Beilenson Next in Line to Lead Powerful House Rules Panel

MOVING UP: With the unexpected retirement this week of a high-ranking South Carolina Democratic colleague, Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson(D-Woodland Hills) becomes next in line for the chairmanship of the influential House Rules Committee.

Rep. Butler Derrick of South Carolina, a chief deputy whip and second-ranking Democrat on the rules panel, shocked House members Wednesday by calling it quits after 10 terms.

“It took me totally by surprise,” said Beilenson, who heard the news while touring his district during a one-week congressional recess. “He’s a good friend and sits next to me (on the Rules Committee). I never had an inkling that he was thinking of leaving.”

Although Derrick’s departure puts Beilenson ever closer to one of the House’s most powerful posts, he downplayed the political fallout of the announcement.

“It makes me feel sad. He’s a particularly important friend and an awfully good colleague and legislator. I hate to see him go.”

Yet should the present chairman, Rep. Joseph Moakley (D-Mass.), also decide to step down, Beilenson would take over the reins of a full committee with vast power over the fate of House legislation.

It appears that Moakley, 66, has no plans to fade away--at least not yet.

John J. Weinfurter, Moakley’s chief of staff, said his boss is definitely in the hunt for a 12th term and will file for reelection soon.

“He has a whole portfolio of campaign events planned, and we have a ton of things we’re working on,” Weinfurter said.

But personal and health concerns have given rise to doubts about how long Moakley will stick around.

In 1992 he had a benign lesion removed from his kidney and continues to have regular checkups to monitor the condition, described by his office as “precancerous.”

His wife, Evelyn, is suffering from lung cancer and is halfway through a program of chemotherapy, Weinfurter said. “We are very hopeful that she will regain full health,” he said.

Some Massachusetts observers are not as sanguine.

“He’s had a couple of rough years,” said a top aide to a Bay State congressman, who did not want to be identified. “He has a health problem, his wife is very sick and his best friend (former House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill) just died. At some point, he needs to make a choice.”

Derrick, 57, cited no specific reasons for his retirement--other than a desire to “do something else.”

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A NEW ROLE: In her role as Zelda Gilroy in the 1959-1963 CBS situation comedy “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” Sheila James Kuehl imagined herself guiding Dobie (Dwayne Hickman) into Congress or the White House, because in those days, a woman running for office was rare.

But Kuehl is now a real-life candidate. She filed her declaration of intention to seek the Democratic nomination for the 41st Assembly District seat on Feb. 9, her 53rd birthday. There is no incumbent in the race for the San Fernando Valley and Westside seat as Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) announced last month he would pass up a bid for a fifth and final term and would instead run for a Superior Court judgeship.

Kuehl said her candidacy is not an example of an actor trying to cash in on her fame, but a “logical continuation” of her legal work.

Kuehl serves as counsel to the California Women’s Law Center, a policy development and technical assistance center to attorneys, educational, governmental and community-based organizations, working on issues affecting women and children. Kuehl co-founded the center in 1989 and was its managing attorney until last year.

After her final series, “Broadside,” an ABC comedy about a group of Navy WAVES assigned to a South Pacific island during World War II, went off the air in 1965, Kuehl turned her attention to academia, serving in various positions at UCLA. In the mid-1970s, she returned to the classroom, attending Harvard Law School and becoming the second woman in that school’s history to win its Moot Court competition.

Kuehl does not consider her situation analogous to actors who leaped directly from that profession into politics. She said she believes her sitcom past “could cut both ways.”

“Everywhere I go, people know and like the character (of Zelda), so they’re predisposed to like me,” Kuehl said. “On the downside it’s possible this could trivialize my candidacy, but I’m not worried.”

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IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED: In the state Capitol, where legislative logjams are common, there is more than one way to reach one’s objective. Assemblywoman Paula Boland of Granada Hills is testing that truism with a new bill to aid the campaign for breaking up the massive Los Angeles Unified School District.

Now she has two bills on the table that would make it easier for breakup proponents to take a run at whittling down the district--one specifically targeting L.A. and a “generic” bill that would apply to all California school districts.

Like the first bill, the new one-size-fits-all legislation introduced this month would lower the hurdles for those seeking to dismantle a school district.

If Boland’s bills become law, the number of petition signatures required to launch the breakup process would be reduced from 25% of registered voters to 10%.

And the number of signatures required before a public hearing could be held on the issue would be halved from 10% to 5% of registered voters.

The legislation would also repeal a portion of state law that says a school board must sign off on any plan to split up its district, an obstacle L.A. proponents would be hard-pressed to clear without a boost from Sacramento.

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WILL HE OR WON’T HE?: Even staffers were caught by surprise when state Sen. David A. Roberti covered his bets recently by declaring he might run for state treasurer or a seat on the State Board of Equalization.

What would a man who thrives in the spotlight do with a seat on a low-profile panel that quietly carries out California tax policies and hears tax appeals?

Well, he might pull in a pretty good salary, for one. Board of Equalization members make $95,000 annually. For another thing, he might be able to stay closer to home by running in the board’s 4th District, anchored in Los Angeles.

And thirdly, he might be able to put off major fund-raising while devoting his energy to disaster relief in the quake-stricken San Fernando Valley, as well as turning his attention toward the recall effort.

Still, people in the know say Roberti is leaning toward the treasurer’s race. He has until March 11 to make up his mind.