Reports of Bergeson’s Demise Premature

News of the departure of Newport Beach politician Marian Bergeson from Sacramento has turned out to be premature.

Her spot on the State Board of Education was saved in a last-minute deal between Gov. Gray Davis and his predecessor, Pete Wilson, sources close to both administrations said.

In exchange for Davis keeping Bergeson and a second, unidentified appointee, the sources said, Wilson relinquished his opportunity to name two members of the new commission overseeing the added cigarette tax revenue to be raised under Proposition 10.

“My understanding is it was negotiated between Wilson and Davis,” state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said. Other sources, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed details of the deal between Democrat Davis and Republican Wilson.

Michael Bustamante, a Davis spokesman, denied that any deal was made. He said the governor is keeping about 20 Wilson appointees based on merit. “They have served the people of California well in the past and will continue to serve them well,” he said.

As for Bergeson, she scurried into a State Board of Education meeting this week as if nothing had changed. She called her retention a trial.

“We’ll see how things work out,” said Bergeson, a former elementary school teacher and Newport-Mesa school board member who served 16 years in the state Legislature and ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor as Wilson’s running mate in 1990.

Bergeson, who once served with Davis in the state Assembly, said that by keeping her on the board, the new governor is showing how much he cares about accountability in education, as she does.

It was just a few weeks back when Bergeson held a “lights out” party for her staff and talked about returning to Newport Beach and her beloved pup, Chester. “This is the end of my Sacramento career,” she said then.

Though Bergeson knew her days as education secretary were numbered, she wanted to stay on the State Board of Education, a part-time, unpaid post to which she was named by Wilson last summer.

But that was simply not an option under Davis, she said in an interview the day of the party.

Now it is.

At 73, the redoubtable Bergeson begins yet another chapter in a long, eventful political career, leaving Chester home to wait once again.

The last two years as Wilson’s top education advisor have been intense for Bergeson. She visited classrooms from Sacramento to San Diego, pushing his reform plans. The post was created by Wilson to foster his views on education, but it has no administrative duties or authority over Eastin’s department or the Board of Education.

Along the way, Bergeson fought with the education establishment, some of whom liked her personally but didn’t shed tears over her departure.

“We had a good relationship with Marian as a state senator, but as education secretary she carried on behalf of the governor a lot of issues we didn’t agree with,” said Dennis Meyers of the Assn. of California School Administrators.

Meyers said Bergeson’s relationship with the education groups was “acrimonious . . . most of the time.” By contrast, her prior reputation in the Legislature was one of working toward consensus and compromise.

Yet by all accounts she was effective at carrying Wilson’s agenda.

“[If] you want to pick a person with experience as a seasoned politician, you can’t get better position to do battle on any issue than [with] Marian Bergeson,” Meyers said.

Though some saw Bergeson as little more than a standard-bearer for Wilson’s education policies, the former governor said in an interview this week that she was more like his right hand, showing “great moral stamina and courage in insisting education be what it can be.”

“Poor children don’t have to go to poor schools,” Wilson said. “That is her legacy.”

Wilson credits Bergeson not just with ideas but also with making them workable in the classroom.

“In two years, she’s done more [for education] than anyone I can think of in the last 200,” Wilson said.

Some in the Capitol suggest that Bergeson might stay on the board only temporarily. But she said she has been assured there will be no confirmation fight in the state Senate when her nomination comes up for a vote in August.

That, sources say, is because Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) was a party to the pact between Davis and Wilson.

Since her days in the Legislature, Bergeson has been working on education issues. Her former colleagues honored her as Woman of the Year in 1998 and named the teacher credentialing reform law she sponsored 10 years ago for her.

Bergeson said someone once referred to her at a roast as “a pit bull wrapped in St. John Knit,” which has quite a different tone from her earlier tag as “Marian the Librarian” from the song in “The Music Man.” She earned the latter sobriquet for her campaign in the 1950s to build a library in Newport Beach.

Married and the mother of four grown children and nine grandchildren, Bergeson became the first Orange County woman to win office in Sacramento in 1978 when she was elected to the Assembly. She was one of the first two women elected to the state Senate and the first to serve in both houses.

“If anybody earned her stripes, Marian did,” said state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley).

As a former teacher, Bergeson took special interest in education issues, but she also developed expertise in local government issues. That later spawned her interest in becoming a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, where she served two years during the bankruptcy crisis.

Bergeson said she went to the board brimming with ideas of how to reform the county government. “They were not very well received,” she said with a laugh.

Her stint as a supervisor came after the bruising defeat of her nomination by Wilson to be state superintendent of instruction after Bill Honig left office in mid-term.

She said the battle over her nomination wasn’t a fair fight because it was based on personal attacks. “It was painful,” Bergeson said. “I’ve still not been able to watch the tapes.”