Deputy Mayor Is Named Laura Bush’s Press Aide

Noelia Rodriguez, one of Mayor Richard Riordan’s most trusted aides and most recently head of Los Angeles’ Democratic National Convention host committee, is trading City Hall for the White House to be Laura Bush’s press secretary.

The Texas-born Democrat was offered the position Thursday after meeting with the next first lady in Austin. Rodriguez plans to leave for Washington immediately to coordinate news media relations for Bush, who officially moves into the White House on Jan. 20.

“My head is spinning,” Rodriguez said Monday. “I’ve always been proud of being a deputy mayor, and I just never imagined I could even top that. This is definitely a step up.”

Rodriguez, 42, joined Riordan’s staff as press secretary a year into his administration and, as one of his closest advisors, was the mayor’s choice to galvanize support for the convention when fund-raising efforts lagged.

Although she has no personal experience with the famously loyal Bush clan, Rodriguez was recommended for the post by an acquaintance who worked for former First Lady Barbara Bush, and received Riordan’s enthusiastic backing.

On Monday, Riordan called Rodriguez “my alter ego,” praising the frankness and loyalty that made her one of his top aides.

“She is somebody who is very comfortable giving me advice, even if it’s criticism,” he said.

Rodriguez was in Mexico on vacation, without access to television or newspapers, when George W. Bush was finally named president-elect in December. She did not find out that the election was resolved until she arrived at the airport two days later.

When she got home, she had a message from an acquaintance that she was being recommended for a position with Laura Bush.

“I was completely flabbergasted,” she said.

Hours after she met with Laura Bush at the Texas governor’s mansion in Austin on Thursday, she was offered the job.

Rodriguez said her party affiliation is not a concern.

“I worked for a Republican mayor for seven years,” she said. “I think it shows that as long as the priority is to do what’s in the best interest of our nation, we can work well together.”

Rodriguez moved from Brownsville, Texas, to Southern California with her family in 1963. Painfully shy as a teenager, Rodriguez said she was reluctant to ask her high school counselor how to apply to college. When she did, he told her to develop secretarial skills.

So the Rosemead teenager learned shorthand and typing and, after graduation, went to work at a downtown Los Angeles bank. A few years later, she got a secretarial job at Southern California Edison, where a supervisor encouraged her to go to night school and earn her college degree.

She worked her way up at Edison and was director of corporate advertising when she was tapped to be press secretary for Riordan in 1994. He promoted her to deputy mayor in 1998.

Rodriguez soon gained a reputation for remaining calm during crises and being able to speak candidly to the mayor.

He recalled a scolding she delivered after she attempted to end a news conference, only to have him take one last question that caused him to bristle.

“We went out in the corridor and she said, ‘Mayor, with the deepest, fondest respect, when I say no more questions, shut up!’ ” Riordan recounted, laughing.

Robin Kramer, Riordan’s former chief of staff who hired Rodriguez, said: “Noelia exhibited uncommon common sense. She was passionate but could always go to the heart of the matter in a very calm, sensible way.”

When fund-raising efforts for the Democratic convention faltered in early 2000, Riordan replaced the head of the host committee with Rodriguez, signaling his personal interest in the event.

“It would have been a disaster without her,” he said Monday.

Democratic Party officials who worked with the host committee said she was fiercely loyal to Riordan and garnered him favorable news coverage. But at the same time, those officials said, she failed to cultivate relationships with national Democratic figures.

“In the larger politics of the job, she really struggled,” said one party source. “The knives are a little longer in Washington and you can’t do it on your own.”

Rodriguez is leaving a position that has an odd nexus with the White House. Dee Dee Meyers, who was a deputy press secretary to the late Mayor Tom Bradley, went on to be President Clinton’s press secretary. Mark Fabiani, a deputy mayor for Bradley, did scandal control in the Clinton White House. And Ben Austin, Rodriguez’s replacement, worked for Clinton in political affairs and advance.

“Los Angeles is a big city and California is a big state, but I don’t think anything prepares you for the intensity of the presidency,” Meyers said. “All eyes are on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”