Marshaling California’s Democratic Forces

Once upon a time, the mighty Democrats of California held their weekly meetings in the Members’ Dining Room in the Capitol.

Those were the days when they had their own full-time staff organization to keep the powerful California Democratic Caucus humming like a well-tuned V-8.

Those were the days when Democrats ruled the House and Californians seemed to have their hands on all the legislative levers.

Those were the days of jauntiness just this side of swagger.

But those days ended abruptly on election day 1994 when the Republicans captured Capitol Hill. The Democratic funk took a long time to dissipate.

Now, after two years of shuffling about, they are getting a life.

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Dutifully trying to light a fire under her colleagues is Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of Los Angeles, recently elected chairman of the California Democrats. Daughter of former Rep. Edward R. Roybal, her district office is in the downtown federal office building that bears his name.

“I don’t have any illusions that we’ll be able to do anything great and grandiose, particularly in the first year. But there is a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of members are excited about the potential,” says Roybal-Allard, whose 33rd Congressional District takes in downtown and such communities as Boyle Heights, Little Tokyo and Bell Gardens.

Her goals are twofold: To stir up her fellow Democrats--at 29 strong, far larger than many entire state delegations--and reach out to her 23 Republican California colleagues on a quest for some elusive bipartisan cooperation.

“As I tell my colleagues from other states, I want their worst nightmare to come true--the California delegation coming together on key issues.”

She and her California GOP counterpart, Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands, have talked and hope to find “three or four” issues on which the warring parties can agree.

“I believe he’s sincere about working together,” Roybal-Allard says.

One potential area for cooperation is new formulas for dispensing federal revenue to the states.

“The news we hear is that the formula for health care dollars will have a tremendous negative impact on California,” Roybal-Allard says. “We’re going to have to work together, otherwise we could let something really disastrous happen.”

She has already set up several task forces to get the Democratic gears meshing again. One will track on those ominous federal funding formulas; another will focus on “dispelling the myth that Democrats are anti-business.”

The shock of minority status two years ago led to fewer meetings and poor attendance. Roybal-Allard is shooting for twice-monthly general meetings, with a steering committee meeting on the alternate weeks.

She’s still experimenting with the time of day.

“Those 8 a.m. meetings definitely did not work. Nobody liked to get up that early.” And instead of the Members’ Dining Room, they are forced to gather in a nondescript meeting room in one of the House office buildings across the street.

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The California Democratic chairmanship traditionally goes to the most senior member. Just elected to her third term, Roybal-Allard, 55, hardly fits the profile.

But Rep. George E. Brown Jr. of San Bernardino, who has logged the longest House service, had a minor epiphany during the doleful last Congress.

“Many of our approaches to the [Democratic] delegation have remained unchanged for decades . . . “ he wrote in a letter to colleagues. “I concluded that our leadership structure had to be inverted, with the junior members taking the lead.”

He had discovered an irony: “By the time you have served long enough to attain positions of leadership, you no longer have enough free time to do the job right.”

Brown came up with a new title for himself--chairman emeritus--”a vague position . . . that allows me free rein to offer Lucille and the rest of the delegation whatever wisdom I can assume to have accumulated.”

Roybal-Allard says one of the most important aspects of a reinvigorated bunch of Democrats is being able to see them on a regular basis.

“I hardly ever see anyone from the delegation unless I run into them in the halls or on the floor. We have to find a way to socialize more.”

But she’s a realist. “At the first planning meeting, we had 10 members show up--not all at the same time though.”

For her first regular meeting this week, she was hoping for 10 of her 29 colleagues, and said she would “be happy if I get five.”

Fourteen--”a good cross-section of the delegation”--found the time to attend.

Lucille Roybal-Allard had delivered her wake-up call.