Hart Says He’ll Leave State Senate in ‘94, End Schools Chief Bid

Saying he needs more time with his family, State Sen. Gary K. Hart announced Monday he will quit his Senate seat in 1994 and give up his campaign for the high-profile job of California superintendent of public instruction.

“At the end of 1994, I will have completed 20 years of legislative service and it will be time for me to move on to other pursuits,” the Santa Barbara Democrat said in a statement issued by his office. “This early announcement will give other prospective candidates an opportunity to make plans and will allow me to concentrate in the next 18 months on legislative concerns.”

Hart, the 49-year-old chairman of the Senate Education Committee, has not settled on career plans after 1994, but probably will work in government, education or teaching, his statement said.

Hart, whose Senate district stretches from Santa Barbara to Ventura, could not be reached for comment on his plan to leave the Legislature and the schools chief race.

Joe Caves, Hart’s campaign manager, said Monday, “I think raising money for a major campaign creates a conflict.

“To run statewide takes several million dollars, and that means you have to spend a long period of time at it,” Caves said. “And on top of your schedule as a legislator, if in addition you have to travel to Los Angeles and the Bay Area whenever you have a free day, and if every extra hour you have has to be spent on the phone raising money and talking to potential contributors and supporters, that places a pretty severe burden on anybody.”

Hart’s statement addressed the issue this way: “I have spent the better part of the last three months soliciting support from around the state. Although the response has been encouraging, the amount of time away from my family has been enormous and the prospect of being an absent father over the next 1 1/2 years with three school-age children is too high a price to pay.”

Word of Hart’s plan to leave the race, and ultimately the Legislature, surprised friends and opponents who had considered him the likely front-runner in the race for the schools chief job.

“He was my candidate for superintendent,” Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Van Nuys) said. “I’m very disappointed. Gary Hart is too fine a public servant not to have working for the people of California.”

Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) said he will miss Hart both personally and professionally.

“It’ll be 20 years when his term ends, and he’s helped me from Day One,” O’Connell said Monday afternoon. “I know how important the (job of) superintendent for public instruction was, and to not have Sen. Hart vying for that position is I think a loss for our students in our state. I’m still grappling with his announcement. . . . Our state school system will suffer. He’s the best of the best.”

O’Connell is expected to be a candidate for Hart’s Senate seat. He declined, however, to discuss his own political future Monday.

One longtime schools lobbyist called Hart’s decisions to bow out of the races for the schools superintendent post and reelection “very sad.”

“You talk about time spent in the vineyard, Gary Hart has been a man that’s committed to public schools, committed to quality standards, committed to diversity,” lobbyist John Mockler said. “I mean, he’s always been there on the tough issues, and he’s always had the strength at times to attack the establishment properly.”

Mockler cited Hart’s authorship of controversial legislation opening the way for charter schools, which allows groups of teachers and parents to create new taxpayer-financed schools that operate free of most state and local controls.

Several districts have already applied for charter petitions.

The law was meant to counteract a June, 1994, ballot measure that would establish a voucher system so parents can use public schools tax money to pay for their children’s private school educations.

Hart has also won respect as the architect of progressive legislation, such as a bill allowing high schools to expel a student for sexually harassing a classmate. The law took effect in January.

Hart’s departure from the schools chief race “makes the likelihood that I’ll run much more clear,” said Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont), who will very likely become the leading Democratic candidate. “It does make the job of running easier.”

Eastin added: “I hope he will remain involved in public policy. He has made a lot of contributions to schools and schoolchildren. His decision not to run for this job is a loss.”