Setencich Still Likes the Outside Shot

Brian Setencich is hard to figure. Why is he playing this game? And just what game is he playing? It’s supposed to be politics, but he keeps talking basketball.

Before we get to his hoop analogies, however, let’s review the action:

Setencich, 33, a former pro shooting guard, came to Sacramento one year ago as a rookie Republican Assemblyman from Fresno. Nobody paid much attention to him until he objected to AB 666--something about crab fishing--because that number was the mark of the devil and it made him “uncomfortable.”

People stopped laughing when he allied himself with turncoat Republican Doris Allen after Democrat Willie Brown engineered her election as speaker. Setencich’s move positioned him to succeed Allen when Republicans finally chased her off.

Setencich’s arrangement was the same as Allen’s: Democrats elected him speaker with the understanding he would protect their remaining power and perks, which were far more generous than normally afforded a minority party.

This naturally has enraged many Assembly Republicans. They’re frustrated and embarrassed. It’s a team that gets free throws for the speakership and keeps tossing up air balls.

Now the second half is about to begin in the legislative session and the lineup is this: 41 Republicans (including Setencich), 37 Democrats (Brown’s gone) and one member of the Ross Perot party (a Democrat defector).

If all Democrats stick with Setencich--as they’ve voted to--and he keeps the Perotist, he’ll need just one Republican ally to survive. But if the other 40 Republicans somehow can unite behind their own candidate, it’s back to the bench for the rookie.

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So we’ve got a neophyte legislator who’s a virtual outcast of his own party, running up and down California, dawn to midnight, imploring flustered Republicans and grinning Democrats to keep him on as speaker. Why? Why go through this?

“I see it as an opportunity, a challenge,” he says. “We can function here in an environment of stability and decorum that we haven’t had. We can work together, even if we disagree philosophically.”

Pressed further, Setencich answers in Jockese:

“In basketball, we’d beat on each other, hit and kick each other, but when the game was over we were friends again. . . . On the court, you knew what you had to do. I got in fights. I got kicked out. But afterward, you didn’t continue to fight. Life was bigger than that.”

Setencich apparently sees elections as the “court” and the Assembly chamber as the hangout where players gather after the game.

“I don’t think it matters, frankly, what initial [R or D] is behind your name when you’re getting something done [for California],” he says. “Once the election process is over and you step into the chamber, then you need to realize we’re a team. This is an 80-member team.”

Basketball does help explain Setencich, the son of a grape grower. On and off the court, he’s tenacious and unafraid of failure.

Setencich played at UC San Diego and Cal State Bakersfield, not exactly NCAA powerhouses. But he wrangled a tryout with the Lakers, who cut him. Although a good outside shooter, he was too slow for an NBA guard and not big enough (6-5, 205) to play forward. So he spent six years in the bushes, mostly Europe. Once in France he scored 51 points, another time in Wales 50.

“That was my bread and butter,” he says. “I was never scared to shoot. Always wanted the ball in the last seconds. The hell with it! If it doesn’t go in, it doesn’t go in.

“Around here, the reason we don’t get more done is people aren’t willing to lose. If you’re not willing to take risks, you’re never going to get the best possible result. . . . I’m willing to lose everything, the speakership and the Assembly. Hell, there’s more to life.”

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The outside shooter now has Republicans in his face. Assembly Majority Leader Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) is trying to oust him. Gov. Pete Wilson is phoning GOP lawmakers, urging them to elect a speaker of their own choosing--not the Democrats’.

And all analogies aside, this game is not basketball. This is another contact sport.

In the Legislative League, the houses are not “teams.” They’re divisions. The teams are in the divisions and they’re called Democrats and Republicans. Their contests don’t end with elections. They continue into the legislative chambers. The teams fight over power and philosophy. And the speaker is a team leader, not an unbiased referee.

At least that’s the way the game always has been played before. And it’s unlikely Setencich can rewrite the rule book.