Running Issue: Does Hurtt Want to Win?

His voting record this legislative session is the worst among state senators seeking reelection. He has won approval for only one of 48 bills introduced over the past two years. He ranks near the bottom in attendance on the Senate floor.

Heading into a potentially tough November reelection battle, state Sen. Rob Hurtt faces an unusual criticism: Democrats and even a few Republicans wonder if the wealthy industrialist really wants to keep the job.

Hurtt insists that he does, saying he intends to continue his pursuit of lower taxes, smaller government and friendlier regulations for California businesses.

But on the campaign trail, the conservative Republican from Garden Grove faces charges that he is spread too thin and has grown stale as a state lawmaker. While much of the talk is political bluster, there are some tangible signs that Hurtt’s interest in public service has waned, particularly when it comes to his voting record.

“Voting is a lawmaker’s foremost responsibility,” said Jim Knox of California Common Cause, a political watchdog group. “He has some answering to do to his constituents.”

Hurtt, 54, acknowledges he sometimes misses sessions early in the year because of pressing business at his sprawling Garden Grove manufacturing plant, which produces plastic buckets and decorative tin cans.

“In the early part of the year, when we don’t do anything around here, I put my business as my priority,” Hurtt said. “But I don’t miss the big votes.”

Hurtt, for instance, cast one of only four dissenting votes this month on the state budget, declaring that his colleagues had embraced “the profane appetite of Sacramento’s spending lobby” and failed to deliver a big enough tax cut.

Friends, meanwhile, say Hurtt’s absences have as much to do with family as his manufacturing firm. Hurtt’s sister died in April at age 57 after a lengthy illness, and the lawmaker spent much of his time tending to the emotional needs of his elderly parents.

“He focused on what he thought was most important, which was taking care of his parents and his sister,” said state Sen. Raymond N. Haynes (R-Riverside).

Hurtt cited family and business factors along with his own problems with high blood pressure when he stepped down in March from his spot as Republican leader in the Senate.

It was an extraordinary move in a world dominated by political climbers invariably eyeing the next rung up. Hurtt’s self-imposed descent helped fuel a perception that he has little interest in the doings of the Capitol.

Even during his tenure as GOP Senate leader, Hurtt was viewed by many as oddly uninvolved, delegating many traditional responsibilities to subordinates. That only helped cement an image of disinterest. In budget talks with legislative leaders and the governor, for instance, Hurtt rarely spoke.

“Rob is not a natural politician,” said one Republican Senate insider. “He doesn’t have patience or inclination to do the things politicians do, the schmoozing, the little things to build relationships--doing political favors, going to bat for people, getting chits.”

No Regrets About Giving Up Leader Job

Today, Hurtt seems to have few regrets about his decision to step down from the leadership, saying he can be more effective in a support role than leading GOP efforts to gain ground on the majority Democrats.

“It’s been pedal to the metal for five of the last six years,” Hurtt said. “I’m tired. . . . I know what it takes as leader in an election year. It’s 12- to 14-hour days, traveling the state, talking to every Lincoln Club and Central Committee.”

But he will continue to give money to candidates, as he has for most of the 1990s. Since 1992, Hurtt has contributed more than $4 million to conservative candidates and causes. He plans to give six-figure sums--he won’t say exactly how much--to GOP gubernatorial nominee Dan Lungren and to Senate Republicans.

And he will give to himself.

Since he first spent $300,000 of his own money to capture the 34th Senate District seat with 75% of the vote in a 1993 special election, Hurtt hasn’t been challenged. He hardly had to campaign when he was reelected overwhelmingly in 1994.

But this year he faces a potentially stiff fight from Democrat Joseph Dunn, a trial attorney with strong connections to a statewide consumer attorneys group that could provide lavish funding. Dunn says he will conduct an aggressive campaign.

Hurtt isn’t taking it lightly, though he believes Dunn’s candidacy is mostly intended to drain his pocketbook so he can’t effectively help other Republicans. There is a slight Democratic registration edge in the district, but it has traditionally been a Republican stronghold.

