Delegation Learns Togetherness

It looks like 1993 is shaping up as the Year of the Confab for the California congressional delegation.

After years of refusing to meet face to face as a group, the state’s Democratic and Republican members suddenly have begun sitting down regularly to discuss issues of importance to California.

To the average voter, getting their elected representatives in Washington to gather around the same table and plot strategy on how to snatch federal goodies for California might seem as easy--and as common--as attracting flies to a picnic.

But it has not been so simple for California’s legislators, who long have been derided for letting ideological differences and partisan bickering stymie the potential clout of the largest House delegation--now 52 members--in U.S. history. For years, the acrimony between the state’s Democrats and Republicans was so intense that some members did not speak to one another, much less meet.

All that is changing now.

The most recent effort to bring together the state’s congressional delegation began last fall when the California Institute, a nonprofit Washington-based research group, revealed plans to sponsor monthly meetings beginning this year. The announcement was embraced by House incumbents and hailed widely as a critical step in healing the notoriously divided delegation.

As it turns out, the California Institute has yet to call its first gathering, primarily because so many other plans for bipartisan conferences are in the works.

Most of the delegation attended breakfast last week with Gov. Pete Wilson to discuss immigrant aid. The gathering was billed as the first of a series of regular sessions to be held by Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose) and Rep. Carlos Moorhead (R-Glendale), deans of the California delegation.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced that she will host monthly meetings of the delegation beginning this month. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) last week convened the first meeting of her “bipartisan unity working group,” consisting of members from Northern and Southern California.

In addition, the two senators and 33 House members have joined the California Task Force on Defense Re-Investment and Economic Development, which plans to hold regular meetings.

How to explain the new cooperative spirit?

California lawmakers suggest that it is due in part to the infusion of 19 newcomers--Boxer, Feinstein and 17 freshmen House members--in the delegation. These newcomers may be determined not to let partisan differences create friction the way their predecessors often did.

“Now we have two senators working together,” said Boxer, noting that for much of the past quarter-century the state sent a Democrat and a Republican to the Senate.

As a consequence of all this goodwill, the California Institute is reconsidering the need to sponsor the regular meetings it once planned for California lawmakers, said Executive Director Janet A. Denton. “If they decide they can get more done in a private atmosphere with the safety of members only, that’s great,” Denton said.

Some California lawmakers remain skeptical about the “meeting fever” that has swept the delegation. They said other large state delegations that are recognized for their bipartisan effectiveness, notably Texas and Pennsylvania, meet only on an as-needed basis.

“They can go to all the meetings they want,” said one top Democratic aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Unless they can really deliver and get something accomplished, the meetings won’t mean anything.”

Moreover, with Democrats controlling Congress and the White House, some California lawmakers would prefer to bypass Republicans altogether. Recently, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) asked only fellow Democrats to sign a letter urging President Clinton to appoint a Californian to a commission studying military base closures.

Some prominent Democrats also are wary that although Republicans are on board for the moment, they may jump ship when it comes time to pay for programs.

Even some of the delegation leaders recognize that they must produce tangible results for the meetings to be considered worthwhile.

The delegation is counting on flexing its congressional muscle to bring home up to $1.5 billion for immigrant services, land an accounting center at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino County and create thousands of jobs for unemployed aerospace and defense workers.

“Joe Six Pack is not all that stupid,” said Rep. George E. Brown (D-San Bernardino). “He is not going to believe that something has happened until the California economy turns around, the unemployment rate goes down and he begins to see some sign of economic growth and leadership in California.”