Assembly Chiefs Share Drive, Not Agenda

One is a rising star who has taken the state Assembly by storm, shooting to the top of the freshman class with his judicial style and unswerving conservatism, and aiming for a seat in the U.S. Congress.

The other is an established veteran, a staunch liberal who works the media and the chamber with ease and savvy, in the twilight of a legislative career that is about to be ended by term limits.

Together, James Rogan (R-Glendale) and Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) are exiting the state Capitol in November--but not in subdued fashion. The two men have been chosen by their colleagues as leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively, on the Assembly floor, the first time in a decade that both positions belong to representatives from Southern California, let alone the San Fernando Valley.

The posts are new to the two men. And different challenges face them in a house that is itself a vastly different place from the Democratic fortress of a quarter-century past.

Katz, who has represented the northeast Valley since 1980, finds himself without the guidance of legendary former Speaker Willie Brown and in the minority for the first time, at the head of a wounded party trying to stop the gleeful GOP juggernaut.

Rogan, as the new Assembly majority leader, assumes significant responsibilities less than two years after his first election, a challenge his colleagues expect him to meet with the same skill and poise that marked him as a wunderkind when he first stepped into the lower house.

And few people are talking about lame ducks.

“The fact that [Rogan] is leaving in November is irrelevant to the job he’s going to do this year,” said Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga), the former Assembly Republican leader.

The same goes for Katz, said Assemblywoman Sheila J. Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). “He’s not acting like a lame duck. This is his year to be leader and he’s putting everything into it.”

To hear Katz tell it, his imminent retirement is actually a boon, freeing him from the yoke of reelection campaigning to stump for Democrats across the state, raise money for the party and press the Democratic agenda.

That agenda, said Katz, puts funding K-12 education at the forefront, followed by protecting consumers, boosting the minimum wage and assuring the right of women to choose abortion.

Another high priority, keeping the motorcycle helmet law in place, has already demonstrated the tough road ahead for Katz and his fellow Democrats, who are outnumbered 41 to 37.

Last week, in one of the first major Assembly showdowns since Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) took over earlier this month, the chamber voted to strike down California’s helmet law, repealing legislation passed when Katz himself served as the influential chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Besides the near-solid Republican bloc vote, a difficult enough obstacle to overcome, three Democrats also joined the repeal’s supporters, indicating a less-than-unanimous party line.

“Trying to get Democrats to act together is like trying to herd cats. Richard is the chief strategist. . . . He’s certainly tried” to facilitate discussion, Kuehl said.

Katz, the first Democratic Assembly leader from Los Angeles in more than two decades, acknowledges the variance of opinion within his caucus, but sees no threat of division or disarray.

“The reason it’s so easy for Republicans to be united is that the ideological spectrum is about a quarter-inch wide. Democrats, on the other hand, have a huge divergence of opinion and a huge diversity in the party,” he said.

“On some basic issues, you’ll find Democrats are united. K-12 schools are a priority. Creating jobs is a priority. Keeping California pro-choice is a priority.”

Directly in the Democrats’ way on many of those policy issues will be Rogan, whose front-row center Assembly seat is separated from Katz’s not only by a narrow middle aisle but by a wide ideological gulf.

When he joined the Assembly, Rogan won praise from both parties as a lawmaker who was willing to be fair and occasionally cross party lines.

“Jim is a hard-core ideologue. But he’s a friendly hard-core ideologue,” said Katz.

Although both Katz and Rogan profess an amicable relationship, some Assembly members complain that Rogan has become increasingly partisan. They question hard-line stands like the one that led him to coauthor a bill allowing authorities to spank graffiti vandals with wooden paddles.

And his new post does not offer much wiggle room on the issues, requiring Rogan to help shepherd through the GOP’s “Contract with California,” a rollback of regulations that Republicans contend hinder business.

Rogan views his new position as a bully pulpit capable of commanding respect the same way the bench did during his days as a Municipal Court judge. But he downplays the significance of his title, even as others expect him to excel at monitoring the Assembly floor and circumventing Democratic attempts to scuttle GOP legislation.

“There are a lot of guys who are great mechanics but have no vision. And there are a lot of guys who have great vision but don’t know the nuts and bolts,” said Brulte. Rogan, he believes, combines both.

“I’ve only had the job for a week,” said Rogan, newly ensconced in a far more spacious office than the “closet” he and his staff formerly occupied. “The position will probably become more defined within our caucus and within our house under this new leadership as we go on.”

The luxury of time, however, belongs to neither Rogan nor Katz.

The California primary election, at the end of March, is not far off for Rogan, who is sacrificing his Assembly seat to run for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale).

Rogan promises that campaigning for Moorhead’s job will not impinge on his duties as majority leader. If anything, he said, it will be the other way around.

“If I were not in a leadership position, I would have much more free time to be in my district and to do the things that I need to do,” Rogan said, adding that he initially suggested to Pringle that someone else be tapped as majority leader who would remain in the Assembly. “If I focus on my campaign more than my duties, I may win the race, but I’m not sure I’d deserve it.”

True, he is running for higher office after only one full term in the state Capitol. And he will depart from the Assembly at a time when Republican control of the lower house will still be somewhat tenuous, without the commanding majority that Democrats enjoyed for years.

But he decided that a chance to join the Republican revolution in Congress “was just too tempting to let slide. . . . If I really want to be on the front lines for the fight ahead, Washington is the place to be.”

Katz, who has not announced his post-Assembly plans, likewise has only a handful of months to grow into his position and, at the same time, prepare to transfer not only his own job but also the experience and knowledge of senior Democrats to their junior colleagues. Seventeen Democratic Assembly members must leave office this year due to term limits.

Katz was himself on the receiving end of a transition of power last year, as Brown, who left the Assembly to become mayor of San Francisco, turned over more leadership tasks to his close ally.

“Because of term limits, the minority leader’s role takes on another aspect. . . . It’s much more a mentoring process than in the past,” he said. “The times are very different.”