2nd Wilson Nominee Is Rejected : Cal State: Senate turns down Rosemary E. Thakar for Board of Trustees, but approves another appointee.

The combative state Senate on Thursday handed Gov. Pete Wilson his second confirmation defeat in less than a month when it turned down one of his appointees to the California State University Board of Trustees, the first such rejection in Cal State’s 34-year history.

The defeat of Rosemary E. Thakar followed the Senate’s rejection March 3 of the Republican governor’s appointment of Saratoga businessman Lester Lee to the University of California Board of Regents, the first time a regent nominee had been denied confirmation since 1883. He was the first Chinese American appointee to the UC board.

Thakar, a San Francisco furniture store owner and generous Wilson campaign contributor, needed 27 votes for confirmation, but she received only 10; most Democrats and conservative GOP senators refused to vote, thus assuring her defeat. Six bipartisan votes were cast against her.

Legislative and Cal State records showed Thakar to be the first trustee confirmation to be defeated by a vote of the full Senate since the administrative system was created in 1960.

A few minutes later, virtually the same Senate coalition confirmed a second Wilson appointee, Joan Otomo-Corgel, a UCLA dentistry professor, to an eight-year term on a 31-2 vote.

A spokesman for Wilson said the governor was deeply disappointed by Thakar’s rejection and blamed it on “a lot of bizarre things at work here.”

Thakar issued an angry statement, accusing the Senate of abusing its power and refusing to confirm her because she backed her son, attorney Todd Thakar, in his unsuccessful 1992 primary challenge against conservative state Sen. John Lewis (R-Orange).

“I am confident that I would have been confirmed today had I not supported my son, who had the temerity to challenge a sitting legislator in a contested primary election,” Thakar said.

Lewis, who had privately encouraged fellow conservative Republicans to break with Wilson and defeat Thakar’s confirmation, told a reporter that “there are some political overtones to it.”

Lewis’ Senate floor seat mate, Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier), said Republican legislators had called on Wilson to use his influence to discourage Todd Thakar from running against Lewis, but the effort failed. “Lewis is mad at the kid,” Hill said.

Under the leadership of new President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), the usually collegial Democratic-controlled Senate has sought to break from what Lockyer calls a “rubber stamp” approach to approving gubernatorial nominees to the UC Board of Regents and the Cal State Board of Trustees.

In addition, Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a candidate for governor, appears to have become more persuasive in his arguments that such nominees need to be evaluated more critically. Hayden says the UC regents and Cal State trustees are pawns for university administrators who reward themselves with higher salaries and other perks as student fees continue to increase dramatically.

He cited Thakar and Otomo-Corgel as examples. He said that as unconfirmed trustees last year, they had voted fee increases of 24% and 30% for undergraduate and graduate students, respectively, and had endorsed $200,000 worth of salary increases for campus presidents.

Hayden charged that Thakar’s long association with Wilson was the political reason for her appointment and challenged whether as a trustee she was independent from the governor.

Hayden also charged that when Thakar first asked Wilson for an appointment, she displayed no interest in a trusteeship. Hayden said she asked for an appointment to the state Commission on Tourism or as a state protocol officer.

But Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno, who defended both nominees, scolded opponents for engaging in what he characterized as political hypocrisy. He recalled that two-thirds of the Senate during the last few years had ratified the student fee increases when the Legislature enacted the state budget.

Although Hayden assailed Otomo-Corgel for supporting fee increases, he also said he had spoken with her shortly before the Senate debate and believes she has undergone an abrupt philosophical conversion.

Hayden said Otomo-Corgel promised him that in the future she would fight against student fee increases and higher pay and perks for university administrators. He termed her a “born-again fighter for students.”

A few minutes after the Senate confirmed her, Hayden bolted from the Senate chamber and returned with Otomo-Corgel. In an unexpected twist, he interrupted proceedings to introduce her to the senators. They hugged briefly.

After Lee’s rejection March 3, Senate Democrats drew fire from the Asian American community, including its news media. Alerted that Otomo-Corgel was facing the same fate, some of these supporters came to her defense in the last two days, lobbying their senators with letters and telephone calls.