Breakaway Fight Can Be Roller-Coaster Ride

For the politicians caught up in its service, the Valley secession issue has been a fickle master.

It brought ruin to one legislator, Paula L. Boland, when it seemed poised to deliver glory. And for the two assemblymen who have now guided a secession-easing bill into law, whether it ultimately proves boon or bane to their careers remains to be seen.

Undoubtedly, with passage of the bill, the political spotlight is now trained on the two men who combined in an unlikely bipartisan alliance to shepherd it through the Legislature--Assemblymen Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks).

In the immediate term, observers say, the two can revel in the credit and fame attached to their success. But more lasting benefits may elude them in a political world where the attention spans of both voters and lawmakers are shorter than ever.

“There’s always the danger of underestimating [the effect of] something like this--and, conversely, the danger of overestimating it,” said Larry Levine, a veteran Democratic consultant in the San Fernando Valley. “You’ve got a cadre of voters who care very passionately about the issue and are very vocal about it. But you’re never sure how far that goes.”

In the short run, the good fortune of AB 62 has allowed Hertzberg, a freshman legislator, to make a splash early in his Capitol life. Already respected enough among his colleagues for them to name him head of the Public Safety Committee--an unusually high-profile job for a newcomer--Hertzberg now has another feather in his cap, one that caters directly to his mid-Valley constituents in the 40th District.

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“Hertzberg is becoming quite a political force in the San Fernando Valley,” said GOP political consultant Allan Hoffenblum. “When I talk to my Chamber of Commerce buddies and Republican activists in the Valley, Hertzberg’s name often comes up even though he’s a Democrat. His carrying the secession bill will probably [resonate] with Valley-ites.”

Equally, McClintock, new to the Valley but an old hand in the Assembly, can expect to shore up some immediate support with Valley voters in the 38th District, where he was comfortably elected to succeed Boland last November, pundits say.

McClintock, who served in the Assembly from 1982 to 1992 out of Oxnard and Ventura, is representing Los Angeles County voters for the first time and lacks a fully developed power base here. He would need the support of the Valley if he were to seek higher office again after failing in 1992 to land a congressional seat and in the 1994 state controller’s race.

“He’s an outspoken, maverick politician, particularly when it comes to taxes and government reform. Only time will tell” whether his Valley constituents completely embrace him, Hoffenblum said.

But Richard Close, a leader in the secession movement, said the ongoing secession process would keep McClintock’s name on the lips of Valley voters for several years to come.

“This is not something that’s over in 1997. We’re just starting,” Close said. “This is something that will have to be worked on in ‘97, ‘98, ’99 and 2000.”

Still, a year in politics is a long time. Just ask Boland, whose reputation flew high but whose legislative career came crashing down last year on the tails of the same secession issue.

In a Republican-dominated lower house that has since returned to Democratic control, Boland pushed a secession-easing bill through and on to the Senate, where it encountered vehement opposition. In a heady dose of publicity for any politician, Boland made headlines almost daily as she fenced with her foes, at times holding position and at other times giving way to try to win approval for her bill in the upper chamber.

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Ultimately, however, it failed. And the issue that had catapulted her to quick fame suddenly turned into a lead weight in her campaign to capture a state Senate seat representing cities such as Glendale and Pasadena and parts of the San Gabriel Valley, where Boland’s battles on secession meant next to nothing to voters and lent credence to accusations of carpetbagging.

“It’s one of the main reasons she lost the Senate seat,” said Scott Wilk, Boland’s then-chief of staff, who now works for McClintock. “It was in the paper every day, and it just reinforced the fact that she didn’t hail from that district.”

“She indicated that her legislative priority was to serve the interests of the people in the next valley over, unless she was trying to split La Canada off of Flintridge,” added Parke Skelton, the campaign consultant for Boland’s opponent in the race, a political neophyte named Adam Schiff.

The fight over the secession bill also siphoned away time Boland might have spent doing grass-roots campaigning in a district in transition from a GOP bastion to a less-conservative one.

“There were things that needed to be done to mend fences and energize the base, and she had no time to do any of that,” Wilk said.

Schiff won by a large margin. But Boland has not faded away. In another testament to its fickleness, the same issue that turned her into a local celebrity, then shot her off her perch in Sacramento, has provided a cushion for her to land on: Boland now serves on the city’s elected charter reform commission, a body created, ironically, in direct response to the threat of secession.