State Legislators’ Road Show Gets a New Look Under Pringle

Seeking to put a Republican stamp on an annual pilgrimage to Washington, Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) changed the name of the mission to a “leadership visit.”

Its goals are roughly the same as in years past, when it was known as “the speaker’s visit”--a bipartisan group of Assembly members and state senators fanning out across the city to promote California issues to members of Congress, administration officials and anyone else who will listen.

But one element is sorely missing. Former Democratic Speaker Willie Brown led these forays for 15 years with a penchant for flamboyance that makes him a very hard act to follow.

“It’s not that great a difference,” Pringle insisted Monday morning to a handful of reporters in a spacious hotel meeting room supplied with coffee and muffins for a much larger crowd. “Granted, there is a philosophical difference about what our priorities are.”

But whereas Brown, now mayor of San Francisco, would attract a small horde of radio, television and print reporters to hang on his every quotable aside, Pringle quietly praised the Republican Assembly’s legislative accomplishments and promised to pressure federal officials on a wide range of California-sensitive topics.

Gone too were the limos, the omnipresent team of aides toting cellular phones, the kingmaker aura that made Brown’s Washington visits seem more like political theater.

In their place Monday was talk of reminding federal officials how their decisions “don’t stop at the Potomac but resonate across the country.”

Also, Pringle promoted a speech he will give today to the conservative Heritage Foundation. He will pillory President Clinton for “betraying the states on issues like taxes, welfare and immigration.”

As White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said in a luncheon address to the bipartisan group of about 50 Assembly and Senate members, “We miss having Willie Brown here. It’s like ‘The Tonight Show’ without Jay Leno. But we have some good guest hosts.”

But Pringle didn’t come here for laughs. His agenda was well-stocked with issues that have caused considerable friction between the Democratic White House and California’s Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and its first Republican Assembly in 25 years.

High on Pringle’s list are GOP strategies for creating jobs, improving the state’s economy and making it more competitive.

In the latter category, Pringle will lobby Washington officials on tax cuts, regulatory reform and tort reform--areas that often divide along sharply partisan lines.

“We’re moving forward with the agenda that voters asked us to move forward with [in the Assembly],” Pringle said. “This trip is a continuation of this effort.”

Pringle said his highest priority was to push for welfare reform, specifically federal waivers that give states greater flexibility to design their own welfare systems.

“We are facing a sizable budget shortfall next year because the federal government has not enacted many of the welfare cuts that were passed by bipartisan votes in years past. All of our requests for a federal waiver have not been granted, so we’ll . . . remind the Clinton administration of that,” Pringle said.

Asked if public diatribes against Clinton are effective in earning the administration’s sympathy, Pringle replied: “We’re ensuring that the message gets there in a variety of ways.”

On immigration, Pringle backed congressional plans to deny public schooling to the children of illegal immigrants.

“It’s an overriding issue to those local communities responsible for bearing that cost. Voters wanted to ensure change by voting for Proposition 187,” he said.

Pringle said he had conferred with law enforcement groups that contend that barring young people from classrooms would cause an upsurge in crime among idle school-age youths.

“I certainly want to be cognizant about issues that law enforcement officials bring up, but it’s not been proven to me that it will naturally lead to an increase in crime.”

Pringle also said he opposed limits on the number of legal immigrants allowed in the country.

The California group will attend numerous briefings by members of Congress and the administration on such topics as Medicaid reform, military base closures, defense conversion, agriculture, water and other issues.

Panetta, a former House member from Carmel Valley who has become one of Clinton’s closest advisors, said in his speech that the four months left before the conventions afforded both political parties “a unique window of opportunity to get some things done.”

But he conceded that election year politicking will make bipartisan achievements difficult both in Washington and Sacramento.

“Confrontation, posturing, attacks and counterattacks--that’s in the instincts,” Panetta said.

The Pringle group is tentatively set to meet with Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole today.

Pringle said Dole, the expected Republican presidential nominee, has “great prospects” in California, “although he really didn’t campaign in the state.”

“Where he differs from Clinton is . . . something California voters have yet to see. But when that message is shared, he will find strong support.”