‘One Strike’ Rape Bill Passed by State Senate : Capitol: O.C. legislator’s tough sentencing measure now goes to governor, who has said he will sign it.

The Legislature on Wednesday gave final passage to one of the most hotly debated crime bills of the year, sending to Gov. Pete Wilson an Orange County lawmaker’s measure to require up to life in prison for first-time, violent rapists and child molesters.

The rape bill, sponsored by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), won final approval in the Senate on a 39-0 vote.

Racing toward a scheduled midnight adjournment of the two-year legislative session, lawmakers also passed a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s campaign finance laws that would limit contributions and spending and allow partial taxpayer financing of legislative campaigns. But the governor is expected to veto the measure because of his objections to public financing of campaigns.

A proposal to establish a new, full-time commission to regulate gambling in California died after intense back-room negotiations as the session was drawing to a close.

Also rejected when lawmakers went home for the year were measures to place bonds on the November ballot to pay for construction of school classrooms, prisons and libraries.

Orange County lawmakers saw several measures score victories, and a few others fall to defeat.

A bill from Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) to make possession of child pornography a felony was dashed after Republicans, who had supported the bill earlier this year, balked because of fears it might undermine the state’s three-strikes law. But another Umberg bill to toughen reporting procedures for sex offenders was sent to the governor’s desk.

Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) won approval for a bill that directs schools to punish pupils for hate crimes, but a measure that would have toughened vagrancy laws to keep gang members from stalking school campuses died.

A measure by Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) that gives the Balboa Bay Club a lease extension that will pave the way for a much-anticipated renovation project was approved, as was a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) designed to help Laguna Beach High School, which has been hurt by declining revenues since last year’s devastating fire.

Meanwhile, Laguna Niguel city officials came up short in their effort to push a bill that would allowed them to recapture $450,000 in revenue they lost during last year’s state budget battle. The city faced stiff opposition from the county of Orange, which would have lost the revenue, and Bergeson, who is unopposed for a Board of Supervisors seat. Bergeson played the key role in getting the bill killed, pulling it into her Local Government Committee and then refusing to conduct a hearing.

On other matters:

* The Senate protested Wilson’s environmental policies by adjourning without confirming Jacqueline Schafer, the governor’s choice to lead the state Air Resources Board. Schafer now must leave office in November, one year after Wilson appointed her to head the regulatory board.

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) said the members had no particular problem with Schafer, a former assistant secretary of the Navy, but wanted to send a message to Wilson that they are unhappy with what they perceive as his tilt in favor of the oil industry in air quality matters.

* A bill that critics say would cut corners on the cleanup of selected toxic dump sites in the state won bipartisan approval in the Senate and Assembly and now goes to the governor.

The measure, by Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier), is an attempt to speed the cleanup and settlement of financial responsibility for up to 30 hazardous waste sites covered by the state Superfund program. It sets up an arbitration procedure for deciding how clean a site should be, depending on its use, and for allocating costs among those responsible for the contamination. Calderon said the new approach is needed to unclog a system that has barely begun the job of cleaning up thousands of contaminated sites.

But the measure, which came to life in the final weeks of the session, has alarmed environmental groups, who fear that it will allow incomplete cleanups and leave taxpayers liable for costs.

Leading the opposition, Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) contended that the bill would allow some sites to be covered over and developed without being completely cleaned up.

The Assembly approved the measure 48 to 26; the Senate 21 to 11.

* The Senate, reversing itself, sent the governor a bill that would make it illegal for employers to deny women the option of wearing pantsuits or slacks to work.

Sen. Lucy Killea (I-San Diego), who previously had opposed the bill on grounds that it trivialized advancements made by women, cast the decisive 21st vote.

A spokesman said Wilson has not yet taken a position on the bill.

* The Senate, on a 21-11 vote, sent to Wilson a bill to overhaul a controversial new school performance test, formerly known as the California Learning Assessment System.

The bill would give parents a larger role in the development of the test and bar certain questions that would elicit comments from students on their personal beliefs about family life, sex, morality or religion.

Wilson is expected to veto the measure because it does not provide for individual assessments for each student in every school. His veto would kill the testing program, which only a year ago was being hailed as a model for the nation.

