L.A.’s Villaraigosa Poised to Be Speaker

Moving to add stability to the Legislature, Senate and Assembly Democrats are preparing to select their new leaders, with a fast-rising Eastside assemblyman poised to become the first speaker from Los Angeles in 20 years.

Antonio Villaraigosa, a former labor organizer in only his third year of office, appears to be on the verge of locking up enough votes from key Democrats to capture the Assembly speaker post. A vote could come as early as next week.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Burton, a flamboyant, old-line San Francisco liberal, seems to have sufficient votes in the upper house to become the next Senate leader.

The Senate’s majority Democrats are expected to vote today on Burton’s nomination. A floor vote is expected next week. Twenty-one votes are needed in the 40-seat house to elect a Senate leader.

The leadership shake-up comes less than a month after a federal appeals court upheld California’s term limits law. That decision will force Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) and Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno) to relinquish their seats this year.

By day’s end Thursday, several key Democrats said Villaraigosa had lined up a strong majority of the Assembly’s 43 Democrats--he needs 41 votes in the 80-seat house to elected to the powerful post.

His supporters said more members probably will fall into line as a vote nears. That could come next week.

At least one Democrat, Assemblywoman Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego), continues to challenge Villaraigosa--one of the Assembly’s most liberal members--for the top spot, said her spokesman Curtis Richards.

Among Villaraigosa’s supporters were Assemblywomen Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) and Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), whose names had surfaced in the past as candidates for leader of the lower house.

“I think I am able to say that he will be our next speaker,” Kuehl said. “It looks to me that Antonio has an insurmountable advantage.”

Villaraigosa would not comment. But his spokesman, Rich Zeiger, said, “Antonio is working very hard to be speaker. He would be honored if his colleagues chose him to lead them.”

A Villaraigosa speakership could have a significant impact on Los Angeles.

“It’s particularly good for Los Angeles right now,” said Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey). “Los Angeles is still struggling to come back economically. . . . I’m very excited to have a speaker whose attention will be on these things.”

In the upper house, Burton, who has been a fixture in San Francisco politics for more than 30 years--and regularly clashes with Gov. Pete Wilson, whom he sometimes calls “the little Marine”--said he believes he has the support of a majority of the Senate’s 23 Democrats and that “it looks very good” that he will become leader.

Burton’s main rival, Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton), had not conceded Thursday. A third contender, Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles), acknowledged he had been unable to round up the votes needed to win the coveted job, and was supporting Burton.

Polanco said he expects to play a “major role” in policy development and election campaigns under Burton. “Put it this way,” Polanco said, “I think this team is going to be the Republicans’ worst nightmare.”

Although term limits have diluted the power of the leadership posts, the new speaker and Senate leader would instantly become two of the most powerful officials in California.

The leaders of the two houses can decide the fate of legislation and exert significant influence over the state’s $73.8-billion budget--plus deliver pork to their regions and ensure that their allies get the perks of office. Those range from choice committee assignments to the best Capitol offices.

Thanks to a federal judge’s ruling in a lawsuit last week striking down campaign contribution limits, the leaders will regain one of their major sources of power--the ability to raise money for campaigns and spread it among other candidates.

The dapper Villaraigosa, 44, is among the Assembly’s most passionate members, and among the most genial. Like Burton, he is close to several Republicans. Villaraigosa, who once dropped out of high school, was described by several lawmakers as the ideal choice to lead an increasingly diverse assembly.

In his three years as a lawmaker, Villaraigosa has won points with female legislators with a bill signed into law last year guaranteeing women the right to breast-feed in public. He also wrote legislation to strengthen state law barring discrimination of gays and lesbians, although that bill failed.

Perhaps his most significant measure was legislation last year that provides state-funded health care coverage to children of the low-income parents whose employers don’t provide medical insurance.

Raised with three other siblings by a single mother, Villaraigosa grew up in one of the poorer sections of East Los Angeles. He has told interviewers that in high school he was the typical angry young man whose disinterest in learning produced low grades and finally prompted him to drop out.

His interest in learning was reignited when a buddy talked him into giving him rides to the UCLA campus, and ultimately, he returned to finish high school. After a year in community college, he was admitted to UCLA.

After college, Villaraigosa took jobs with a local union for government employees and later as a representative for United Teachers-Los Angeles. When he married in 1988, he decided to change his last name by combining his own family name of Villar with his wife’s last name, Raigosa.

Deeply involved in Los Angeles Latino politics, Villaraigosa won his seat in the Assembly in 1994 after a bitter campaign against a candidate backed by Polanco and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre.

At one point, Villaraigosa, who was supported by Supervisor Gloria Molina, accused his opponents of spreading false rumors that he had been arrested for a felony assault in 1977.

Police records obtained by The Times showed that he was initially arrested for felony assault stemming from an attack by a man against Villaraigosa’s mother during a melee at a restaurant. He was tried on a misdemeanor assault charge and was not convicted.

Villaraigosa helped engineer Bustamante’s election as speaker last year. Bustamante, who was Villaraigosa’s roommate, was the first Latino to be chosen speaker in California.

Bustamante, who is considering running for lieutenant governor, had said he hoped to remain speaker for much of the year. The two remain close, and Villaraigosa is being careful not to push Bustamante aside.

As for Burton, the 65-year-old lawmaker has particular appeal to some Democrats because he is a prodigious fund-raiser.

He is the younger brother of the late Rep. Phil Burton, perhaps the most powerful U.S. congressman ever to come from California. Together, the Burton brothers, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and others formed a machine that has dominated politics in San Francisco for years.

After being elected to the Assembly in the 1960s, John Burton won a congressional seat, which he held for eight years. He gave up the seat and retired in 1982, after his friend, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated in 1978.

In his later years in Congress, Burton became addicted to drugs and alcohol. He has been sober since 1982.

Burton reentered politics in 1988, again winning an Assembly seat, and immediately became one of then-Speaker Willie Brown’s closest lieutenants.

Burton was elected to the state Senate in 1996. If he becomes leader of the upper house, he could hold the post until 2004, when he would be forced by term limits to leave office.

Burton is among Sacramento’s most striking characters. The Senate requires men to wear coats and ties--a tradition with which he complies by wearing a tie with polo shirts, along with wrinkled, if not tattered, blazers.

He has clashed with Wilson, a former Marine, over such issues as welfare reductions and often spoken derisively about him. In an interview, Burton vowed to limit such comments.

“I’d have to work with Pete, and he’d have to work with me,” Burton said. “I got along fine with Ronald Reagan as much as I used to needle him. He didn’t take it personally.”

Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this story.