Democratic Leader Vows to Block Wilson Appointees

Retaliating against budget vetoes by Gov. Pete Wilson, the Democratic leader of the Senate said Thursday he will block confirmation of gubernatorial appointees unless Wilson agrees to negotiate with the Senate to get them approved.

“The governor’s pettiness leads me to conclude that the only way you can deal with this guy is deal by deal,” an angry Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer told reporters. “So, I intend to offer up a deal on everything he wants.”

He did not indicate what he had in mind to gain from Wilson in exchange for approval of the nominees, but the governor’s office insisted that it expects the appointees to be judged strictly on merit.

Lockyer announced that he will cancel hearings for 18 of 27 political nominees whose confirmation had been scheduled for the final three weeks of the legislative session, which concludes Sept. 15.

State law allows nominees to serve for one year without Senate confirmation. Aides said scheduled hearings would go ahead for nine other appointees whose terms will expire before the Legislature reconvenes in January. For the others, hearings would occur next January at the earliest.

The aides identified John Dunlap, chairman of the Air Resources Board, as potentially the highest profile casualty. He can serve without confirmation only until Dec. 20.

At a press conference, Lockyer accused Republican Wilson of violating an unwritten Capitol custom that, he said, holds that in negotiating a compromise state budget, the antagonists stretch to “do the best you can for each other.”

But Lockyer said after the compromise budget was passed, Wilson issued a series of “petty” vetoes aimed at his political foes. He said these included $4 million in transportation funds for schools in Lockyer’s district and $100,000 sought by Assembly Democratic Leader Willie Brown of San Francisco for youth midnight basketball programs.

Lockyer, known as a political deal-maker, charged that Wilson must “constantly prove what a tough guy he is. . . . This is not a human being you can have a relationship with that is a healthy one. Everything is a deal.”

A spokesman for Wilson characterized Lockyer’s criticism as a “personal attack on the governor, which we’re not going to respond to. Our appointees have always been evaluated by the Senate Rules Committee based on their qualifications for the job. We expect that tradition would continue under Senator Lockyer.”