Bergeson Rejected for Schools Post : Education: Assembly defeats Newport Beach Republican’s nomination to succeed Honig as state superintendent. Vote is a victory for Speaker Brown.

After a rancorous two-hour debate, the Assembly Thursday rejected Gov. Pete Wilson’s nomination of Republican Sen. Marian Bergeson as state superintendent of public instruction to replace Bill Honig, a Democrat.

The decision was a major victory for Speaker Willie Brown, who had steadfastly opposed the nomination and whose relationship with the Newport Beach Republican has been spiked with personal animosity.

Bergeson was only able to muster 34 votes, seven short of the 41 required for approval. Thirty-one Republicans and three Democrats voted for her, while all 41 votes against her came from Democrats.

Among the issues Democrats cited in arguing against Bergeson were her support of the governor’s proposed budget last year, which would have cut state school aid, and her lack of support for bilingual education. Brown claimed she had a religious agenda for the schools.

Wilson, attending a border governors conference in Mexico, released a statement castigating Brown, accusing him of using “pressure and partisan tactics” to scuttle Bergeson’s nomination.

“As much as I would like to believe that the spirit of bipartisan cooperation exists in the Assembly Democratic caucus, their votes today . . . provide instead evidence of their slavish submission to the partisan will of the Speaker,” the governor said.

A top Wilson aide said the governor would renew his search for a superintendent as soon as he returns today.

“We will start the process over,” Wilson’s press secretary, Daniel Schnur, said. “We will find the second most qualified person in California to be superintendent of public instruction and nominate that person. And if that person is a Republican, we will hope for a greater degree of independence from the Democratic members of the Assembly.”

Wilson could choose the other state senator high on his list--Republican Rebecca Morgan of Los Altos Hills. But Morgan would face hurdles of her own. Like Bergeson, she supported Wilson’s education budget last year. And Democrats might be reluctant to confirm her because she would be regarded as a tough candidate to unseat in 1994, when Honig’s term expires.

And if Bergeson and Morgan are vulnerable because they supported Wilson’s budget, it would appear to bode ill for another possible choice, Secretary of Child Development and Education Maureen DiMarco, who was the governor’s principal adviser as he drafted the education budget.

*

The governor also could go outside the mainstream political world and choose an academic, a local school board member or a superintendent for the job. Some advisers have suggested that he choose a conservative African-American educator in an effort to put Brown on the spot.

Finally, Wilson could select a caretaker, someone who would take the job but agree not to run for reelection. One remote possibility might be Democratic state Sen. Gary K. Hart of Santa Barbara, who was on the verge of running for the job but backed out last week.

Brown said after the vote that he did not know whether there was a Republican legislator acceptable to him. In the past he has said he would oppose any Republican nominated for the job.

During Thursday’s debate, the Speaker said it was the governor who injected partisanship into the confirmation process.

“Tell me who is the partisan?” said Brown, his voice rising. He said the governor organized a telephone campaign to contact Democrats urging them to vote for Bergeson. “Only one person did that, Gov. Wilson.”

Assembly Democratic leader Tom Hannigan of Fairfield led Thursday’s opposition to Bergeson, charging that her past voting record showed she wouldn’t fight hard enough for more state school aid or for the education of minority students.

Hannigan said he questioned Bergeson about this when she appeared before his Assembly committee, which earlier this week voted against her nomination. Her response was, “ ‘That was then and this is now. I will fulfill my new mandate,’ ” Hannigan said.

“As an honorable person, I believe she would try to do just that,” the Democratic leader added, “but conversely, as an honorable person, how can she change the life-long convictions upon which many of her votes have been based?”

*

Assembly Republican leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga served as Bergeson’s leading proponent. “This woman has impeccable credentials to serve as state superintendent of public instruction. She understands education from the bottom up and top down.

“But something ugly has happened. Extreme partisanship is an evil that infects too many people in this house. Marian Bergeson is for the 3 Rs, but she has a problem with another R--she is a Republican.”

Assemblywoman Kathleen Honeycutt (R-Hesperia) accused Democrats of embarking on a “legislative lynching.”

