Low-Key Senator Finally Hits His Legislative Stride : Orange’s Lewis Has Made His Influence Felt on Bankruptcy, AQMD Issues

As a political toddler in the statehouse during the 1980s, Sen. John R. Lewis was best known for what he didn’t do.

The circumspect Republican from Orange didn’t do taxes. He didn’t vote for many bills, figuring it was the best way to say no to Big Government. He didn’t carry a very big load of legislation, let alone get many measures signed into law.

But after 16 years in the Capitol, Lewis has undergone a profound metamorphosis on the policy front.

During the 1995-96 session, Lewis was among the most prolific state lawmakers. He introduced 55 bills, and two-thirds of them were signed by the governor. Out of 40 senators in the upper house, Lewis ranked third in percentage of measures made law. If politics were baseball, Lewis would be batting .654, a positively Ruthian number.

And not all of the bills were the sort of bloop singles typically dished up by the Legislature.

Lewis took on the powerful South Coast Air Quality Management District and eked out a measure of victory, stripping ride-share regulations on small business. He won approval for a 1998 ballot measure to prohibit violent felons from earning credits for good behavior to get out of prison early. Another bill helped reduce the handgun waiting period.

It’s the stuff conservatives worship, and just the sort of legislation Lewis never used to have a prayer with.

Consider a Lewis legislative year past. In 1989-90, while still in the Assembly, Lewis had just 13 bills. Only five were signed into law. Eight never even escaped the Legislature.

So what has come over Orange County’s heretofore most reluctant of lawmakers?

“I think John has stretched out and learned a lot and gotten a grasp for how the real world works in a real sense,” said Dennis Carpenter, a former state senator from Orange County and now one of the Capitol’s top lobbyists. “He’s not somebody who’s out there waving the flag; he’s not a self promoter. But he takes some tough bills and he gets the job done.”

Lewis himself partly credits a measure of personal maturation. He was, after all, one of the youngest people ever elected to the Legislature when he arrived as a 26-year-old assemblyman in 1980.

It also didn’t hurt that Republicans held sway last year in the Assembly, nor that a close buddy, Assemblyman Curt Pringle, was top honcho in the lower house.

“When I was in the Assembly, I was constantly in [former Speaker] Willie Brown’s doghouse,” recalls Lewis, a veteran now at 42. “And I just had the theory that the only way I could make a difference was by working hard politically to change the makeup of the house.

“Anything I truly believed in wouldn’t have had much of a legislative chance back in those days.”

The transformation began to take shape when Lewis jumped to the Senate with a special election victory in 1991. Allies say the win in a crowded field of formidable contenders renewed Lewis’ confidence, which had withered during a prolonged legal battle with Democratic Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp in the late ‘80s.

As the tactical brains of the conservative legislative gang known as the “cavemen,” Lewis got in trouble when Van de Kamp convinced a Sacramento grand jury to indict the conservative on forgery charges in 1989. The grand jury alleged that Lewis approved campaign letters bearing the phony signature of Ronald Reagan that had been dispatched in a nip-and-tuck South Bay race.

Lewis argued that the case was political, suggesting Van de Kamp selectively prosecuted him but ignored dirty tricks by his Democratic allies. A state appellate court threw out the indictment on grounds that Lewis wasn’t seeking financial gain, but the damage was done, both to Lewis’ reputation and his soul.

“It was,” recalls Lewis, “an awful thing to go through. A real ordeal. I was singled out and made a scapegoat.

“I am by nature a kind of nervous person. I internalize a lot. That was a very rough time for me.”

With the jump to the Senate, Lewis vowed to change his legislative ways. He began to assemble a staff that now is regarded as one of the most solid in the Senate GOP caucus. The group has given him invaluable help in crafting a legislative agenda that passes conservative muster and can win a few Democratic votes.

He also got married and fathered two children, events that shifted his focus and tightened the time he could spend on the gamesmanship of electioneering. It’s telling that Lewis says the most important race he worked during the last election was that of a close friend, Tom Tait, for the Anaheim City Council.

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Lewis had a good legislative season in 1993-94, getting more than half his bills signed into law. However, the real change came after the Orange County bankruptcy in December 1994.

During Senate hearings on the imbroglio in 1995, Lewis surprised some observers with an astute talent for inquisition, employing a soft-spoken style to dig behind the evasive answers of witnesses.

“John emerged as a serious cross-examiner,” said Sen. Quentin L. Kopp, a San Francisco independent and an attorney.

Lewis also fought a proposed sales tax increase for bankruptcy relief, then helped craft the final legislative solution that allowed the county to pull itself up without adding to the tax load of residents.

While the bankruptcy colored 1995, Lewis may have had his biggest impact in 1996 with several bills that failed:

* He pushed a measure to strip requirements that insurance firms offer earthquake coverage, something that had prompted some firms to simply stop offering homeowners coverage. The bill ultimately failed, but helped force the establishment of the California Earthquake Authority to write stripped-down policies.

* A measure that would have allowed California to privatize prisons fell one vote short on the Senate floor, a solid achievement in a house controlled by the Democrats.

* Despite successfully cutting the AQMD’s ride-sharing mandates, Lewis failed to win approval for several bills that would have neutered the agency by hurting funding and shifting the makeup of its board, which conservatives argue is anti-business. Those efforts failed, but Lewis made a name for himself as the AQMD’s chief foe.

“He seems really intent on weakening the South Coast AQMD,” Kopp said. “And after experiencing the smog down there this fall, I was left just scratching my head. I find it distasteful.”

Despite a higher legislative profile, Lewis remains to Democrats one of the more mysterious members of the Senate. Many say they have never really had any significant contact with him. Lewis rarely stands to debate bills other than his own, and doesn’t often partake in the chummy backslapping of the upper house.

“He’s not much of a noise maker,” said Sen. Ruben Ayala S. (D-Chino). “He seems introverted. He will listen and smile with the jokes, but he’s not one to tell one. Then again, [former Gov.] George Deukmejian was the same way.”

Ayala, who sits on the Senate Rules Committee with Lewis, also said that the Orange County conservative has yet to make a mark on that powerful panel, which passes judgment on gubernatorial appointments and controls the flow of legislation.

“I can’t say John has done something on Rules to be remembered by, but he’s just starting out,” Ayala said. “He’s just getting his feet wet.”

Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) said Lewis’ lack of verbosity can be an asset in a room full of political extroverts.

“He’s never going to be the ‘anyone for tennis?’ kind of guy,” Johnson said. “That’s just not John’s style. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. But I’ll tell you, in any political situation, I welcome having John Lewis covering my back.”

Lewis is now being mentioned as a likely top contender for Congress if Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) decides to run for U.S. Senate in 1998.

“It’s something I’ve considered, though I’ve no insight into what Chris Cox is going to do,” Lewis said. “The lifestyle and family questions cloud the picture. I love Orange County. And the bicoastal commute isn’t very appealing. The biggest downer would be whatever additional separation there would be from my family.”