Assembly’s Rival Leaders Face Starkly Contrasting Missions

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa managed something last week that a string of lower-house Democratic leaders had been unable to do for 16 years: shepherd majority Democrats to the steps of the Capitol for a group photo with a Democratic governor.

Villaraigosa and his fellow Democrats, still basking in the glow of November’s election victories, were positively giddy as they waited for Gov. Gray Davis.

“Is he coming?” they asked as they watched the Capitol’s big wooden doors.

In contrast, the picture was far less rosy for Villaraigosa’s chief Republican rival, Assembly GOP leader Rod Pacheco.

Just a few days earlier inside a Capitol meeting room, the new Republican leader from Riverside had presided over a tense 4 1/2-hour closed-door meeting of his downsized caucus.

Pacheco, whose party lost five Assembly seats in November, had already been battling internal GOP critics. Now he had given them more ammunition by describing three of his Republican colleagues in a New York Times interview as “the three stooges.”

Pacheco apologized for his remark and agreed to improve communications, quelling the tempest--for now.

With the Assembly still getting down to business in earnest, much of the 2-month-old session has revolved around the actions of Pacheco and Villaraigosa, two strong-willed but relatively inexperienced political leaders.

While the Davis administration’s proposals to strengthen public education have dominated the headlines out of Sacramento this year, behind the scenes leadership issues have been simmering, especially for Republicans.

How well the two leaders take care of their members and listen to their concerns--on everything from campaign fund-raising to the installation of telephone voice mail--plays an important role in the smooth operation of the lower house. That, in turn, affects the Assembly’s primary task: lawmaking.

Pacheco, a former prosecutor and the first Latino to hold the GOP leadership post, describes his first months as “a learning experience,” adding that “anybody has to grow into a new job. . . . There’s always an adjustment.”

Pacheco is under pressure to build back the number of Republicans in the lower house, and by doing so would enhance his own chances of climbing the political ladder. He already wants to become point man in California for Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s expected presidential campaign.

Just a year ago, Republicans had 37 members in the 80-member Assembly. Today they have 32 and are scrambling for relevancy.

It is a Republican predicament familiar to Robert Naylor, the last GOP minority leader to serve under a Democratic governor.

“It’s a whole different role than when you have a governor of your own party,” said Naylor, now a lobbyist. “You can’t count on bills [Republicans] opposed being vetoed, which sets up a lot of bargaining leverage on the content of legislation.

“This is a new minority leader with one-third of his caucus new and one-third who remember when they were in the majority under a Republican governor,” Naylor continued. “It’s probably the most difficult situation a minority leader has found himself in for 20 years.”

Just a little more than two years ago, Pacheco was a deputy district attorney prosecuting criminals. Now, thanks largely to the constant turnover prompted by term limits, he finds himself on top of a very shaky pile of Republicans in the Assembly.

Even before his staff had fully settled into their new Capitol offices, Pacheco was forced to beat back a challenge by dissident GOP lawmakers angered because they believed that Pacheco was leaving them in the dark about key decisions.

Again, he has made amends, in part by giving his colleagues his travel schedule for the next two months and promising to be reachable wherever he is.

As if the internal sniping weren’t enough, Pacheco also has to deal with the feisty group of Democrats led by Villaraigosa. To make matters worse, the speaker doesn’t like his GOP counterpart.

Villaraigosa has made no secret of his disdain for Pacheco, telling reporters “he’s no Bill Leonard,” a reference to the veteran lawmaker who preceded Pacheco as GOP leader. The speaker cited what he termed Pacheco’s unnecessarily confrontational style.

“I don’t understand where his animosity comes from,” Pacheco said over lunch Wednesday. “I’ve tried to work with him . . . and I’ll keep trying.”

It is clear that Villaraigosa is in the stronger position as the Assembly starts to focus on 1,600 bills introduced by last month’s deadline.

And the clout that comes with 47 Democrats behind him is about to get a boost. Democrat Elihu Harris is expected to easily win an Assembly seat in a special election in Oakland later this month, adding to Villaraigosa’s cushion.

That means the speaker will need fewer GOP votes to move Davis’ budget through the Assembly by way of a two-thirds vote, and to avoid the prolonged budget stalemates of the last several years.

But Villaraigosa noted, “We’re going to have to work with Republicans. We still need six of them to get 54 votes to get a budget.”

Despite his strong position, all has not been smooth sailing for Villaraigosa. Several weeks ago, he drew fire from Latino community activists for appointing Ron Unz, a high-profile critic of bilingual education, to an advisory panel on fiscal issues. But, perhaps more important, Assembly Democrats didn’t join in the criticism.

The question raised more and more about Villaraigosa is whether he can satisfy Assembly Democrats who expect him to raise large amounts of campaign cash, while also taking steps to organize a campaign to fulfill his own dream of being mayor of Los Angeles.

A few Democrats grumble that the speaker is spending too much time away from the Capitol. Villaraigosa shrugs off the complaints, saying the Assembly is running “extremely well.”

“I’m going to focus on this job because I know that I have no shot being the next mayor of the city of Los Angeles unless I do a good job here,” he said.