Berman Prefers Doing House Work to Calling City Hall Home

Don’t expect to see “Berman for Mayor” signs plastered all over the San Fernando Valley this fall.

Although U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) announced in the spring that he was mulling a challenge to Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, he is now leaving the impression that he will stay put in Washington.

“My focus is on my legislative duties, my reelection and trying to help the Democrats try to regain control of the House. That is my focus between now and November,” Berman said in a recent interview. “I’m not making any Sherman-esque statement that I’m not running for mayor, but the timing makes that a very unlikely option.”

In April, Berman tantalized supporters by saying he had not ruled out a mayoral campaign. He promised a decision would come soon, after he had decided “whether in my gut it is something I want to do.”

What’s happened since? The prospect that Democrats could regain control of Congress in November. Berman said that if the Democrats prevail this fall, he would be crazy to leave.

“It puts me in a position to be far more effective on issues I’m involved with,” he said. “I have an investment here of 13 1/2 years, which would be maximized if the Democrats were in control. To throw that away is not the best use of that investment.”

Newt’s Nemesis

Berman’s longtime political ally, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), is looking ahead to November, too.

The veteran legislator, whose Valley-Westside district is considered safe enough for him not to worry about, said he’s very involved in the nationwide effort to shift the balance of power in the House back to the Democrats.

“I’m going to be traveling around the country, speaking for Democratic candidates,” Waxman said this week.

Waxman said his party has adopted House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s successful 1994 strategy, which capitalized on voter discontent with the status quo and offered Republican candidates to shake things up.

Now, Waxman said, polls show that voters are unhappy with the extreme views of the Republican leadership and are thinking kindly of Democrats again. Waxman said generic polls, which ask voters which party they prefer, show Democrats ahead by 8 to 10 points. That makes the party more popular than the Republicans were when the GOP swept the election in 1994.

“We have a good chance to win back the House,” Waxman said.

Waxman has taken a special interest in the race for the 24th Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills).

The 24th is a hot contest between Democrat Brad Sherman, who is a member of the state Board of Equalization, and Republican Rich Sybert, a businessman.

Hoping to help Sherman and others win their races, Waxman will be in Los Angeles with President Clinton for a private Democratic National Committee fund-raiser.

Conceding nothing, Gingrich is on a fund-raising tour, too.

He will be in town next week as the featured speaker at Wednesday’s fund-raiser for Assemblyman James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), who’s running for Congress in the 27th District against Democrat Doug Kahn.

Like the 24th, that district is open due to a retirement, in this case Carlos J. Moorhead, the Republican incumbent. Both parties see victory within their grasp in both districts.

Cause Celebre

The Federal Election Commission lawsuit filed this week accusing the Christian Coalition of improperly aiding Republican candidates may not discourage churches from distributing the group’s voter guides this fall, says Sara DiVito Hardman of Tarzana, president of the California branch of the Christian Coalition.

“The churches may be more energized because this is so blatant an attack on Christian activity,” Hardman said.

The Christian Coalition of California distributed 3.6 million voter guides in the 1994 campaigns and hopes to print more than 4 million this year, she said.

An active Republican, Hardman is a member of the California GOP’s executive committee and will be a delegate to the party’s national convention in San Diego next month.

The coalition, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, maintains that it is nonpartisan, although its conservative approach to social issues has made it a powerful force within the GOP.

The FEC suit filed Tuesday in Washington does not directly charge that the voter guides are improperly partisan. Instead, the lawsuit alleges that the Christian Coalition illegally coordinated the distribution of the guides with Republican officials in some areas.

In defending the group’s controversial voter identification drives, Hardman said that rather than “identifying Republican voters,” the organization is trying to seek out “pro-family voters, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.”

Oil and Water

As petroleum giants Chevron and Texaco move ahead with plans to build a 132-mile oil pipeline that would bisect the city, Los Angeles officials are scrambling for a legal strategy to fight the project.

But city officials--particularly Councilmen Richard Alarcon and Mike Hernandez--learned this week that their options are limited to imposing mitigation measures to reduce the environmental impact of the line.

Alarcon, who watched a pipeline rupture spark a blaze in Pacoima after the Northridge earthquake, has strongly opposed allowing the pipeline to run through his northeast San Fernando Valley district.

The $170-million project would carry 130,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Kern County to refineries in Wilmington.

In April, the California Public Utilities Commission gave Chevron, Texaco and other members of the Pacific Pipeline team the go-ahead to build the line, saying they had met environmental requirements.

City officials, who worry about a pipeline rupture that would contaminate the city’s water supply, appealed the decision. But two weeks ago, the PUC rejected that appeal.

This week, city officials talked about filing a suit against the PUC, charging that the environmental report the agency approved failed to adequately study other alternatives.

But after a lengthy, closed-door meeting, council members came up with another strategy.

Since the city must approve a “franchise agreement” to allow the pipeline to run under city streets, Hernandez said the city is considering requiring its own environmental study before granting the franchise.

A lawsuit now appears to be the city’s second option.

Chuck McLean, a spokesman for the oil companies, said the council is merely trying to wear them down.

“It’s just another hurdle they are trying to throw at us,” he said.

The strategy may be working. Last month, Unocal pulled out of the oil consortium, saying the city’s opposition was causing too many delays.

Child’s Play

It’s been about a year and a half since the Los Angeles City Council decided to rename City Hall’s child-care center after former councilwoman Joy Picus.

But it was only this week that the city put up the plaque to honor the former lawmaker from the west San Fernando Valley.

Still, the 16-year council veteran was not surprised by the delay. This is, after all, a City Hall child-care center.

“It took less time to get the child-care center built than it took to put up the plaque,” Picus said after a City Hall reception attended by Mayor Riordan.

Picus earned the honor by taking a lead role in seeing to it that the city adopted a pay-equity plan so that women employees earned the same as men in jobs requiring similar skills.

In addition to pressing to open the child-care center, Picus backed a plan to grant special building privileges to developers who provide child-care facilities.

Picus lost her reelection bid in 1993 to her former deputy, Laura Chick.

Despite the delay in getting the plaque, Picus said she is happy with the honor. “I feel wonderful about it,” she said.