Assembly Speaker Sworn In With Unusual Festivity

A mariachi band played and a little girl sang “Los Laureles” under the Capitol dome. The aroma of burritos and tacos wafted down government corridors. A thousand or more guests heard the speeches and cheered.

Making a fiesta of it, packing the audience with admirers, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles formally took the gavel Thursday as speaker of the Assembly.

The inauguration, as it was called, was unlike any such installation in the past--usually a perfunctory moment following intense Assembly infighting over who gets the powerful job.

But this time, Villaraigosa took the reins in a peaceful--but splashy--hand-over from outgoing fellow Democrat Cruz Bustamante of Fresno. The Southland legislator was elected speaker last month.

“I am proud to turn the gavel over to my friend and my brother,” said Bustamante, the mild-mannered leader who contrasts sharply in style with the more impassioned Villaraigosa.

To family members, legislative colleagues, former speakers, candidates and Democratic leaders in the packed Assembly chamber, Villaraigosa said that for him to become speaker “proves that we do live in a nation where the American dream is still alive.”

A self-styled progressive--pro-labor and pro-immigrant--Villaraigosa was raised in a broken home in East Los Angeles and often refers to his responsibility to help troubled youths.

Despite the impassioned rhetoric, the occasion was bereft of the political drama that in the past has accompanied selecting a new speaker.

The choice of Villaraigosa was preordained a month ago when he was elected to the post on a partisan 43-35 Assembly vote. By mutual agreement with his predecessor, Villaraigosa put off assuming the office until Thursday.

The hand-over from Bustamante to Villaraigosa--the only Latinos ever to be speakers of the lower house--is the first intraparty transfer of the title in modern times that was not accompanied by rancor and accusations of party betrayal.

Bustamante, forced from the Assembly at the end of this year by term limits, is running for lieutenant governor.

Of the upgraded installation festivities, Assembly Republican Leader Bill Leonard of San Bernardino said Thursday, “I kinda like it.”

After all, he said, should Republicans recapture the Assembly majority in next November’s elections, it could be his turn.

Organizers tapped an estimated $8,000 in taxpayer funds for the frills surrounding Villaraigosa’s installation, and money was used from Democrats’ campaign accounts as well, said Rich Zeiger, the new speaker’s spokesman.

“We were able to anticipate the swearing-in, which is something that doesn’t typically happen, so there is more ceremony than has been done in the past,” Zeiger said. “But it’s fitting, given the importance of the office.”