GOP Wields Muscle in Crisis Session

They’ve been defeated, demoralized and dejected for well over a year now, but for close to 16 hours this week, California’s small core of Republican legislators suddenly had muscle.

Aided by a maverick Democrat, Republicans late Wednesday managed to hold up the first substantial chunk of legislation aimed at resolving the state’s energy crisis.

California’s Democratic Senate had already passed the bill. California’s Democratic governor was waiting anxiously to sign it. And the Assembly’s Democratic speaker was struggling mightily to get it to his desk.

But Speaker Bob Hertzberg of Sherman Oaks needed 54 votes for the “urgency” bill: his whole flock of Democrats plus four members of the GOP. And Republicans--plus a surprise holdout Democrat who has yet to complete her third month in office--were saying nyet.

In the end, only a lobbying blitz of a scale many agreed they hadn’t witnessed in years sufficed to turn around the handful of votes needed to rescue the legislation--and with it the credibility of the governor and the state’s legislative leadership.

The governor placed 23 phone calls to 14 legislators, urging them to support the bill. Hertzberg spent hours assuring Republicans that their qualms--the absence of a plan to solve the supply crunch, for instance--would be addressed forthwith.

Davis had hoped the bill would slide through the Assembly fast enough for him to sign it Wednesday night. His aides even began scheduling events for Thursday based on that expectation.

That proved to be premature. Republicans, it turned out, were in no mood to hustle.

For one thing, the bill, AB-1X, is a massively complex, multipage monster jampacked with technical and financial language. For another, the minority party was, for once, enjoying the sense of being needed.

“We were at an impasse,” said Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach). “For a while there, nobody knew what was going to happen.”

Pressure Focused on Democratic Holdout

Hertzberg’s first problem was a defection in his own army: a rookie from the Central Valley city of Tracy named Barbara Matthews.

Matthews, like other legislators from agricultural areas, was worried that farmers in her district could be hurt by the bill. She also thought she “needed some time to understand the bill, not just what is in it, but what is not,” she said later.

Despite a string of speeches outlining the peril to the state if the bill was stalled, Matthews stood firm Wednesday, bucking the party line and voting no when the first vote was called shortly before midnight.

As the lone Democratic holdout, Matthews became the focus of intense pressure--receiving late-night calls from the governor, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Robert Glynn Jr., the chief executive of Pacific Gas & Electric. Almost constantly, she had the speaker hovering over her.

“All I can say is I’m glad it was her and not me,” said Assemblyman Herb Wesson (D-Los Angeles).

“She was wigged,” Hertzberg said later. But, he insisted, he did not strong-arm her--threatening to reassign her to a tiny office, for example, or take away her plum job as Agriculture Committee chairwoman.

“I didn’t come at her like that,” Hertzberg said. “I tried to appeal to reason.”

As Hertzberg pressed on into the early hours of Thursday morning, Assemblyman Fred Keeley (D-Boulder Creek)--the bill’s author--roamed the Assembly floor, his suit coat off, his shirt sleeves rolled up, conferring with Republicans.

Other lawmakers huddled in the Assembly lounge. Some played poker and bridge, others nibbled pizza. Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) lay wrapped in a blanket on a couch, fighting a terrible flu.

Just beyond the Assembly chambers, the muggy hallway teemed with more than two dozen lobbyists, chatting on cellular phones, nodding off, waiting for another vote.

At 2:47 a.m., the clerk called the roll a second time, and the giant board that records ayes and nos began lighting up. The final tally showed Hertzberg was still short. Matthews’ vote was still a no. Legislators stumbled home to snatch a bit of sleep.

Within hours, the Senate was back in session. Having done its part on the energy bill, it had only minor matters to dispose of--such as approval of a resolution declaring February Library Lovers’ Month. After that, senators went home for the weekend.

By leaving town, senators were sending the Assembly a signal. If the lower house wanted to amend the bill--a move that would require another vote by the full Senate--the legislation would be held hostage until next week.

“We did our part,” Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) said. “Now it’s up to the other guys.”

“I got it out of my house,” he added. “If they want to stall a week and let these utilities go bankrupt, that’s their problem.”

By 9 a.m., the first break came. Hertzberg had promised Matthews that subsequent legislation would be taken up to protect farmers, her main concern. And as legislators began returning to work, she let it be known that she would change her vote.

“Politics is persuasion,” she said, referring to the wave of lobbying that crashed atop her. “I respect our leadership. I was very happy to talk about this with them, and they were happy to talk with me.”

But that still left Hertzberg lacking two GOP votes.

Assembly Republican leader Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park) had pledged to secure the votes needed to pass the bill. But as his members emerged from a heated caucus Wednesday evening, Democrats said it became clear that he had failed to deliver.

Several Democrats in the Assembly said the problem was not Campbell, who they thought had done his job as well as possible, but a growing sense among the minority Republicans that they needed to exploit their leverage to make a political point--and poke Davis in the eye.

“My cynical side tells me this is more about getting Gray Davis than it is about the people of California,” said Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) after the initial votes rejecting the bill.

Republican lawmakers, however, said the Democrats created their own problem starting earlier in the day when the Assembly’s energy committee took up the bill after Senate passage.

Republican lawmakers began raising concerns about the bill’s provisions.

“We had some very legitimate and serious questions,” said Assemblyman Tim Leslie (R-Tahoe City). But when they asked, Republicans were “treated as irrelevant pests,” Leslie said.

That, Republicans said, caused some members who had been inclined to support the bill to dig in their heels.

Some Republicans sharply questioned the size of the bond measure that would be used to finance the power purchases. They wondered why the state was not using some of its multibillion-dollar surplus to shield residents from rate hikes.

Most explosively, some legislators questioned whether the bill had been designed to mask potential electricity price increases for millions of California residents. Was the bill’s complicated financing system all a ploy intended to cushion the blow until after Davis’ 2002 reelection campaign, Republicans asked--a contention that angered Democrats.

“Gov. Gray Davis said to us many times, a rate increase is not necessary,” said freshman Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia). “But yet he sends members a letter urging them to vote on this bill.”

Lobbying for Last 2 Votes

On Thursday morning, Hertzberg still had only two Republican votes: Campbell and Assemblyman David Kelley of Idyllwild. Having won over Matthews, he still needed two more.

The Democrats focused on Robert Pacheco of Walnut and Anthony Pescetti of Rancho Cordova.

Pacheco said Davis called to assure him that rate hikes would not affect most consumers in the Southern California Edison area. Pescetti said he changed his mind after learning that Enron, the Texas-based company that is now one of California’s major power suppliers, had pulled the plug on some contracts with large industrial consumers

“We have to protect the industry in this state. There are a lot of jobs at stake,” Pescetti said. “I don’t feel like my arm was twisted. My head wasn’t banged.”

Davis and Hertzberg also promised the Republicans that new bills would be offered that would address one of their key concerns: the need to build more power plants to increase the state’s supply of electricity.

Slowly, the two last votes began to come around.

Shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday, Assembly members took their seats in the ornate green chambers. Skipping the formalities that normally open a session, they cut right to the chase.

Republicans rose, voices hot with anger, to denounce the bill: “This is a pig in a poke,” thundered Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside). “We’re looking at a massive increase of the state government in the lives of our constituents,” added Assemblyman Phil Wyman (R-Tehachapi).

Then, after a brief closing statement by Keeley, it was time for a vote.

The board lighted up. The bill had passed. Lawmakers gave Keeley congratulatory hugs and, as Matthews walked off the floor, her colleagues patted her on the back.

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Times staff writer Carl Ingram contributed to this story.