Even Conservatives Push the Riordan Bandwagon

The GOP’s New Draft Board That draft-Dick-for-governor letter being passed among California Republicans is gathering more mossbacks--but drawing out some dissenters as well.

Signing onto the petition asking outgoing L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan to run for governor are the likes of Reps.Duncan Hunter of Alpine, Duke Cunningham of San Diego and Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach. The letter is being circulated by the incontrovertibly conservative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon of Santa Clarita.

Riordan’s moderate credentials and bipartisan alliances (along with his good poll numbers) prompted Secretary of State Bill Jones, the ranking state Republican and a natural contender for governor, to grouse in a speech that “the Republican Party’s nominee for governor ought to be a Republican.”

Some of his party-mates agree, and didn’t sign the draft-Dick letter, but that may have something to do with the state’s urban-rural frictions, because among them are John T. Doolittle, Wally Herger and Richard Pombo--all representing rural districts.

The other non-signatory was Mariposa’s George P. Radanovich, representing Fresno--Bill Jones’ home turf.

Stomaching an Upset Victory

Every sports season, some politicians have to eat weird food while others gloat at the spectacle. Now it’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein who will be carb-snacking on Philly soft pretzels courtesy of her Keystone State colleague, Arlen Specter. Feinstein bet a crate of California oranges on the Lakers in the NBA finals. Specter staked the pretzels to the contrary.

California legislators won their dyspeptic wager with their counterparts in Pennsylvania: the Lakers’ win means the august 76ers fans must eat Tommy’s chili cheeseburgers in the Legislature. Had the Lakers lost, Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg and Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte would have had to ingest Philly cheese steaks under the Capitol dome.

Side bets: With the Lakers win, California gets a free energy plan. Had the 76ers pulled out a victory, Pennsylvania would have gotten an energy-saving lightbulb. That automatically begs the question of how many legislators it takes to screw it in. Or up.

This Law’s For You

The annual bill reauthorizing the state bar to collect dues from attorneys sets the fee at $395, five bucks less than it was this year. What is worth far more than that is in the bowels of the bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl. It repeals antique code language that makes it a “duty” of attorneys to “abstain from all offensive personality.”

No one seems exactly sure what “offensive personality” means (or why it wasn’t enforced in the O.J. Simpson case), but the Assembly passed the bill anyway.

And no jokes, please; we’ll sue.

A Bad Week For Barefoot Bigwigs

First it was Phil Bronstein, executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, whose left foot was mangled by a Komodo dragon during a private audience with said lizard at the L.A. Zoo. Now Newport Beach’s Rep. Chris Cox is on crutches. In an evening basketball game on the wooden deck of his D.C. home, the Republican, playing barefoot, harvested a mega-splinter the size of a soda straw that impaled his left foot from mid-sole to heel.

Bronstein went Komodo-watching as an early Father’s Day treat. Cox hit the hoops after his house had been broken into and some “sentimental jewelry” stolen. While detectives were still taking fingerprints, he decided to distract his kids with some roundball. It “worked in spades. They got to spend the rest of the evening with me in the emergency room.”

Premature Burial?

Celebrating the failure of school voucher measures nationwide, and just last week in Congress, the California Alliance for Public Schools issued this obituary:

“VOUCHERS, School. Passed away on Capitol Hill June 12, 2001. Born in 1956 to Milton Friedman, noted libertarian. . . . Died with a handful of fervent but out-of-the-mainstream supporters on hand. . . . No memorial services were planned.”

Be careful when tempting fate with reports of death that, like Mark Twain’s, might be exaggerated.

The Revolving Door Turns

Mere weeks ago, he was pleading guilty to felony tax evasion for not reporting almost $42,000 he got from people trying to influence his vote on the L.A. City Council.

But you can’t keep an ex-pol down. Onetime L.A. Councilman Richard Alatorre--sentenced to eight months’ home detention, which evidently hasn’t started yet--has tried to get back into City Hall as the lobbyist for the Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD’s rank and file, at a rumored retainer of $4K a month.

The PPL gave it some thought but finally told Alatorre he had made them an offer they could indeed refuse. “He’s our good friend,” said PPL spokesman Eric Rose, and therefore deserved a hearing, but it doesn’t plan to hire Alatorre “at this moment.”

Is This a Brighter Future?

If Nora Brownell had stayed at her old post until July 1, she’d have been guaranteed a $1,200 monthly pension check for life. But she’ll come up a couple of weeks short. Pennsylvania’s utilities commissioner bailed from her old job to join the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to be on the job by today.

“A lot of people worked hard on my confirmation,” she said, “and I felt I had to be here.” The federal salary of $125,700 a year tops her state pay by nearly $21,000--almost two years’ worth of pension checks.

Quick Hits

Former Orange County Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg, deputy drug czar under President Clinton, is the first to announce he’s running for state insurance commissioner. . . . L.A. Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman gave his annual Golden Jackpot award, a trophy full of foil-covered chocolate coins, to President Bush for denying California’s request for a waiver from federal clean air rules. . . . Adding insult to injury, Noel Irwin Hentschel--the losing GOP candidate for Congress in the 32nd District--not only didn’t get any dough when she went to D.C. for her party’s financial help, but the Washington Post referred to Hentschel, the mother of seven, as “him.” . . . Ex-L.A. D.A. Gil Garcetti was in City Hall last week--not politicking, but taking snapshots of the fourth-floor signs bearing the name of the newest City Council member, his son, Eric. . . . Harold Meyerson, longtime executive editor of the L.A. Weekly, is Beltway-bound as the new executive editor of American Prospect magazine. . . . Scores of Californians, from lowly columnists, who don’t have swimming pools, to the governor, who does, have been sent bottles of a pool cleaner advertising itself as an energy-saver.

Word Perfect

“I don’t think there ever has been or will be anyone up here who can be bought for $1,000.”

Simi Valley council member Barbra Williamson, explaining why she thought a cap on campaign contributions was unnecessary, even though she voted for it to assuage citizens’ concerns.

Columnist Patt Morrison’s e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Tina Daunt, Faye Fiore, Carl Ingram, Jean O. Pasco, Margaret Talev and Rich Simon.