“The choice is pretty clear, politics or public policy,” Honeycutt told the Assembly. “This is turning into a legislative lynching. The year of the woman? Apparently, this is only the year of the Democratic woman.”

Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) voiced similar feelings, suggesting that Democrats took pains to “pick apart a most wonderful reputation of a woman who cares about children.”

Another Orange County lawmaker, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), also chastised Democrats. “You had no right to castigate her record,” Ferguson said. “She has a record that not a soul in this chamber could match.”

Later, a top Brown lieutenant, Assemblyman John L. Burton (D-San Francisco), shot back at the pair, noting that Allen and Ferguson would probably have sought Bergeson’s Senate seat had she ascended to the school post.

“I find it interesting that the two speakers from Orange County who rose for Mrs. Bergeson plan to seek her office,” Burton observed drolly. “That would certainly be one of the added benefits for the Republicans.”

*

A former teacher and school board member, Bergeson, 67, was seeking to become the first woman to serve as state schools chief, replacing Honig who was forced to step down when he was convicted of four felony conflict-of-interest charges.

She was in the Assembly chambers for the initial part of the debate on her nomination but left before it was over. After the Assembly vote, she remained unruffled, but was critical of the Democrats.

She said Brown and others “horribly distorted” her record by plucking out certain issues, taking others out of context and ignoring numerous instances when she supported education.

Bergeson said she was particularly bothered that Democrats suggested she was insensitive to minority students and that they twisted her religious beliefs. During 14 years in Sacramento, Bergeson said, she has never pushed for prayer in schools and has steadfastly advocated a separation of church and state.

“I think the battle lines were drawn early on when Willie said the superintendent’s job wasn’t going to go to a Republican,” she said. “From that point on, the scenario was that they had to build a justification for opposing me.”

Although Brown may not have personally pushed individual legislators to vote against her, she said, he deployed his top lieutenants and used the power of political action committees that are close to him, such as the influential California Teachers Assn., to keep Democrats in line.

Bergeson also said she was bothered that many of the Assembly’s large class of Democratic freshmen, who were elected in November on a vow of independence from traditional Sacramento power brokers, proved to be “the least independent. They were misled by the slogans and the rhetoric.”

In the end, Bergeson said, the defeat hinged less on her merits than on plain and simple partisan politics.

“I think this whole thing came down to power. Raw power,” she said. “They were afraid of having a Republican education leader. They’re looking to the ’94 election. Education is the No. 1 issue in the state and it would have been pretty difficult for the Democrats to give up the superintendent’s job.”

Bergeson said she hopes that Gov. Pete Wilson will come forward quickly with another nominee because the state’s education system “is rudderless right now.”

“Until you have someone in the superintendent’s job, the kids won’t have an advocate,” she added.

*

She discounted the idea that her sometimes frosty relationship with Brown had affected her chances. But it certainly didn’t help. In 1980, she was one of just four Republicans in the Assembly who did not side with Brown in his run for the speakership.

Bergeson, first elected to the Senate in 1984, 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. She then marched over to the Senate, pulled up one of Brown’s bills and killed it.

The three Democrats who broke ranks and voted for Bergeson were Assemblyman Tom Umberg of Garden Grove, Phillip Isenberg of Sacramento and Jim Costa of Fresno.

Umberg, who has been lobbied hard from all sides in recent days, said he ultimately decided to support Bergeson because of their shared political roots in Orange County and a belief she was the best nominee Democrats could hope to get from Gov. Pete Wilson.

“There are all kinds of risks in this job,” Umberg said. “I had to take everything into consideration--her qualifications, her record--both pro and con--and then had to assess what was best for kids I represent in Orange County. And it was my belief, given the people the governor may nominate, that Marian was qualified.”

Umberg said his vote irked several of his Democratic colleagues. “When you’re not with the team, it sometimes makes things a little rough,” he said. “Several people asked me why. It was a very intense caucus.”

Isenberg said he was swayed by his longtime working relationship with Bergeson.

“I worked with her for 11 years,” Isenberg said. “I like her and I respect her. That’s why I voted for her.”

Costa said: “I could see no compelling reason to vote against her.”

Times staff writer Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this story.