Sen. Roberti Says He Plans Bid to Succeed Brown as State Treasurer : Politics: Senate president pro tem says his budgetary experience qualifies him to be state’s fiscal watchdog. He is the first legislator forced to leave office by term limits.

Capping weeks of speculation, state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti on Thursday announced that he intends to run for state treasurer, casting himself as a new-style Democrat who seeks to “downsize” government.

Roberti, a political powerhouse and a proven fund-raiser, is likely to be a major contender to succeed Kathleen Brown, who is expected to run for governor.

The Van Nuys senator, the first legislator to be tossed out of office by Proposition 140’s voter-mandated term limits, said he weighed several options, including running for Los Angeles County supervisor, running for secretary of state or retiring from public life.

Ultimately, he set his sights on the state treasurer’s office, he said, because he believes his experience helping balance the state budget prepared him for the role of California’s fiscal watchdog.

“I think anybody who’s being honest cannot have gone through those wrenching experiences without being in some way a changed person,” Roberti said at a news conference. “Gradually, it came to me that you can . . . have a decent, compassionate, reasonable, responsive government and still downsize--or, as I like to say, right-size--government.”

If he formally announces that he is running--a move he said he cannot do until Brown makes her gubernatorial candidacy official--Roberti will join two other early candidates--Phil Angelides, the former Democratic Party state chairman, and Republican Matt Fong, an appointed member of the State Board of Equalization.

Roberti, who just returned from a trip to New York City where he said he raised about $40,000, plans to begin hitting the campaign trail as soon as he returns from a 10-day vacation to Italy. His visit to the East Coast, he said, included conferring with bond houses that might seek to do business with the state treasurer’s office.

Asked if bond house officials were among those contributing to his campaign chest, Roberti said: “It was a mixture of people attending the fund-raiser. . . . You have to put your own internal limits (on such contributions). I have over the years raised little money from bond houses.”

According to a secretary of state’s report, Roberti raised more money during the first six months of this year--$258,232--than any senator who was not gearing up for a special election. He can use that money for a run for statewide office.

The senator’s impending departure from the Legislature marks the end of an era in which he and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) ruled their respective houses starting the same day in December, 1980.

Roberti, for 13 years the majority leader of the Legislature’s upper chamber, said he will hold onto his leadership position at least until January. An early favorite to succeed Roberti is Sen. Bill Lockyear (D-Hayward).

In recent months, Roberti has maintained a high profile in his home district by carrying the torch for the movement to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District, and has aggressively--albeit so far unsuccessfully--pushed legislation to split up the district to improve its performance.

Even as he steps up campaigning, Roberti said, he will charge forward with his efforts to engineer the breakup, an issue that has electrified constituents in the San Fernando Valley.

“My fight, for example, to downsize the Los Angeles Unified School District is consistent with my battle for California state treasurer,” Roberti said. “If there’s any one example of bloated government, it’s this one.”

As treasurer, Roberti said, his main goals would be to protect “the bonding capacity of the state and the viability of public pensions. Those things are second to none.”

“I think Democrats make a mistake if they believe that the Democratic voters--less than the Republicans or independents--don’t care about bloated government, duplicative government, inefficient government or government that wastes money,” he said.

Angelides, who has raised more than $1 million of the $3 million he expects to spend in the race, said the prospect of a Roberti candidacy does not faze him. He said he stresses to voters and contributors the advantage of supporting someone who has never held public office.

“I’m running for very clear reasons,” Angelides said. “It’s time for the state of California to have new blood and a fresh start.”

Fong said he believes Roberti would not have sought the treasurer’s office had he not been forced out by Proposition 140, which requires legislators to leave after two terms. Fong credited the term limit measure for “getting another career politician out.”

“Under his watch, taxes have gone up and the state has run out of money. So I frankly don’t know what record he’s going to run on,” Fong said.

Fong raised $203,902 in the first six months of 1993, the secretary of state’s office reported.

Profile: David A. Roberti

* Born: May 4, 1939

* Residence: Los Angeles

* Education: B.A. in political science from Loyola University; law degree from USC.

* Career highlights: Senate president pro tem since 1980; state senator since 1971; Assembly member from 1966 to 1971; deputy attorney general 1965-1966; lawyer.

* Family : Married to June Roberti.

* Quote: “I believe passionately in all those things that brought me into office in the first place, but I believe that the only way you can keep the system true to our beliefs is to maintain a strong fiscal foundation.”