The Year in Review: Revisiting the notable Valley events of 1994. : A Year of Bombshells, Firsts in Valley Politics : Review: Roberti and Nolan stepped down from power, Latino students took to the streets, and Yaroslavsky got a promotion.

Van Nuys Democrat David Roberti and Glendale Republican Pat Nolan began 1994 as members of the state’s political elite. Now, Roberti is holding down a job as an appointee to an obscure state panel and Nolan is in state prison.

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Meanwhile, 1994 saw San Fernando Valley voters help elect the state Legislature’s first openly gay member to a local Assembly seat, give Zev Yaroslavsky a long-delayed political promotion and defy the GOP juggernaut to hand Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) a 10th term in Congress.

The year also witnessed a political awakening among Latino students, many of whom took to the streets prior to the November statewide election to protest Proposition 187, the measure to bar illegal immigrants from benefiting from a wide range of government services.

In short, 1994 was a big year for politics in the Valley.

The year began with a bombshell when it was revealed that a ragtag band of dissidents had gathered enough signatures to force Roberti, then president pro tempore of the state Senate and one of the state’s most powerful elected officials, into a history-making recall election.

It was the first time in decades that a recall challenge against a California state legislator had qualified for the ballot. This political feat was fueled largely by money and volunteers from gun-rights groups incensed by Roberti’s support for gun control laws, including a 1989 ban on assault weapons.

With the help of gun-control advocates nationwide, including the family of James Brady, the former White House press secretary badly injured in the 1981 assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan, Roberti eventually defeated his recall challengers--who even raffled off a collection of guns to finance their campaign.

But the victory was costly. The exhausting April recall election has been largely blamed for Roberti’s defeat in June for the Democratic nomination for state treasurer.

Although term limits prevented Roberti from seeking reelection to his 20th District seat, the Sacramento old-boy network came to the veteran legislator’s aid. On Dec. 7--two days after he left office--Roberti’s former Senate colleagues announced they had appointed him to four-year post on the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board at a salary of $97,000 a year.

Nineteen Ninety-Four was also a topsy-turvy year for Nolan.

In February, Nolan, the former GOP minority leader in the Assembly, stunned his supporters by pleading guilty to one count of political corruption and resigning. Within days, Nolan was sent packing to state prison to serve a 33-month sentence.

The political passing of Roberti and Nolan triggered succession fights. The winners here were veteran state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal, 76, who dropped his retirement plans to run for--and easily win--Roberti’s seat, and former Municipal Judge James E. Rogan.

Rogan, a former Democrat who by 1994 had become a right-wing Republican supportive of school prayer and teaching creationism in public schools, was elected twice to Nolan’s seat in 1994--first in a May special election to fill out the remainder of Nolan’s term and then again in November, when he won a regular two-year term in the Assembly.

Rogan’s twin victories embarrassed Democrats, who had entertained hopes that 1994 would be their year to crack the GOP’s grip on the 43rd Assembly District.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Valley, it was the Republican Party that was getting its comeuppance.

Nineteen Ninety-Four was the year the GOP expected to oust incumbent Beilenson from his 24th Congressional District seat that included the western San Fernando Valley, Malibu and the Conejo Valley.

Former Wilson Administration aide Rich Sybert, the GOP hopeful in the race, appeared to have the horsepower needed to defeat Beilenson, including a large and heavily self-financed war chest and the support of the GOP’s national leadership, including Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and U. S. Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.).

But Beilenson won reelection by a razor-thin margin after portraying Sybert as a creature of special interests, while holding himself up as an independent who refused to take campaign contributions from political action committees, as he has for years. Beilenson’s victory was especially surprising because the Democrat was a rare survivor in national elections that saw Republicans seize control of both houses of Congress.

The 1994 political season also witnessed several other highlights.

One of these was the election of Sheila Kuehl, a lesbian attorney who played the role of Zelda in the TV sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” to the 41st Assembly District seat, succeeding the retiring Terry Friedman. Kuehl, who took office this month, is the first openly homosexual member of the California Legislature.

In June, Los Angeles City Councilman Yaroslavsky, who for years had found his plans for political advancement stymied, got a break when County Supervisor Ed Edelman retired, giving Yaroslavsky an unobstructed shot at promotion.

Yaroslavsky’s ascension to the Board of Supervisors has triggered a pell-mell race for his council seat, in which his wife, Barbara, could be found among the contestants in the April primary. Also competing in this spirited contest are Michael Feuer, the former head of a Jewish legal aid group, and former Los Angeles school board member Roberta Weintraub.

By year’s end, the Los Angeles City Council had nixed a plan--advanced by a coalition of neighborhood and business groups--to appoint an interim council member to fill Yaroslavsky’s 5th District seat until a successor was elected. The defeat of this proposal means the 5th District council duties will be handled by an obscure City Hall bureaucrat, Avak Keotahian, who has no power to vote on the City Council and must make do with a skeleton staff, for at least the next several months.