State’s Lawmakers Went Right to Top to Save Bases : Congress: Legislators say they bombarded President with appeals to consider California’s economic plight.

After hearing the stunning news a week ago that nine California military bases were on the Pentagon’s hit list, leaders of the state’s congressional delegation mapped out a simple, direct strategy: Go straight to the top.

California legislators bombarded President Clinton and his Cabinet over a four-day period with numerous appeals to consider the state’s unemployment woes before creating another economic disaster.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and three prominent House members confronted Clinton about the proposed base closure list on Wednesday after a White House meeting to discuss the spotted owl. “We grabbed him with the vice president for 20 minutes of intense, in-your-face conversation,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento).

The aggressive tactics ultimately led Defense Secretary Les Aspin to remove three California bases, including the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, from the Defense Department’s base closure list, according to Administration and congressional sources.

Without personally reviewing the final list, Clinton instructed the Defense Department brass to respond in some fashion to the lobbying effort by California lawmakers, according to two Pentagon sources.

The withdrawal of the California bases from the list was a shot in the arm for a state delegation often criticized for failing to use the unified clout of its 54 members--the largest delegation in U.S. history--to protect the state’s interests.

Yet all the revisions announced Friday represented a mixed bag for California. About 30,000 jobs were saved by the alignments, but two other bases were put on the chopping block--the Naval Training Center in San Diego and the Alameda Naval Aviation Depot.

By contrast, Texas had only one base on the list, compared to eight in California.

The opening round of what promises to be a months-long struggle over base closings ended Friday with some clear winners and losers within California.

Congressional leaders were stunned that five bases were targeted in the district of Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Oakland), the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Earlier in the week, Dellums told a visiting delegation of California state lawmakers that he was trying to keep some bases off the list on strategic grounds.

“Ron really got hit politically by the armed services,” said one California Democrat, who asked not to be identified. “I just don’t understand it.”

Although Dellums has made a career of attacking military spending, the source noted, he is now in one of the key positions in the country to influence Pentagon budgets.

Several congressional sources suggested that the military was “playing politics” by targeting so many bases in the San Francisco Bay Area, an area represented by liberal lawmakers. Others said that the region was treated harshly because Aspin did not want to reward bases in the back yard of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Boxer, formerly a Marin Congresswoman, was among a small group of prominent House Democrats who challenged Aspin’s reappointment in 1985 as chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Nevertheless, in their biggest test so far, Boxer and Feinstein showed that their campaign promises to work as a team for the state could pay dividends. The senators each delivered personal pitches to Clinton and Aspin, and they spoke out on the Senate floor to protect California bases.

Clinton was approached on three occasions this week by Californians to discuss the base closures--by Boxer in a budget meeting; by Feinstein, Fazio, Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) and Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) following the spotted owl meeting, and by state legislators in an hourlong meeting at the White House.

Both senators said they were told Friday by Clinton Chief of Staff Thomas (Mack) McLarty that the President had heard the Californians’ requests “loud and clear” and that he hoped they were pleased with the revisions to the list.

A senior White House official confirmed that California Democrats led by Feinstein persuaded the Administration that the state was being forced to bear a disproportionate share of military job losses. “People realized they were making a pretty forceful argument,” the official said.

The California politicians who stand to gain the most from Friday’s announcement are Fazio and Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), who helped raise millions of dollars for the Democratic Party and Clinton’s election campaign. They succeeded in saving McClellan Air Force, which employs more than 16,000 workers in and around their Sacramento districts.

The district of former Congressman Leon E. Panetta, now Clinton’s budget director, also was spared from losing the Defense Language Institute at the Army’s Monterey Presidio.

First-year Reps. Steve Horn (R-Long Beach) and Jane Harman (D-Marina Del Rey), a member of the Armed Services Committee, led a coalition of Los Angeles-area representatives who worked to get the Long Beach Naval Shipyard removed from the list.

The delegation’s lobbying effort was launched last Sunday when the initial base closure list was first disclosed.

Feinstein said she had a case of “acid indigestion” when she first learned of the cuts because Defense Department officials had informed her that California would not be hit as hard as in past years, when 17 of the state’s bases were chosen for closure. Feinstein appeared on CNN to denounce the heavy impact on California and vowed to fight for changes.

That same day, a group of 58 California Assembly members and state senators arrived coincidentally in Washington for a three-day visit to press for federal funding to pay for immigrant, health and defense conversion programs. Normally, the delegation travels to Washington in the springtime when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and spends time getting reacquainted with old friends.

But this year they came a month early to discuss the formulation of Clinton’s budget. Their mission, however, quickly changed.

At a Monday conference, Fazio exhorted the state legislators to argue against the base closures in their meetings with Clinton and his top Cabinet officers.

“I hope as you travel around this week you will be very tough on all the people you talk to,” Fazio told the state legislators. “There’s no way we can help our economy by sitting back and watching these cuts go into effect without protesting.”

Times staff writer John M. Broder contributed to this story.