L.A.’s Villaraigosa to Become Next Speaker of Assembly

Antonio Villaraigosa, who came out of a broken home and a troubled youth in East Los Angeles to become a passionate liberal politician, on Monday was named the next speaker of the California Assembly.

In a striking contrast of political styles, Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) was chosen to replace Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno), the farm country moderate who has held the powerful position for 14 months and is being forced out of the Assembly this year by term limits.

As the first speaker in a generation from Los Angeles, Villaraigosa, 45, could substantially boost the Southland’s clout in Sacramento with the speaker’s powers of appointment and his ability to influence legislation and the state budget.

On a partisan vote, the Assembly elected Villaraigosa speaker, 43 to 35, with the effective date of his installation set for Feb. 26. The timing was worked out between Villaraigosa and Bustamante--the only Latinos ever to rise to the Assembly speakership--to allow the outgoing speaker to avoid the appearance of being swept aside.

Even as Democrats in recent days met in private to set the stage for the transfer of power, signs emerged that a more aggressive speaker was about to take over.

Some Democrats complained privately of heavy-handedness by Villaraigosa against Bustamante, who at first wanted a later departure date. But the mild-mannered outgoing speaker nevertheless counseled unity and loyalty to Villaraigosa, and praised him lavishly Monday on the Assembly floor.

Bustamante said Villaraigosa “is not only a political friend and ally, he is a personal friend. . . . I’m very glad my friend Antonio Villaraigosa will be coming into the speakership after I go out.”

Bustamante has announced that he will run for lieutenant governor.

An Assembly member for just 3 1/2 years, Villaraigosa heads into the office still dogged by questions about his unusual path to mainstream political success.

Villaraigosa is easy to notice in the halls of the Legislature, with his fashionable clothes, close-cropped hair and wire-rimmed glasses. But he recalled a time when he seemed the most unlikely person to wear such trappings of success.

Villaraigosa’s alcoholic father left the family’s two-room apartment in the low-income City Terrace section of East Los Angeles when Antonio was 5. The boy dropped out of Cathedral High School for a time, “angry, hurt, disillusioned, who knows why. . . . I just stopped going.”

A sullen kid from a broken, poor home, he flirted with police trouble and fell into the ways of the street, not all of them bad. He recalled pleasant nights cruising Whittier Boulevard in his low-rider ’66 Chevrolet with his buddy, Gil Cedillo--now a new Democratic Assembly member from Los Angeles.

But mostly, “I had a tough life, no question about it,” Villaraigosa said.

Given his early years, “I never in my grandest imagination could have believed that I’d be sitting here on the precipice of being the next speaker of the state of California. But my mother did. She was--what do you call it--the wind beneath my wings.”

His mother, now deceased, was a secretary for a state agency. She urged him to read, and Villaraigosa returned to Roosevelt High School, graduated in 1971 and went on to graduate from UCLA with a degree in history.

Politically, he became a “progressive” and an organizer for labor unions, as well as an activist for other liberal causes. Villaraigosa served as president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in 1993 and still sits on the organization’s board of directors.

Saying he did so as a young idealist, he went on a group tour to Cuba in 1977, only to return disillusioned with Fidel Castro’s communist rule.

Of his progressive views, Villaraigosa said, “I believe in justice. I’ve fought my whole life for it.”

But he said he understands that Republicans “get elected too” and that, as a leader, he must--and already has--befriended many in the Assembly’s GOP ranks. “This is a diverse state, where the vital center is moderate, and I’m going to have to respect that,” he said.

Villaraigosa said he hopes to steer Assembly lawmaking toward improving education, health care and the environment, helping businesses create more jobs and providing alternatives to gangs and crime for the state’s youth.

Conservative GOP Assembly Leader Bill Leonard of San Bernardino on Monday wished Villaraigosa “a successful, even if very short, speakership,” referring to GOP hopes that the Democrats will lose their Assembly majority in the November elections this year.

Meanwhile, Leonard said that, though he disagrees with Villaraigosa philosophically, he has “begun a working relationship with him.”

Villaraigosa arrived in Sacramento in 1994, winning in his first try for elective office. But bitter political rivalries that divide Los Angeles Latinos came into play in the Democratic primary for the 45th Assembly District that year--and brought to light a violent encounter in Villaraigosa’s past.

His Democratic opponent charged that Villaraigosa, during his college years, had been arrested for felony assault. The charge stemmed from a brawl in a Los Angeles restaurant in which Villaraigosa said he was defending his mother. The felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor, which was erased from his record when a jury failed to convict him. Nevertheless, critics have raised the incident throughout Villaraigosa’s brief political career.

The rivalry among Latinos that marked Villaraigosa’s first election battle has subsided, said state Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who then opposed Villaraigosa but now counts him as a friend. “I support him 100%,” Polanco said.

Villaraigosa has two children, ages 8 and 4, from his marriage to Corina Villaraigosa, a schoolteacher, and two grown daughters from a previous relationship. The name Villaraigosa is a composite of Villar, Antonio’s former last name, and Raigosa, his wife’s maiden name.

When he takes over next month as the first speaker from Los Angeles since Democrat Bob Moretti held the post from 1971 to 1974, Villaraigosa will make all-important committee assignments, control the fate of legislation and wield the power of punishment and reward over fellow members. As an election-year speaker, he will assume the task of directing campaign funds in an effort by Democrats to retain their Assembly majority.

Villaraigosa’s new power could allow him to secure better financial deals for inner-city schools, which have come up short when state bond funds were distributed in the past. He could campaign for better tools to prevent youth crime--an issue close to his heart because of his background.

On Monday, however, Villaraigosa was holding off on any lavish promises for Los Angeles. He pledged that schools there will “get their fair share” of state resources. But he said he holds a “responsibility to do what’s fair for the whole state” even though “on balance it’s better for Los Angeles County to have a speaker than not.”