Davis Divides Chief of Staff Job, Names 2 Key Advisors to Posts

Gov.-elect Gray Davis appointed his two top staff members Thursday, splitting the traditional chief of staff’s job between former U.S. Rep. Lynn Schenk of San Diego and Davis’ communications director, Vincent Hall.

The announcement, expected to kick off a series of key gubernatorial appointments in the coming days, described Schenk, 53, as the governor’s chief advisor and Hall, 34, as director of the governor’s office staff.

Davis said in a statement that he has freed Schenk of some of the job’s past duties “so she can function more as my principal advisor.” Her title will be “chief aide and senior counselor.” Hall’s will be “staff director.”

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante said the decision to bifurcate the job was based on Davis’ own tenure as Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr.’s chief of staff.

“This is a guy who spent 6 1/2 years in that chair and understands . . . what he needs to do to get the most out of that position,” Bustamante said.

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) said the choice of someone with as strong a track record as Schenk’s will bring Davis added respect from legislators.

“I’m excited,” he said. “She’s got a great reputation.”

Schenk was not available for comment but issued a statement in which she said she was grateful for the confidence Davis had shown in her. “As a longtime friend and colleague, I look forward to working with him in building his new administration and addressing the challenges that face California over the next four years,” she said.

Schenk, an attorney, was active in Davis’ campaign, joining him on the stump and helping him raise money. Just last week, she said she was ambivalent about joining the administration, noting that the Sacramento-based job has long hours and that her husband of 25 years, Hugh Friedman, is a law professor at the University of San Diego.

Schenk represented San Diego in Congress for one term from 1993-95, but lost in her bid for reelection to Republican Brian Bilbray.

She and Davis have known each other since they were members of the Brown administration. She served as Brown’s secretary of business, transportation and housing from 1980-82.

Those who know Schenk well say she is an excellent and logical choice for Davis, who needs a core group of people he can trust implicitly. A powerful leader needs an advisor who “can tell you the real truth . . . who can tell you you’ve got a piece of lettuce on your tooth,” said Schenk’s former chief of staff, Laurie Black, now president of the Downtown San Diego Partnership. “Lynn absolutely has that kind of relationship with Gray.”

Davis, who acknowledges that he has a very small circle of close friends, “has always counted Lynn as part of that circle,” said Scott Shafer, who was Davis’ press secretary when Davis was state controller.

Shafer also helped manage Schenk’s campaign for attorney general this year, a race she lost in the Democratic primary to Atty. Gen.-elect Bill Lockyer.

David Lewis, a former San Diego political consultant who handled Mayor Susan Golding’s successful race for county supervisor against Schenk in the 1980s, described her as a “liberal opportunist.”

“I’m sure she’ll do a good job for the new governor, but this is certainly a leftward tilt for a governor who says he’s a centrist,” Lewis said.

Although Schenk lost the supervisor’s race to Golding in a bitter campaign, she collected $150,000 in a settlement of a libel suit against her over campaign materials that claimed Schenk was under investigation for misuse of public funds.

In Congress, Schenk developed a reputation as a moderate. She supported a ban on assault weapons, an issue sure to be among Davis’ first orders of business when he takes office next month. She also was known as mercurial and detail-oriented and a hard driver of her staff.

In her campaign for attorney general, Schenk emphasized her support for the death penalty and measures aimed at what she called “the scum who dare to sell drugs” to children. Davis also supports the death penalty.

A graduate of the University of San Diego law school, Schenk worked as a state deputy attorney general early in her career and later was in-house counsel for San Diego Gas & Electric. Currently, she is special counsel to the international law firm Baker & McKenzie in San Diego.

Hall has served as Davis’ communications director in the lieutenant governor’s office for the past two years. Previously, he worked as district director for U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego) and served as Filner’s aide during Filner’s tenure as a San Diego city councilman from 1987-93.

On Thursday, San Diego Councilwoman Christine Kehoe called Hall a “whiz kid” who is brilliant with computers.

Hall was not available for comment but in a statement said he was “looking forward to the opportunity of playing a role in helping [Davis] carry out his vision for the state.”

A native of Firebaugh in the Central Valley, Hall began his college education at Cal State Fresno and graduated with a communications degree from San Diego State.

Cynthia Vicknair, another former San Diego City Council aide, said Hall was “the mastermind” when Filner wrested power from Mayor Maureen O’Connor by putting together a five-person majority on the nine-member council.

“That was all Vince,” Vicknair said. “It says a lot about Davis that he wants Vince, that he’s interested in fresh faces with energy, not just the same tired old cast.”

Times staff writers Tony Perry in San Diego and Mark Barabak in Los Angeles contributed to this story.