Pelosi’s Win Whips California Crew Into a Frenzy

The home team had just won a big one, and all the players--almost all of them--crowded around the quarterback.

Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, was victorious in an election almost as important as the one that sent her to Congress 15 years ago: for Democratic Party whip, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, the head congressional arm-twister, wrangler and vote-counter.

This is by no means the first time Californians have climbed the leadership ladder on Capitol Hill: In the 1980s, Merced Democrat Tony Coelho was whip for the majority Democrats until naughty-money matters forced him out. Alan Cranston served as the Senate’s Democratic whip for 14 years, and Republican Tom Kuchel did the honors on the other side of the aisle before that.

This elevation makes Pelosi--daughter of a New Deal Democratic congressman, sister of a former Baltimore mayor--the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Congress. (That other influential California Nancy, Mrs. Reagan, wielded unelected power.)

All a-clanking in red and blue buttons--the blue ones reading “Nancy for Whip,” the red ones reading simply “Nancy,” none of them reading “Whip Nancy”--Pelosi’s fellow California Democrats rallied around her at her first public remarks after the election: Rialto’s Joe Baca, St. Helena’s Mike Thompson and her fellow elected females Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma, Maxine Waters of L.A. and Zoe Lofgren of San Jose.

There in spirit if not in the flesh was Bob Filner of San Diego, who hopes, as his colleagues do, that Pelosi’s ascent will mean the same for her colleagues.

Here’s just one example: “Nobody knows more about the border than I do,” Filner said--yet Democrats have looked for border experts elsewhere, deferring more to seniority than expertise. Because the whip decides who speaks about legislation, who gets on the radio address and the like, Filner said, Pelosi had their votes.

One California Democratic woman missing from the fete: Alamo’s Ellen Tauscher, who cast her vote, and perhaps her lot, with Pelosi’s New York opponent. Chances are good to better that Tauscher won’t be first on the new whip’s “favors” list for her California colleagues.

Home Sweet Home, Board Sweet Board Adriana Rubalcava is moving back home, and maybe onto the Board of Public Works.

The 38-year-old Rubalcava, once the chief of staff for Councilman Nick Pacheco, is one of L.A. Mayor James K. Hahn’s nominees to a spot on the great and powerful board. She’s been living for several years in an apartment in South Pasadena, where she lists her home telephone number.

But she has kept her voting registration at her parents’ Los Angeles address--a requirement for a board member. Now that she’s up for the big job, she’s moved back in with Mom and Dad. And with the commissioner’s salary of $93,231 a year, maybe she can buy her own place.

Accentuating the Actuarial Big news from the down ballot, if the run for state insurance commissioner can even be characterized as a “race” at this early stage:

The man who was once the insurance commissioner and wants to be again, John Garamendi, dipped into Orange County for a fund-raiser thrown by his onetime aide, Bruce Broadwater, who’s now the mayor of Garden Grove. This nudged Tom Umberg, who is also raising money to run for insurance commissioner, to remark, “What a small world! The last time John came to Orange County for a fund-raiser, it was for me.”

If Umberg’s been sounding a bit acid of late, consider: Another contender for the commish job, Assemblyman Tom Calderon of Montebello, remarked to The Times earlier this month that if Umberg and his wife got called up for war duty as Army Reserve colonels, and Umberg dropped out of the race, “It would sort of leave Southern California to me, which would be a good thing.”

Maybe to Martha Stewart, but not to Umberg’s mother-in-law, whose e-mail scolding of Calderon has splashed across hundreds of computer screens.

And on the subject of leaving the field, Wes Bannister, the Orange County water board member and longtime insurance agent, won’t be running for insurance commish. Bannister found Tom Fuentes, Orange County’s uber-Republican, to be less than enthusiastic about having Bannister’s name on the ballot, because he’s so closely tied to the insurance biz. Bannister lost the job to Garamendi in 1990 and the primary to Chuck Quackenbush in 1994. The primary field is lousy with Democrats, but nary a Republican is now in the running.

Quick Hits * Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, a longtime California congressman, was briefly admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for what was described as persistent nosebleed, triggering low blood pressure.

* The gold-colored coin from Mike Schaefer’s campaign, promising “1 beer or wine at any pub in our district,” is now only a collector’s curiosity, since Schaefer lost in the primary to fill the City Council seat in Los Angeles’ 4th District.

* Orange County, cradle of governor-wannabes? Joining Edie Bukewihge of Costa Mesa is Nick Jesson of Huntington Beach, who calls himself the true conservative in the race, with his campaign-logo slogan: “Pro-Life. Pro-2nd Amendment. Anti-Tax on Wages.”

* A news release from the not-quite-gubernatorial campaign of former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan refers to “economic development in upstate California,” a term used in his birth state of New York, but not often employed in California.

* Fullerton Republican congressman Ed Royce finally, finally, may be getting what he’s angled for for several years: $14 million and authorization to create Radio Free Afghanistan, to broadcast into the country six hours a day in each of two local languages.

Word Perfect “Today’s about Nancy’s election. Mine’s another day.”

Ceres Democratic Rep. Gary Condit, brushing off reporters’ inquiries as he celebrated colleague Nancy Pelosi’s elevation to the No. 2 job on the Democratic side of the aisle in the House of Representatives. At least one Democrat is hovering, ready to take on Condit in a primary if he runs again.

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Columnist Patt Morrison’s e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Nick Anderson, Tina Daunt and Jean O. Pasco.