Legislative Patriarch Maps Plan to Perpetuate Service

At age 87, most people would be happy to be alive and in good health, enjoying retirement. But for state Sen. Ralph Dills, the oldest and longest-serving member of the Legislature, it is time instead to consider extending his career--this time as a member of the Assembly.

Faced with term limits that will sweep him out of the Senate, the El Segundo Democrat indicated in an interview that he wants to continue a legislative career that began nearly 60 years and 30 primary and general election campaigns ago.

If Dills runs and wins, he would return to the same South Bay seat he first won in 1938 as an eager young rookie full of the notions of Socialist reformer Upton Sinclair.

“My gosh, it is awfully hard at my age to change. This is not work, it’s fun. It’s what I love to do. . . . So, why not?” Dills said. Besides, he added, “What else would I do? Go home? You’re under the little lady’s foot. She wants you out of the house.”

If Dills does make the jump, it would not be the first time he has surprised his friends and foes alike.

In 1994, at age 84 and when many expected him to retire, he ran in a newly reapportioned South Bay district. Dills disarmed his opponents by poking fun at himself as the experienced lawmaker “too old to quit.”

The tactic, combined with a campaign that cost more than $1 million, worked and landed him an eighth four-year term. The win was crucial to Democrats keeping control of the Senate.

As Dills himself says, even voters who reelected him in that race may have said to themselves, “What the hell, let him go into the sunset happy.”

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Not only is Dills the oldest member of the Legislature, but also its longevity champion with 41 years of service. He served from 1939-49 in the Assembly, left to become a judge and returned to the Legislature in 1967 as a senator.

By national standards, he also ranks near the top of the longevity lists. The National Conference of State Legislatures places him at No. 4, not far behind the titleholder, Rep. Daniel Healy of New Hampshire, who is serving his 50th year.

The saxophone-tooting California politician with a penchant for cowboy hats, loud sport coats and splashy neckties, lives with his wife, Elizabeth, on a ranchette northeast of Sacramento.

Each day since their wedding 27 years ago, he said, she has insisted on styling his sparse, black-dyed hair before he leaves for the Capitol, making him perhaps the most carefully coiffed lawmaker in Sacramento.

“She knows how to use every hair,” Dills said proudly. But when she has been ill and unable to spend the necessary 90 minutes the project takes, Dills wears one of his black or white cowboy hats to the Senate.

Gaunt and a bit stooped these days, Dills insists he is in good health and considers himself an able competitor. He serves as the presiding officer of Senate floor sessions, a job that demands mental dexterity. He also chairs the Governmental Organization Committee.

“I’ve been able to keep up with the rest of them and do my share, sometimes to the regret of other people,” Dills said.

But, he said, “if I don’t feel that I am carrying my weight,” he will retire. “I think I will recognize the time. The sign will be it is time to quit, instead of too old to quit.”

Dills is considering the seat of Assemblyman Dick Floyd (D-Wilmington), who has said he plans to succeed Dills in the Senate. Democratic Assemblywoman Debra Bowen of Marina del Rey also is expected to run for Dills’ Senate seat.

“Hopefully, I will remain sharp enough,” Dills said of a possible return to the Assembly.

For their part, his colleagues say he is still one of the quickest and wiliest operators in Sacramento.

“Sen. Dills is as sharp and alert as any member,” said Senate leader Bill Lockyer, 55, a Hayward Democrat. “Not only does he have a remarkable institutional memory for legislative history, but understands subtleties and nuances of contemporary debates in detail.”

Critics claim he is too close to certain special interests, including horse racetracks, card room operators, labor and teacher unions, brewers and distillers, the oil industry and plaintiffs’ lawyers.

But Dills argues that he has only been representing the interests of his district. Indeed, his voting record has shifted substantially as his district has changed.

During the 1994 race, South Bay conservationists objected that Dills had the worst environmental voting record in the Senate--a criticism Dills concedes was accurate.

“They were right,” he said. “I did have the worst record.”

But he told his prospective new constituents that his Senate votes reflected the realities of faithfully representing his old inland district, which included multiple oil refineries and such working-class communities as Lynwood, Carson, Wilmington and Paramount. Concern for the environment, he says, was not a district priority.

“I had oil, oil, oil. Tideland oil. Oil all over the joint,” he recalled. “I represented my district.”

After the 1990 census, court-imposed reapportionment changed the district’s boundaries, pushing part of it west and north to include environmentally conscious suburban beach communities, running from Long Beach up to Venice.

“I moved over to the beaches . . . where they don’t like oil. No oil drilling. . . . They want nice, clean fresh air and water,” he said.

Immediately, Dills was transformed, becoming a born-again conservationist. He authored and voted for environmental bills, assuring residents of his new district that “I’m 100% with the environment.”

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So was launched a remarkable political metamorphosis.

The League of Conservation Voters, which had sponsored an opposition candidate in 1994 to punish him, recently awarded Dills a perfect 100% rating on his environmental votes in 1995-96.

His score edged out even that of state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), an environmental leader in the Legislature.

“We were pleasantly surprised,” said Sam Schuchat, executive director of the 30,000-member league. “[During the primary campaign], Ralph said he would be a good environmental vote and would vote his district. We didn’t trust him. He won handily and ever since has been a 100% vote.”

But Dills downplays the notion that he had an extraordinary political conversion.

His top priority, he says, always has been to represent his district, a civics lesson he says newcomers in the Legislature would be wise to learn.

“I think if you don’t represent your district,” Dills said, “you won’t last very long.”