At 19, Future Speaker Made an Impression

The first time I met Robert Hertzberg was 26 years ago on the campaign trail with lieutenant governor candidate Mervyn Dymally. “A trusty young political aide,” I wrote. Little did any of us imagine then.

Last week, Hertzberg was elected speaker-designate of the California Assembly. He’ll take office April 13, replacing another L.A. Democrat, Antonio Villaraigosa.

Today, Hertzberg is a perpetual motion pol whose walk is a sprint--an intense bundle of energy, constantly pushing his case or a cause. He doesn’t just backslap, he incessantly hugs. “Hugsberg,” they call him.

“I don’t know why I do it,” he says, grinning. “I just do it.” (Fortunately, he hugs only fellow pols, not reporters.)

Hertzberg, 45, is a fiscal moderate, social liberal and political pragmatist. “I’m an idealist without illusion,” he says. A deal broker--good trait for a speaker.

Last year, Hertzberg formed a moderate business caucus that fit the designs of Gov. Gray Davis, but not the agenda of Villaraigosa-led liberals. “I wanted to listen to all sides,” Hertzberg explains.

He won the speakership, on a rare uncontested voice vote, by out-hustling his rivals. He also pressured Villaraigosa, his longtime ally and Sacramento roommate, into surrendering the powerful office before the L.A. mayoral candidate really wanted to.

That’s a lesson Hertzberg learned from his months with Dymally. More about that later.

*

In 1974, when our paths first crossed, Hertzberg wasn’t a hugger. But at 19, he was energetic, earnest and efficient.

“Lots of enthusiasm,” recalls Dymally, 73, now a part-time consultant who lives in Ladera Heights. “Very respectful, very compatible. And he ate more fast food than Bill Clinton.”

Hertzberg had gotten hooked on politics when he accompanied his grandmother to hear Democratic icon Hubert H. Humphrey speak at a Dymally event. The next day, he volunteered to organize college students for several candidates.

When Dymally heard that an L.A. Times reporter was going to follow him around for a couple of days, he asked Hertzberg to coordinate the trip. That reporter was me. Hertzberg did such a bang-up job that the candidate hired him for the entire campaign.

“Picking up bags, getting the food, calling ahead, taking messages, driving and making sure I had accurate directions,” Hertzberg recalls. “We drove and drove and drove. We went to all 58 counties. No cell phones in the car. I got an opportunity to talk and listen to him and the people who rode with us. And I was in the room during the meetings.

“It was a tremendous experience. I really learned. I didn’t know what I was learning at the time. But it all became clear to me later.”

*

That year, there was a bitter speakership fight. And Hertzberg heard a lot about it. Dymally, California’s first black state senator, was close to some black assemblymen who kept griping about the arrogance of Willie Brown, the front-runner.

Then-Speaker Bob Moretti was running for governor and wanted to hand over the speakership to his ally, Brown. If Moretti had stepped down in winter, Brown would have won. But he waited until June. By then, lame duck Moretti’s power had waned and Brown’s support had eroded. Brown wound up losing, and he wouldn’t be elected speaker for another six years.

“I learned about listening and not taking people for granted,” Hertzberg says. “Don’t ever take them for granted. One of the things I’m doing besides hugging everybody is talking and listening. . . . I certainly learned from the Willie Brown experience. He had all the votes, but lost them.”

Hertzberg learned to take the vote in January, not in June.

In the fall of 1974, I briefly rejoined the Dymally campaign trail on the rustic north coast. Hertzberg still can recite a couple of sentences I wrote: “Three logs burning in the huge fireplace of a fog-shrouded grand old hotel, the Eureka Inn . . . a trusty young political aide, a reporter . . . and the candidate.”

“I remember us having dinner in a bar, sitting in big, high-backed chairs, and thinking, ‘Oh my god, I’m not old enough to be here,’ ” Hertzberg says.

Dymally was elected and later went to Congress. Hertzberg became a White House advance man, got a law degree and was elected to the Assembly in 1996--representing the same Valley district as Moretti.

“I always remembered the people who treated me well,” he adds. “I remember everybody who didn’t treat me well.”

For the record, I bought the kid dinner that night in Eureka.

Somewhere on a campaign trail this year may be a future speaker--a trusty young aide who definitely should be treated well.