The Senator Will Save You a Place at His Table

As we turn centuries, it’s refreshing to find one guy who’s still politicking the way they did 100 years ago.

Make that 1,000 years ago.

It’s the time-tested, most effective way of communicating with another human: actual conversation.

In an era when most politicians have turned to cyberspace gadgetry and continue to rely on stale, staged photo ops, state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) keeps connecting the old fashioned way: face-to-face on street corners.

Like most pols, O’Connell has his own Internet Web page. But his most effective communications site is an old card table. Once a week, on average, he totes the table to some downtown curb in his far-flung legislative district, roughly between Ventura and Paso Robles.

He sets up for 90 minutes or more, calling it “office hours.” He talks with people, not at them--with anybody, about anything.

The senator does this not because he’s an old geezer who can’t adapt to the latest gimmicks--he’s 48--but because it works politically. He started doing it during his first Assembly race in 1982, when Republican Brooks Firestone--the vintner and tire fortune heir--was outspending him nearly 3 to 1. O’Connell eked out a 1 percentage point win and he has been a landslide victor ever since, despite running in a district split almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

He also enjoys it, O’Connell insists. He must, or he’d have dropped the routine long ago because term limits bar him from seeking reelection. The former teacher, however, is considering running for state schools chief when his term expires in 2002.

“It’s a little hokey,” O’Connell concedes, “but I like this.” He likes getting out in the fresh air, meeting ordinary people and taking the public pulse.

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One recent Friday, I traipsed along with O’Connell to sidewalk sessions in downtown Ventura--at California and Main--and on a wind-swept corner in Carpinteria.

Of the couple dozen people who talked to the lawmaker, not one mentioned the highly publicized presidential race. Gov. Gray Davis’ name came up only in passing. Nobody talked about abortion. One man gently complained about gun control. (In the past, gunners have picketed O’Connell, he says, and even threatened him.)

Most of the steam was generated by local issues, a reminder of the late House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill’s adage that “all politics is local.”

“I have a barking dog problem,” a Santa Barbara woman complained. She feared pending legislation that would prevent landlords or homeowners groups from banning pets. “I’m very, very stressed by this. A lot of people moved to our place to get away from animals.”

O’Connell assured her that under the bill, dogs could be banned, as long as some pet was allowed. “The pet could be a fish.”

A Ventura woman was angry that local parks workers had dumped a huge sand dune at her beach house. “They’ve blocked my view,” she protested. Were they worried about high water during a storm, O’Connell asked? “Probably,” she replied, “but I’ve lived there 20 years and never had any problem.”

She went on--and on--about how the Coastal Commission had failed to notify her it was considering a dune permit. Finally, the soft-spoken lawmaker interrupted--”I know the drill”--and promised to investigate.

A Santa Barbara man griped about an expanding retirement home. He blamed a city councilman who’s an O’Connell ally. “It’s an incredible imposition on the neighborhood,” the man declared. “Pretty soon, L.A. is going to be saying, ‘We don’t want to be like Santa Barbara.’ ”

He clearly had not been to L.A. lately.

“Stop blocking the sidewalk,” shouted a Ventura man, lurching past the card table. Soon after, the senator folded it and left.

*

“It’s a legitimate and productive form of democracy,” says Firestone, who ultimately won an Assembly seat when O’Connell moved up to the Senate. Firestone since has left the Legislature.

“I have a lot of respect for Jack O’Connell. I’ll get quoted on that and the Republican Party will just kill me. But when we find effective legislators on either side of the aisle, we should give them their due.”

In Sacramento, O’Connell is considered a lawmaker all sides can trust. Yet, he’s a party partisan and the Democratic caucus chairman. His passion is lowering the vote requirement for a local school bond issue from two-thirds to a simple majority.

You can reach him at jackoconnell.table. It’s a cost-efficient system that never crashes, even with rickety legs. And it has a real chat room.