Bergeson Expected to Get Schools Chief Nomination : Education: Wilson reportedly chooses Republican senator to replace Honig. Speaker Brown may be barrier.

Gov. Pete Wilson intends to appoint Republican state Sen. Marian Bergeson--a former Orange County kindergarten teacher considered among the Legislature’s most astute education experts--to replace Bill Honig as California’s superintendent of public instruction, an informed legislative source said Monday.

Bergeson, 67, a conservative Newport Beach lawmaker who was the unsuccessful GOP nominee for lieutenant governor in 1990, is expected to be named by Wilson during a news conference today at an elementary school in a Sacramento suburb.

Her nomination will trigger what could become a drawn-out and contentious confirmation process in the Democrat-dominated Legislature, where Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has vowed that he would not stand for the appointment of a Republican. But many state lawmakers assess that Bergeson has the best chance among the short list of finalists--including Republican state Sen. Rebecca Morgan of Los Altos--of surviving the process.

Bergeson’s prospects for confirmation to the $102,000-a-year job are strong partly because she has built solid working relationships with many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Also, many Democrats believe that she would be a weak candidate if she ran for office in her own right in 1994.

She comes from a similar background to Wilson’s other hand-picked education expert--Maureen DiMarco, the Administration’s education secretary, who also was a finalist for the schools chief post. Like DiMarco, Bergeson is a former Orange County school board member and was president of the California School Boards Assn.

The governor’s office, wanting Wilson to deliver the news himself, clamped down information about the appointment, even refusing to confirm that today’s news conference was for the purpose of announcing the new superintendent.

Bergeson also declined to answer questions about the nomination or confirm that she is Wilson’s choice. But a source in the Legislature said Wilson offered the job to Bergeson on Monday morning and she accepted. Wilson and Bergeson met in his office Monday afternoon.

One of the other leading candidates for the job, Morgan, said late Monday that she had heard nothing from the governor or his aides but was assuming that Bergeson had secured the appointment.

“I’m a little disappointed to hear it via the grapevine,” Morgan said. Still, the Silicon Valley lawmaker pledged not to run for the office against Bergeson in 1994. “I won’t take on a governor’s appointee,” she said.

First, however, Bergeson must secure confirmation from the Legislature--and looming in the way is Brown, the powerful Assembly Speaker who has had his share of conflicts--some political, some personal--with the state senator.

In 1980, she was one of just four Republicans in the Assembly who did not side with Brown in his run for the speakership. A few years later, she was one of few outspoken opponents of the move, strongly backed by Brown, to force the state pension funds to drop their investments in companies that did business with South Africa. She called the pressure for divestment an “emotional issue” and said the strategy was “fiscally unsound.”

Bergeson had a well-publicized confrontation with Brown on the Assembly floor in 1987 over a bill authorizing the state to contract with private engineers for highway planning work. Brown shouted at Bergeson, then, as he turned to walk away, Bergeson grabbed him by the arm and appeared to lecture him. Her stock immediately rose in the Capitol.

Brown appeared Monday to be softening somewhat on the nomination. Although the Speaker vowed that he would not vote for a Republican, Brown stopped short of saying he would oppose Bergeson and try to block her confirmation by the Assembly.

He also theorized that Bergeson might have a better chance than Morgan in the Assembly because she is more conservative and therefore House Republicans would work harder for her confirmation. He also indicated that some Democrats may find it more difficult to vote against a woman.

On the Senate side, she should have an easier go of it. Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) declined to speculate on Bergeson’s chances of confirmation, but said she is “a very capable woman” for whom he has “high regard.”

It was unclear Monday what tipped the decision in favor of Bergeson.

In Bergeson, Wilson has found a conservative with strong ties to education but not one who has always supported increased funding for the public schools.

Politically, there are some who question whether Bergeson has the stomach to run a tough race against at least one heavily funded Democratic opponent. The officially nonpartisan primary race in June, 1994, is expected to pit Bergeson against Democratic state Sen. Gary K. Hart of Santa Barbara and Democratic Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin of Union City.

In her only statewide race, Bergeson in 1990 bested a Wilson ally, then-state Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim, to win the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, then lost handily to incumbent Democrat Leo T. McCarthy in the fall. She got 42% of the vote.

A California Journal survey of legislators, lobbyists, staff and reporters ranked her the Republican senator with the highest integrity, behind three Democrats.

Honig was stripped of his office after conviction by a jury Jan. 29 of four counts of felony conflict of interest.