L.A. Evolves Into Capitol Away From State Capitol

Sacramento may be California’s capital, but Los Angeles is where the action is for the state’s top officeholders.

The Ronald Reagan State Building downtown is fast becoming known as California’s southern capitol, as elected officials move into new digs there or increase staff in the twin tower complex.

With Gray Davis as governor, for the first time in years the state has a Los Angeles-based politician serving as its chief executive, and he is accustomed to spending time on his home turf.

New Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in the next few weeks plans to occupy space in the Reagan building.

And Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, the first speaker from Los Angeles in a quarter-century, has doubled the monthly Los Angeles office budget to $50,000--twice what it was under longtime Speaker Willie Brown. Republicans had dismantled the office three years ago as a cost-cutting measure when they had control of the Assembly, but Democrats reestablished it a year later.

“I didn’t get elected in Eureka or Sacramento. I got elected in L.A.,” said Villaraigosa, a potential candidate for mayor and an ardent hometown booster.

Politicians with statewide ambitions feel compelled to raise their profiles in Los Angeles County, which contains a quarter of the state’s registered voters, the state’s No. 1 media market and the rich precincts of the Westside.

For Los Angeles’ political veterans, the attention is refreshing--although it is too soon to tell whether that attention will translate into more projects in or funds for the city or region.

“In the past, the action was in San Francisco and government was in Sacramento and we were stepchildren down here,” said longtime Los Angeles campaign strategist Joe Cerrell.

In the last century, when Los Angeles wasn’t much more than a dusty frontier town, Sacramento was known as the gateway to the gold fields and San Francisco was the state’s bustling commercial heart. Now, Los Angeles is California’s population and cultural core.

And while no politician seriously talks about moving the seat of government south, Los Angeles is home to much of the state government’s machinery. Even if they come south for political events, most officials say, it is government business that keeps them busiest while they are in town meeting with bureaucrats, constituents and advisors.

Besides, modern technology means government movers and shakers no longer need to be anchored to the capital.

“We’re talking 1999. We have cell phones. We have faxes,” said Beth Miller, communications director for Secretary of State Bill Jones. “I can e-mail him. He always has his cell phone on.” And weather permitting, Jones, who lives in Fresno, hopscotches the state in his own plane.

Other ambitious politicians jump on a shuttle once or twice a week and head south to deliver speeches, hold committee hearings or prospect for campaign cash.

It is unclear how much the public is paying to take officials back and forth. Some, though, take advantage of state-negotiated bargain fares on scheduled airlines.

Davis, who has an official residence in Sacramento, generally spends Monday through Thursday in the capital and, according to aides, often stays in his office late into the night. He regularly heads south on Thursday or Friday and sometimes goes to San Francisco or another city on state business.

“Los Angeles is the state’s biggest city,” Davis said Monday. “When I’m in L.A., I’m in the Reagan Building, which is where our L.A. office is. I conduct business wherever I am.”

Garry South, Davis’ senior political advisor, said the governor hasn’t forgotten how Sacramento political insiders dismissed his candidacy.

“One of the things he’s resolved is not to get cocooned in Sacramento any more while he’s governor than while he was running for governor,” South said.

Saying that officials need to get outside the Capitol to maintain their perspective, South said, “I don’t think he’ll [Davis] ever consider himself a resident of Sacramento.”

Davis has a condominium in West Hollywood and last week, for example, was in Los Angeles on Monday to help announce the city as the site of the Democratic National Convention and on Friday to visit the National Japanese American Museum.

On Sunday, Davis attended the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. But he is expected to be in Sacramento for the rest of this week.

Hilary McLean, the governor’s deputy press secretary, said that “in Los Angeles in his own offices, he’s able to conduct meetings with staff, department heads, sometimes in person and sometimes on the phone, just as he would in Sacramento.”

Villaraigosa maintains that he needs his own downtown office, separate from the one he keeps for his 45th Assembly District, to help other Los Angeles area lawmakers--some of them rookies elected last fall. Currently, 25 of the 80 Assembly members represent parts of Los Angeles County.

A few Republicans are skeptical.

“First of all, the state government already has an awful lot of offices all over Los Angeles,” said Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Granada Hills), one of the few GOP members to represent Los Angeles. “Given that fact, one has to wonder how much of the reason for the politicians’ personal offices in Los Angeles is governmental and how much of it is political.”

Most other state officials say that they find it necessary to go to Los Angeles or to state offices in other cities at least once a week.

Jones spends about 40% of his time in the Los Angeles area, said spokeswoman Miller.

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, a longtime Bay Area lawmaker before his election last fall, is in Los Angeles on average about a week out of every month, his press office said.

Stacked into 10 floors of the Reagan building, Lockyer’s staff of 353 lawyers and paralegals is slightly bigger than the number he has in Sacramento.

State Controller Kathleen Connell lives in Los Angeles and has offices in Culver City, shuttling to Sacramento when needed.

Connell spokesman Byron Tucker said the controller stays home as much as possible. “She always tries to make it back home at night to tuck in her kids,” who are 8 and 9, Tucker said.

“She does spend a lot of time flying back and forth. She overnights sometimes in Sacramento,” Tucker said, adding that his boss consolidated three L.A. area offices into one Culver City office.

In the Capitol, Republicans and Democrats alike privately grumble about the commuting--especially that done by Davis, saying that the governor needs to spend more time in Sacramento. They want him to finish making his administration appointments and believe that he would do it more quickly if he remained in his corner office.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson spent one or sometimes two days a week in Los Angeles, said Sean Walsh, who was Wilson’s press secretary.

“A governor is governor whether he’s in Lodi or Los Angeles, and he can generally do the job where he is,” Walsh said. “But there are critical time periods like the budget . . . that require a governor to spend a majority of his time in Sacramento.”