McKeon Squelches Rumors He’s Gunning for the Governor

GOVERNOR MCKEON? Freshman Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) says that he has been approached by some conservative Republicans about mounting a challenge to Gov. Pete Wilson in next year’s Republican primary.

McKeon, a successful businessman and former Santa Clarita mayor, insists he has no interest in making an insurgent bid. But he acknowledged that the rumors in GOP circles had become so pervasive that he felt compelled to assure Wilson at a campaign fund-raiser in Lancaster last month that he would not be a candidate.

“I told him I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to run for governor,” McKeon said. “He said, ‘Don’t let my wife hear you say that.’ ”

McKeon said that in his remarks to those assembled at the event he made it clear that he was backing Wilson for a second term.

But he said, “There are some conservatives who are looking for an alternative. Some of them are unhappy with the governor, with some of the positions he took on taxes, for instance. Some of them are just looking at his numbers; they just felt it was going to be a very detrimental race for the Republican Party in the state and they wanted someone else to carry the banner.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich is another Republican who has been approached by anti-Wilson conservatives and has declined to run, an Antonovich aide confirmed.

For his part, McKeon said he was committed to continuing in his role as president of the House freshmen Republican class and “working for some of the goals we have set.”

McKeon said that one of those who encouraged him to run was Jim Dignan, a former state GOP chairman who now heads a coalition of conservative groups. In an interview, Dignan said that he had called to query McKeon after he heard his name mentioned as a potential candidate.

“With his business background, I, for one, thought he was very well qualified,” Dignan said. “At the time, the general impression I got was that he was interested but that he was not interested in running against Pete Wilson.”

*

COMMISSIONER MARGOLIN? Assemblyman Burt M. Margolin (D-Los Angeles), who represented part of the San Fernando Valley until last year, says that he is weighing a bid for state insurance commissioner next year.

“I’m seriously considering it,” Margolin said this week. “I’ve specialized in insurance reform issues in the Legislature. I’ve been a strong consumer advocate in my tenure. I believe the insurance commissioner can make a difference.”

Margolin, a legislator since 1982, has been active on the insurance front as chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee. A protege of Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), he is a respected liberal lawmaker who has expressed interest in running for Congress in the past.

He will have to leave his current office in 1996 under the California term limits law.

At this point, the only other prominent figure publicly considering the race is State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles). John Garamendi, the state’s first elected insurance chief, has said that he will seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year.

Also considering a statewide race is Alameda County Supervisor Don Perata, a former aide to Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City). Perata, who maintains close ties to Berman and his brother, political consultant Michael Berman, is looking at the office of controller, an aide said. Controller Gray Davis has indicated that he will run for lieutenant governor in 1994.

*

POLITICAL SECURITY: When it comes to fighting crime, there is a sharp contrast between the way legislators have moved to protect themselves and the way they bottled up a bill to combat rising school violence.

Mounting school violence has been a hot topic in the Capitol because of such fatal shootings as one earlier this year at Reseda High School. As a consequence, Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) pushed a measure to levy a surcharge on parking tickets to raise funds to counter rising campus violence. But when lawmakers went home for the year last Saturday morning, the measure remained shelved by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

When their own security was at stake, however, lawmakers acted quite differently. Indeed, legislation by Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) coasted through the Legislature, winning final passage on a 33-0 vote in the Senate before heading for Gov. Wilson’s desk.

Under current law, legislators are prohibited from spending campaign funds to purchase such personal items as security systems to ward off burglars. But the Rosenthal proposal would allow lawmakers to arm themselves with an added degree of protection. It would permit a legislator or political candidate whose safety is threatened to spend up to $5,000 on a security system.

It’s not the first time security issues arose this year in the Legislature.

Citing the need for extra protection in her district, Hughes was authorized to use taxpayer funds to hire an off-duty Los Angles police sergeant to accompany her on legislative business at night and on weekends. And it was disclosed that Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) had previously installed security systems at state expense in homes in Los Angeles and Sacramento.

*

NO WAY OUT: It looks like Assemblyman Pat Nolan, indicted on political corruption charges, will have to juggle an even busier than usual schedule during the 1994 campaign. The veteran Glendale Republican plans to seek reelection in his 41st district that encompasses Burbank. But Nolan will be spending far more of his time than he would like away from the campaign stump and in a Sacramento courtroom.

On Monday, Federal District Court Judge Edward J. Garcia tentatively set next March 14 for the trial of Nolan, Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier) and former Democratic legislative aide Terry E. Frost, who in 1988 were ensnared in an elaborate FBI sting. Nolan was charged with six counts of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and money laundering.

The lawmaker’s lawyers and federal prosecutors told Garcia that the trial would probably last between four and six weeks, ending just about a month before the June GOP primary.

Nolan, who would have preferred a trial this fall, complained about the timing, saying “I’m frustrated that the thing has dragged on so long and will now drag on into the beginning of the next campaign.”

Nolan predicted that the trial would clear him of the charges, giving the lawmaker more than a month to hit the campaign trail and tell voters “how unfair this whole thing has been.”

This column was written by Times staff writers Alan C. Miller in Washington, D.C., and Mark Gladstone in Sacramento.