us one more.” Parton, the piece says, can help dislodge Brown from “his throne in the Assembly chambers,” bringing an end to his “iron-fisted rule.”

From her headquarters, Democrat Kaufman brushed off the attacks, saying Republicans have tried and failed to tie Democratic candidates to Brown many times in the past. But she acknowledged that the attacks this year seemed especially “voracious.”

She added: “This year, with Democrats looking particularly strong and the Republicans not able to use the top of their own ticket, it’s not surprising they’d have a number of candidates running against Willie Brown. They’re trying to make the issue something other than their own record.”

With many of the races coming down to the wire, strategists for both sides express confidence that their candidates will do well on Election Day. The bravado is part of the psychological warfare that affects the morale of those in the trenches and helps party leaders raise more funds by making every race appear winnable.

“All the signs point to the fact that people are ready to make a change,” Lapsley said.

Kaufman acknowledged that the “targeted races” are targeted for a reason--because the candidates are considered vulnerable. But she wouldn’t talk about specific districts or make any predictions.

“I can’t say we’re feeling cocky,” she said. “But we’re fairly confident in every race we’re in.”