Politically Perilous Times for Safety Panel : Legislature: Group seems to be heeding public demand for anti-crime laws. O.C. member sees that as a ‘positive.’

It was a political lynching on drive-time radio. One recent afternoon, talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of KFI-AM in Los Angeles were whipping up their Southland audience with discussion of the tragic murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

The chief problem, they growled, was the feloniously lenient Assembly Public Safety Committee, a traditional killing field for tough anti-crime proposals. Among their targets--Orange County Assemblyman Tom Umberg, a moderate Democrat on the crime committee.

Never mind that Umberg, a former federal prosecutor eyeing a run for state attorney general, considers himself one of the good guys on the panel. Never mind that he typically votes tough on crime. “The blood of Polly Klaas” is on the hands of the assemblyman and his peers, the talk show hosts concluded, wondering aloud how Umberg might feel if a similar tragedy befell his family.

Unfortunately, not every listener distinguished rhetorical overkill from reality. In the hours that followed, Umberg received several death threats.

Such overt forms of intimidation aside, these remain politically perilous times for the Assembly Public Safety Committee. With voter anger over the state’s unflagging crime problems continuing to soar, the committee has become a bull’s-eye for scorn.

Victims’ rights groups are shouting long-simmering gripes. Newspaper columnists and editorial writers are bludgeoning the committee in print. Republicans in the Capitol are having a field day. Still more criticism is likely to come during Gov. Pete Wilson’s two-day “crime summit,” which is scheduled for early next month.

Bruised by the attacks and wary of alienating voters in an election year, the Assembly Public Safety Committee now appears to be steering a new course. Newly reconstituted with two Republicans and three moderate Democrats to offset a trio of liberals, the eight-member committee has acted in recent days to approve the first of what could be a bumper crop of law-and-order legislation made to order for the campaign trail.

“We’re getting bills out I never thought we’d get out,” said Assemblyman Richard K. Rainey (R-Walnut Creek), a former Contra Costa County sheriff and current committee member. “It’s definitely a different year.”

Among the legislation that has moved out of committee in the first weeks of session is a Rainey bill making it a felony for convicted sex offenders to avoid registering with police and another once-stalled Republican measure toughening the state’s pornography laws. Most notably, the panel approved several different versions of the headline-grabbing “three strikes, you’re out” proposal, which would put repeat felons behind bars for life. Last year, the idea was waylaid in the committee.

Even as the GOP celebrates newfound successes, most predict it won’t last long. Once public attention turns away from crime, the committee will revert to its old ways, Republicans predict.

“We’ve got to strike while the iron is hot,” Rainey concluded. “As soon as the heat is off, they’ll go back to the way they were.”

Democrats like Umberg (D-Garden Grove) aren’t so sure. “This firestorm has caused the Legislature to refocus and has hopefully changed some attitudes,” he said. “In my view, that’s a positive.”

Others see the furor ignited in the aftermath of the Klaas case more as the sort of mob mentality that won’t produce intelligent, reasoned laws.

“Right now it’s like everyone is just piling on, trying to dream up the most Draconian proposal they can,” said Assemblyman Tom Bates (D-Berkeley), a liberal on the safety committee who has continued to oppose many of the anti-crime measures. “People need to understand that we’ve made our sentencing laws in California the toughest in the world and it simply has not worked. It hasn’t made us safer.”

Such sentiments have helped drive the actions of the Assembly Public Safety Committee for roughly a quarter century. The panel has long been considered a cemetery for legislation the Democratic majority deemed reactionary or unconstitutional--everything from measures to strengthen the death penalty to bills that would relax controls on firearms.

The committee’s actions have been oriented as much toward politics as policy, insiders say. By killing bills before they reached the Assembly floor, the panel has protected Democratic members--particularly those in vulnerable districts--from having to cast politically damaging votes Republicans might use against them on Election Day.

Former staffers, both Democrats and Republicans alike, today say the panel often did a service by killing half-baked legislation whipped up by lawmakers out to appear tough on crime. But the committee also snared a few good ideas, some contend, particularly from the GOP.

