Prized D.C.-LAX Nonstop Flight Gets New Wings

It’s one of those insider things, literally--inside the Beltway and inside the perimeter.

Some years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation set up “the perimeter,” an invisible zone to protect little National Airport, now called Reagan National, from being overburdened by air traffic.

No nonstop flights beyond somewhere in Colorado could fly in and out of the airport. That was large, but not large enough. About a dozen exemptions were granted, natch, and one of them was a nonstop to Los Angeles International Airport, a busy route indeed, what with the huge congressional delegation here and the even huger lobbying contingent.

It was TWA’s flight until TWA went belly up. American Airlines bought TWA’s assets, but by law the National-LAX nonstop was not part of the deal. Back to the DOT drawing board to start the process all over again.

But this time the prized nonstop did not go to the LAX route, although two airlines reportedly applied for it. It went to Alaska Airlines’ Seattle route.

Now, why would that be? Hmm. Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is at the top of the GOP heap on the Appropriations Committee, which controls the Senate’s purse strings. And Seattle’s hometown senator, Democrat Patty Murray, is in charge of the Senate’s transportation subcommittee. . . . Coincidence?

California Sen. Barbara Boxer is pushing a bill to put the LAX nonstop back on schedule--on American Airlines’ schedule, specifically--and American would agree to give up some other National Airport flight.

The bill isn’t partisan, unless you count geographic partisanship; its Senate co-sponsors are both Missourians, one Republican and one Democrat, and its House companion-bill sponsors are South Bay Democrat Jane Harman and Redlands Republican Jerry Lewis. It may be possible that you can get there from here, even when “there” is Washington, D.C.

Villaraigosa Fan Won’t Go Quietly

As people went past him muttering “sore loser,” Roberto Galvan stood his ground.

His ground was behind the VIP seats at last week’s inaugural of L.A. Mayor Jim Hahn, and he held aloft the blue Villaraigosa-for-mayor sign that he had planted in his yard. “See the dirt?” he asked.

The real dirt, as far as Galvan is concerned, was the much-criticized crack-cocaine ad Hahn’s campaign ran against Antonio Villaraigosa. The day Galvan saw “that horrible ad” on TV is the day he volunteered for Villaraigosa’s campaign.

“That ad could have been made about my father,” who had been a gangbanger but who went into the Army, went into business and became a good father. “I believe in second and third chances--that’s why I’m a teacher.”

Galvan, who turned 30 the day after the inauguration, the same day Hahn turned 51, says he’s not throwing the sign away “until Villaraigosa is mayor.”

Timing Is Everything

More than 100 Santa Ana parents were bused to Sacramento to lobby Gov. Gray Davis to sign a measure that would help ease up on overcrowded schools. The governor, however, had flown in the opposite direction and was in L.A. that day.

So his staff got an earful about Tustin’s offer to give Santa Ana schools land on the old Marine Corps base, land that is--so the district says--tainted with jet fuel. (‘Taint so, says Tustin.)

“Offering our children 212 acres of toxic land,” says grandmother Angel Navarro, “is like asking Rosa Parks to move to the back of the bus.”

In all-GOP-all-the-time Orange County, officialdom had a run at Davis too. Supervisor Todd Spitzer isn’t admitting that’s his motive, but a little idea of his would make sure that if Spitzer wins the Assembly seat he’s running for, Davis can’t appoint a Democrat to Spitzer’s empty supervisor seat.

Spitzer’s charter plan, which he says is about “voters’ rights,” not Republican hegemony, would require a special election to fill the spot, rather than a gubernatorial appointment. The Board of Supervisors hasn’t had a Democratic member for 15 years. The last one was Edison Miller.

Quick Hits

L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich plans to introduce a measure proclaiming this week as Superman Week, urging people everywhere to follow “the tenants [sic] of good citizenship” as championed in the “Superman” TV series . . . A bill expected to pass the state Senate and be signed by Gov. Davis would extend to transsexuals current civil rights protection on the job and in the housing market . . . Temecula has backed off for now from a policy that allowed its City Council incumbents to show themselves in the city’s Fourth of July parade, but barred mere council candidates from carrying campaign signs . . . The insurance industry won a round in Sacramento when an Assembly committee rejected a bill to stop insurance firms from making campaign donations to candidates for the state insurance commissioner’s job.

Word Perfect

“Well, I’m very proud to say I’m to the left of Hannah-Beth Jackson.”

Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn was just kidding, folks. At the groundbreaking for the county’s $65-million juvenile justice complex, the cast of muckety-mucks was introduced in the order they were seated onstage: such-and-such, so-and-so, liberal Santa Barbara Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson “and, to her left, Supervisor John Flynn.” Flynn, a more moderate Democrat, said he was just trying “to loosen up the crowd.”

Columnist Patt Morrison’s e-mail is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include David Reyes, Nick Riccardi, Beth Shuster and Margaret Talev.

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This column incorrectly named the last Democrat to serve on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. It was Ralph Clark, who served from 1971 to 1986.

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