Bergeson’s rape bill, is expected to be signed by Wilson, who since 1990 has campaigned for longer rape sentences and made this measure one of his top legislative priorities this year. But the governor would have preferred to sentence all rapists to life in prison without possibility of parole.

When Bergeson first introduced the measure in the tougher form desired by Wilson, it drew broad attacks from civil libertarians and other groups, including some district attorneys and women’s organizations, who said the measure was so harsh it might hinder prosecutions or prompt sex offenders to kill their victims.

The bill was redrafted to delete all references to life without parole, substituting a penalty of 25 years to life for only the most brutal sexual assaults--those involving torture, mayhem, kidnaping or burglary with the intent to commit rape.

Lesser sex crimes could earn sentences of 15 years to life, but would have to include special circumstances such as the use of a firearm or dangerous weapon, more than one victim or the administering of narcotics.

Now, the maximum term for a single rape is eight years in prison, and the average convicted rapist spends fewer than five years behind bars.

“This is a very strong bill,” Bergeson said. “It’s the product of a strong effort by the Legislature. Sex crimes simply cannot be tolerated. This bill responds in a very strong way.”

Sean Walsh, the governor’s spokesman, said: “This is the toughest piece of crime legislation targeting rapists and child molesters to ever hit the desk of a governor. We would prefer an even stronger bill and will strive in the future for a stronger one, but are pleased with this legislation.”

Aside from the one-strike bill, Bergeson pushed through a bill that increases fines and jail time for domestic violence.

The Umberg anti-pornography bill prompted one of the final day’s more heated debates.

Republican lawmakers said they opposed that bill because Democratic chieftains inserted an amendment exempting it from the three-strikes law. Democrat leaders have been inserting such amendments into a number of crime bills this year because they believe only violent felonies should be eligible for a third strike.

Republicans, however, said that such moves threatened to open the flood gates to exemptions that would undermine the three-strikes law.

Umberg said he wished the three-strikes amendment hadn’t been added to his bill, but argued that Republicans should support it to put tougher pornography penalties in place.

His arguments drew the wrath of a fellow Orange County lawmaker, Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-Fullerton), who hounded Umberg repeatedly.

“Don’t play your damn cheap political games with us,” Johnson roared at Umberg.

“You’re absolutely right,” Umberg barked back. “We shouldn’t play political games.”

The Assembly passed and sent to Wilson’s desk on a 42-32 vote a bill imposing limits on campaign contributions and spending and providing limited public funding for legislative candidates.

The measure, by Senate President Lockyer, would limit contributions in legislative races to $2,000 from individuals and corporations and $5,000 from political action committees. The limits would apply separately to the primaries and general elections.

Spending also would be capped, at about $800,000 in state Senate races and $560,000 in Assembly races, adjusted each year according to the number of voters in the state.

The spending limits would apply only to candidates who accepted the partial public financing that the bill would create.

The public financing would match private contributions raised by the candidates on a ratio ranging from 5-1 to 2-1, depending on the size of the private donation. Candidates whose opponents exceeded the spending limit would get extra public funds.

The Assembly passed the bill on a straight party line vote, with Democrats for it and Republicans against.

Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), a member of the conference committee that fashioned the bill, called the legislation a “good start toward campaign finance reform.”

She added: “The people don’t care what the fine points are of campaign finance reform. They simply want us to put a system in place that caps the effect of special interest money on elections. And their view of the world is that the Legislature spends all of its time in the member’s lounge playing Yahtzee with the people’s money rather than doing the public’s business. We need to restore public faith in the Legislature.”

But Ross Johnson, who is also a member of the conference committee, urged a no vote.

“We absolutely need campaign finance reform,” Johnson said, “but this bill doesn’t do it. What you are doing is creating an open-ended entitlement to funding politicians’ campaigns. It is an unfair system designed to help Democrats and hurt Republicans.”

The fight over the future regulation of the state’s gambling industry went down to the wire Wednesday night after a measure backed by Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren to establish a five-member statewide gambling control commission was bottled up in the Senate Rules Committee.

Supporters sought to revive the proposal but said they could not overcome opposition from Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Wilson.

Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-San Francisco), who pushed the gaming proposal, cited a combination of reasons, including Wilson’s desire to control all five “patronage appointments” to the commission and Brown’s reluctance to support “strict regulation of gambling.”