Time for a Change of Face

If there’s any doubt about who’s in charge of the state Assembly, new Speaker Curt Pringle quickly dispelled it Monday when he rearranged the Capitol’s portrait gallery, giving a place of honor to Republican icon Ronald Reagan.

Just hours before Gov. Pete Wilson’s State of the State address, Pringle ordered that a smiling portrait of Reagan, who inspired a generation of ambitious Republican politicians, be moved to a wall just outside the Assembly’s main entrance and across from Pringle’s new quarters in the Capitol.

“Pringle decided that was an inspiring picture,” said Ken Colombini, the Speaker’s acting press secretary. “He wanted Reagan’s portrait, as a former governor and former president, in such a prominent position.”

Portraits of California’s governors are scattered through the restored Capitol. Until now, Reagan’s 1974 portrait had been on a wall under a stairwell near the Capitol’s main entrance and across from his Democratic predecessor, Edmund G. [Pat] Brown. But Pringle decided it would be more appropriate if hung near the ornate Assembly chamber.

So Monday afternoon, Pringle directed that the portrait of Reagan, who served as governor from 1967 to 1975, be switched with that of another Republican governor, James [Sunny Jim] Rolph Jr., a former mayor of San Francisco elected governor in 1930.

It’s a way,” said Colombini, “of saying the Assembly is finally back safely in Republican hands.”