Tom Bane; Served 24 Years in Assembly, Was Mentor to Democratic Lawmakers

Former state Assemblyman Tom Bane, a sometimes controversial Democrat whose 24 years in office earned him the status of a titan in California politics, died of natural causes Saturday evening. He was 85.

Before he retired in 1992, the Tarzana legislator was the dean of the San Fernando Valley delegation during two separate stints in office spanning five decades, supporters said Sunday.

Bane was first elected in 1958, but after six years he left office for the banking industry after an unsuccessful bid for Congress. He returned in 1974 to the 40th District seat that he held without much competition until his retirement.

“Tom Bane is a big part of this state’s history,” said Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, a Democrat who represents Bane’s old district, covering Van Nuys and parts of North Hollywood, Reseda and Encino. “He truly was a giant.”

Bane ended his career as the chairman of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee. That post, which assigns bills to the various committees in the Assembly, made the Burbank High School graduate an influential right-hand man to former Assembly speakers Jesse Unruh and Willie Brown.

As a lawmaker, Bane drafted several laws that regulated crime, automobile insurance and the savings and loan industry--a business that employed Bane between stints in office.

One of his best known legislative triumphs was a 1988 law mandating heavy punishment for hate crimes committed in California, a law Congress is seeking to duplicate nationwide.

“He was an inspiration,” said U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), one of several Valley Democrats who considered Bane a mentor.

Bane belonged to the era in California politics that preceded term limits, Sherman said, “‘definitely of the old school.”

Even late in his political career, Bane often walked his district during campaigns instead of relying on focus groups and advertisements to rally support, Sherman said.

“He would go into a coffee shop and pretend that he recognized somebody in the back and proceed to say ‘Hello’ to everybody else in the restaurant,” Sherman recalled. “That kind of grass-roots accessibility is the way democracy is supposed to work.” Bane’s success at raising campaign funds for typically landslide victories in his heavily Democratic district drew controversy for him and his wife, Marlene, who married the legislator in 1979. The two were well known among state Democrats as a power couple, perpetually engaged in political consulting and nonprofit projects.

During the late 1980s--while Bane operated a national lupus foundation and his wife was chairwoman of the state lupus appropriations board--a coalition of lupus support groups accused Marlene Bane of funneling about $800,000 in state money to a longtime doctor who also was a big contributor to Bane’s election campaigns. Those charges were eventually dropped after an investigation by the state attorney general’s office.

To his wife and supporters, Bane was “a very warm and endearing human being,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs. “He had a great reverence for human life and understood people’s dignity.”

Marlene Bane remembered her husband Sunday as true to his Jewish faith and “the straightest guy I ever knew in my life.”

Before he succumbed to a respiratory illness that lasted eight months, “he lived honestly and loved the law, the Torah, me, his children and grandchildren very much,” she said.

Bane is survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren. Funeral services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills.