There’s Latino, and Then There’s Honorary Latino

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, reading the same census figures as everyone else, wants to seize the moment and elect more Latinos to Congress--but not, it pledges, at the expense of loyal non-Latino colleagues.

A new political action committee is raising dough for promising Latino candidates, but the caucus has decided the status quo is still a go in some overwhelmingly Latino districts represented by some non-Latino Democrats the caucus finds simpatico.

That’s a break for Southern California representatives such as Maxine Waters and Juanita Millender-McDonald. Their urban districts have mega-Latino populations, but there’s more to it than a census count; most of the residents are Latino, but most of the voters are still African American--as are those women representing them in Congress.

Said a spokeswoman for the Texas Democrat who heads the Hispanic Caucus, “If people are doing a good job and representing the Latino community well, it would be unfair to try to kick these current, sitting Democrats out of office.”

California Kilowatt Watch, Continued

Since we left off--or since the power went off--much has happened.

* In the state Capitol, the lights are on, whether anybody’s home or not. The place where the deregulation vote was unanimous in 1996, where the state Christmas tree lights were switched off in 2000, is exempt from rolling blackouts by Sacramento’s municipal utility district, whose name is SMUD. That’s not as arrogant as it seems: A SMUD spokesman says much of downtown Sacramento, including the Capitol, is off the blackout list because the systems are so old that it would take hours to bring the power back after a blackout. (If you worry about your leaders working in the dark for real, the Capitol has two emergency backup generators.)

* Let there be light, responsibly. A score of California church congregations have signed a “Share the Light!” covenant to spread not only the Word, but that other word, about energy conservation and renewable power. CIPL, California Interfaith Power and Light, began in order to deal with global warming, but the energy crisis has made its mission more immediate. Says the Rev. Sally Bingham, environmental minister at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, “In response to God’s call that we be wise stewards of Creation, clean power and energy conservation are the responsibilities of Christians everywhere.”

* A Santa Monica outfit called Ratepayer Revolt sent out a Blackout Watch theme song, written by Anonymous and set to the music of the old TV western “Rawhide,” which starred Clint Eastwood. It goes in part, “Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, Though the state is golden, Keep them blackouts rollin’, statewide.” Now everyone sing the chorus--you too, Clint: “Turn ‘em on, turn ‘em off, shut ‘em down, block ‘em out . . . statewide!”

The Six Degrees of El Toro

Proving again that there is life, and cash flow, after term limits, former state Sen. Mike Roos has moved from the school reform nonprofit organization called LEARN to wrangling lawmakers on behalf of the city of Irvine.

Orange County is where some of the people want all of the abandoned El Toro Marine base to be an airport. And some of the people want all of the base to be a big urban park.

Irvine wants the urban park, and it hired Roos to help make it happen. So: Early this month, an obscure bill regulating interior designers was, by Sacramento sleight-of-hand, transformed into a bill to deny Orange County the exclusive right to redevelop El Toro, effectively putting the brakes on the airport plan. (No wonder Irvine raised Roos’ salary to $540,000!)

To show their gratitude to state Senate President John Burton--a San Francisco Democrat who graciously allowed his interior-designer bill to get turned into an El Toro bill--pro-park folks in south Orange County are contributing huge dough, via Roos, for Burton to channel to Democrats running for the state Senate.

This sounds like politics as usual, except when you remember that the people giving this money to elect Democrats are mostly Republicans. Party loyalty must count for little compared to the prospect of a 747 taking off above your swimming pool every few minutes.

The U.S. Senate, Courtesy of Disney

Won’t happen. But it was close.

Disney may own most of the Western world, including ABC-TV, but the Senate Ethics Committee shot down Disney’s dream cross-promotion: U.S. Senate war veterans in a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” benefit show, timed to the Memorial Day premiere of Disney’s movie “Pearl Harbor” (Regis is an ex-Navy lieutenant himself, by the way).

Disney approached the Senate’s Dubya Dubya Two veterans--the war, not the president: Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye and Virginia’s John Warner. Phone calls also went to Arizona’s John McCain, a Vietnam War POW, and former Sen. Bob Dole, wounded in the Big One. (No word on former Sen. Bob Kerrey, whose Vietnam revelations have made people squirm.) But the cross-promo got crossed up. The Ethics Committee declared Disney’s idea to be the weakest link and bade it goodbye.

That decision notwithstanding, politicians do love TV: San Francisco Assemblyman Kevin Shelley last week adjourned the Assembly in memory of Mrs. Landingham, the president’s secretary on the TV drama “The West Wing.” Mrs. Landingham, whom Shelley called a “great American,” was killed in last week’s episode; the actress who played her, Kathryn Joosten, is thriving. Shelley calls his wife during “West Wing” commercials, and last week, he said, “She was crying, I was upset. It was terrible.”

Quick Hits

With ad hoc committees proliferating, Los Angeles City Council member Alex Padilla dryly proposed “an ad hoc committee on committee consolidation” . . . His mother, March Fong Eu, got pay toilets outlawed in California, and now former state Treasurer Matt Fong has been nominated to a job with the biggest latrine-digging concern in the world, as undersecretary of the Army . . . Could San Francisco’s decision to cover the costs of sex changes for employees be Willie Brown’s secret plan to get around term limits by becoming Wilhelmina Brown? . . . The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that a Florida Republican showing GOP-leaning actress Bo Derek around the premises declared, “She’ll be the next senator from California,” but Bo said, “No, no.”

Word Perfect

“I can’t imagine they meant any disrespect if they went to all this trouble.”

Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo, puzzled at receiving the tongue-in-cheek “Les Bi Gay Community Service Award Ventura County”; his was the only vote to rescind health benefits to unmarried partners of gay and straight employees.

*

Columnist Patt Morrison’s e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors: Janet Hook, Patrick McGreevy, Greg Miller, Jean O. Pasco, Margaret Talev and Julie Tamaki.