If anything, the election may have reignited Hurtt’s fires. In recent months, Haynes said, Hurtt has seemed renewed, energized. “He’s getting back into it,” said Haynes, one of Hurtt’s closest allies. “I think Rob truly likes his work. It’s a good balance to his business.”

Dunn’s camp, however, plans a different spin during the election battle. They will paint Hurtt as bored and unengaged, failing to do much of anything to help his district, an aging suburbia sprawling across Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana.

Hurtt, they note, is rarely seen at community events. Since he has not had to campaign aggressively, Hurtt’s name identification in the district has lagged.

“The word I’ve gotten from people in Sacramento is he’s disillusioned, discouraged, that his business and personal life are far more important,” said Wylie Aitken, a top Democrat in Orange County. “I have to question his commitment to serving the people back here.”

Even a few Republicans are critical.

“I don’t think he particularly likes what he does,” said Eileen Padberg, a Republican political consultant often at odds with Orange County’s GOP establishment. “I think he ran so he could play politics and be on the inside picking candidates. I don’t think he ran to make California and Orange County a better place.”

Others say such sentiments are a misreading of Hurtt’s motives. Though he hasn’t delivered on the policy front, they say, Hurtt has stayed focused on the big picture--winning Republican control of the Legislature. And by doing that, they argue, all of California will benefit.

“He’s going to represent his constituents the best way he can, and that is by working for a Republican majority,” said Mark Thompson, a GOP political consultant. “That’s what he’s all about. That’s what brought him in.”

Record of Absences Called Misleading

Hurtt says he’s not bored, only bewildered by a system that wastes time and seems impervious to bold new ideas. For instance, he would love to see the legislative year cut in half to force lawmakers to be more decisive and to reopen the institution to people other than professional politicians.

His legislative attempts, however, have been hamstrung by such sweeping notions. Hurtt rarely seeks incremental change as he pushes a legislative agenda of reducing taxes, curbing crime and slashing regulations on business. Instead of nibbling at an issue, he goes headlong. And mostly he loses. The Democrats don’t help much. Hurtt supporters say his bills invariably get rough treatment from the majority party.

Meanwhile, Hurtt allies argue that the lawmaker’s record of missed votes is misleading. Allies say most of Hurtt’s absences came during his sister’s illness. Though his record for not voting was nearly double the Senate average, they say that many of the votes he missed were on bills of little consequence involving almost no controversy or debate.

As of last week, Hurtt had not voted 22% of the time, according to a Times survey of data provided by State Net, which tracks the California Legislature. But with Hurtt voting religiously on a flood of bills in the final days of session, that figure should drop to about 16%, allies say.

They also note that Hurtt’s voting record in committee--where the real legislative heavy lifting gets done--is better than average for the Senate. Hurtt didn’t vote 17.6% of the time in committee, while the Senate average is 17.9%.

“I like his performance,” said Buck Johns, a leader in Orange County’s influential Lincoln Club. “The vote record is an overplayed statistic.”

Instead, Johns said, Hurtt has brought business acumen to the Capitol and provided a campaign windfall for Republicans with his wallet.

“He’s made a run at reducing the size of government, reducing taxes, making government less intrusive,” Johns said. “He’s done a good job helping organize and strengthen the party, and he was a key guy in getting a majority in the Assembly.”

Times librarian Paul Singleton contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Not Voting

State Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) had one of the worst voting records on the Senate floor in the 1997-98 legislative session. He fares better on committee votes.

Floor Votes

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Senator % bills not voting William A. Craven (R-Carlsbad) 88.9% Ralph C. Dills (D-El Segundo) 40.6% Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier) 23.7% Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) 22.3% John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) 21.3% Senate average 12.1%

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Committee Votes

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Senator % bills not voting William A. Craven (R-Carlsbad) 88.9% Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier) 47.3% Ken Maddy (R-Fresno) 41.7% Ralph C. Dills (D-El Segundo) 40.8% Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) 27.6% Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) 17.6% Senate average 17.9%

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Source: State Net

Researched by Paul Singleton / Los Angeles Times