“Reason did not always prevail,” said Judge Gary Mullen, who was appointed to the Sacramento County Superior Court in 1990 after staff stints with the state Senate and California District Attorneys Assn. “Historically, the committee has been absolutely stacked, in some years to such a degree that it’s essentially been controlled by the (American Civil Liberties Union) and the criminal defense bar. Even moderate legislation was killed.”

Despite gains in the first weeks of 1994, Republicans continue to grouse about the makeup of the committee, which has a smaller percentage of GOP representatives than any other. Under Assembly rules calling for proportional representation on all committees, the public safety panel should have three Republicans, but in recent years has featured only two.

Republicans say the reason is simple: Assembly Speaker Willie Brown wants to ensure that tough crime legislation stays bottled up while “providing cover” for Umberg and Assemblyman Bob Epple (D-Cerritos) to cast law-and-order votes that play well in their blue-collar districts. As it is, Umberg and Epple can side with the two Republicans and bills still fail to get the five votes needed to move on.

Umberg, however, rejects such Machiavellian characterizations. “I’ve had my own frustrations in that committee. I’ve had bills watered down or killed,” he said. “But I think those actions are born of true philosophical differences between members of the committee and not political machinations.”

Even some critics concede the committee gauntlet has occasionally yielded legislation pleasing to the toughest crime fighter. Prison construction bills usually trundle through, they say, and help for law enforcement agencies is routinely embraced. When a rash of freeway shootings hit the Southland a few years ago, the committee reacted within weeks by producing new laws.

Mullen has surprisingly fond memories of working with Assemblyman John Burton (D-San Francisco), a former safety committee chairman and one of three liberals on the current panel, on a pair of bills in 1990 to reform the state penal code from top to bottom. Although approved by both houses, the law was later vetoed, presumably because it would have caused prison construction costs to soar, Mullen said.

The experience gave Mullen a new respect for Burton. “He, of all the past chairmen, was a realist,” Mullen said. “You could sit down and talk to the man. We didn’t get a lot, but what we did get was extremely significant.”

Today, Burton’s role remains weighty, some Capitol insiders say. A close friend and ideological kin of Brown, Burton serves as a “ghost chairman” of the panel even though Epple now wields the gavel, they say.

Burton scoffs at such assessments with his characteristic bluster. “I tend to get into details,” he said, “but everyone knows Bobby is the chairman.”

A more weighty question is whether the committee will continue on its current tack. While no one denies that liberals and conservatives in the Assembly continue to disagree on solutions, some say the gulf may be narrowing.

“Times have changed,” Burton said. “People realize you can’t give criminals cookies and milk and a pat on the head and say, ‘Now be good boys.’ In the same vein, I don’t think most Republicans really believe you’ve got to lock them up on the first offense and throw away the key. You’ve got to take a shot at rehabilitating these first-time offenders.”

Bates said he hopes the Legislature will get beyond the current fervor over the “three strikes” effort and seize on more innovative approaches. He suggests programs providing focused help to “at-risk” families and struggling grade-school students. Bates also wants to see alternatives, such as well-supervised work programs for drug dealers and other nonviolent offenders.

“If people are vengeful and have blood in their eyes, politicians will reflect that,” Bates said. “I have to hope the electorate will come off its emotional frenzy and realize that the direction we’re now in hasn’t worked.”

Many members of the GOP, meanwhile, aren’t optimistic that bipartisan solutions are near.

“The center of gravity in the Democratic caucus remains way to the left, and the Public Safety Committee reflects it,” said Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), who faces criminal charges himself in the ongoing Capitol corruption scandal. “The only time important bills break free is when the public is screaming. It’ll soon be back to normal.”

Rainey, however, sees change as the state’s term-limits law pumps new blood into the Legislature--and ensconced Democrats like Brown are forced out.

“The new lawmakers coming in will realize they only have a few years up here,” Rainey said. “And after Willie is out in 1996, there will never again be a speaker who can consolidate power as he has. Hopefully, there will fewer games being played.”