New Leader Has Strong Backing, Colorful Style

In Colorado, Roy Romer is remembered as much for his tattered World War II bomber jacket and barnstorming plane flights as he is for directing an economic boom and school reforms during his 12 years as governor.

How well that colorful personality and high-energy management style play in politically tumultuous Los Angeles remains to be seen.

For now, Romer is on a roll. The 71-year-old Democrat remains extremely popular in his own state. As head of the Democratic National Convention Committee he is helping plan the party’s nominating convention in Los Angeles, and is about to take on the job he has vigorously pursued for several months--superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

He comes to the superintendent’s post with the support of some of the city’s most influential business and political leaders. Among them is billionaire businessman Eli Broad, who first suggested that Romer investigate the job.

Broad, an active Democrat who has been working with Romer on the convention, was also a member of the district’s search committee. In an interview Tuesday, Broad recalled that it was during a meeting in his office that he suggested, “Roy, you ought to take the job. It’s the most important job in America.”

Not long after that, Romer launched a passionate campaign to persuade district officials that he was the right man for the job. Over the past several weeks, he has been lobbying board members and political leaders in their offices, and visiting schools across the city with notebook in hand to interview principals, teachers and parents.

But is that enough in this polyglot of a city?

Broad dismissed early concerns that Romer may lack credentials in education.

“The greatest successes in many cases have been by people who were not educators,” Broad said. “To have an ex-governor take the job I think sends an important message to all urban school districts.”

If nothing else, Romer is the nontraditional candidate of national stature that a majority of the board said they were interested in attracting.

He won three terms as governor, from 1987 to 1998, by being a moderate Democrat friendly to business but also strongly protective of the environment. He was quick with a joke and often was spotted dashing to meetings in white running shoes that clashed with his dark business suits.

Romer devoted most of his first term to boosting the recession-ravaged state economy. In subsequent years he turned his attention to education and played a significant role in resolving labor disputes and promoting educational reform programs in Colorado.

He advocated content standards and testing to ensure they were met. He promoted local decision-making in schools. He pushed for charter schools and helped mediate Denver teachers strikes in 1991 and 1994. In 1992, however, he lost a campaign for a 1% sales tax increase that would have funded education programs.

He has spent more than a decade serving on national committees on education, including the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit educational policy group.

President Clinton selected Romer as head of the Democratic National Committee in 1997. He took that post at a time when the party organization was tangled in a fund-raising scandal after the 1996 presidential campaign.

A year later, his reputation was sullied by his admission of a 16-year “very affectionate” relationship with a former aide. Romer, who was general chairman of the Democratic National Committee at the time, stepped down from that post.

With his wife of 45 years, Bea, standing nearby during a hastily called news conference at a local commuter airport, Romer’s voice cracked as he explained: “I have a relationship with B.J. that is affectionate. I was expressing that. I greeted her. There were hugs and kisses.”

Bea Romer’s face twitched as he went on to characterize the relationship in increasingly ambiguous phrases.

The controversy came at an inopportune time for Democrats, who were reeling from allegations of sexual misconduct by President Clinton.

On Tuesday, one former Democratic Party official in Colorado called Romer an aggressive leader who knows how to press his agenda while smoothing over would-be opponents. The official said that Romer’s style would suit the often divisive and racially charged atmosphere that surrounds education in the Los Angeles district.

“He is a hard-charging man,” said Howard Gelt, the former chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party. “He is a person who gets out in front and leads, and at the same time is capable of building consensus. He’s not an abusive leader or an inflammatory leader, but he can get things done.”

“What Roy does is build coalitions in a very interesting and complex way,” Gelt said. “He has an incredible insight into how institutions can be changed to make them more effective. He’s got good people skills.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Roy R. Romer

Born: Oct. 31, 1928, Garden City, Kan.

Education: Bachelor’s in agricultural economics, Colorado State University; law degree, University of Colorado

Political career: Chairman, Democratic National Convention Committee, 1999-present; chairman, Democratic National Committee, 1997-99; governor of Colorado, 1987-98; chairman, National Governors’ Assn., 1992-93; Colorado state treasurer, 1977-87; state senator, 1962-66; state representative, 1958-62.

Education career highlights: Chairman, Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit organization that works to develop and implement educational policies, 1994-95; co-chairman of National Council on Education Standards and Testing, an advisory group that recommended national curriculum standards, 1991-92.

Family: Married; seven grown children

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Compiled by MALOY MOORE / Los Angeles Times

Sources: Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States 1988-1994, Times stories and wire services.

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Times staff writers Doug Smith and Duke Helfand contributed to this story.