GOP Withholds Votes, Stalling 4 Davis Appointments

Sensing that there may be a new governor in six weeks, Senate Republicans on Wednesday refused to vote to confirm a slew of gubernatorial appointees who would remain in office long after Gov. Gray Davis departs, if he is recalled.

The first casualties of the surprise GOP tactic were three appointees to the board of governors of the California Community Colleges system.

Another was Alice A. Huffman, a teachers union lobbyist and statewide fixture in Democratic politics who was named a trustee of the California State University system.

Each of the “education nominees” requires 27 favorable votes in the Senate to win confirmation. This means that at least two Republicans would have to join with all 25 Democrats to approve them.

However, most other gubernatorial appointees to top state positions, boards and commissions need only a majority vote of 21 for approval.

As a result, Democrats can approve them without any Republican votes.

Sen. Ross Johnson of Irvine, the Senate’s senior Republican, said the recall election Oct. 7 creates a “unique circumstance” in which a successor to Davis could be left with officials who would fill key posts for at least four more years.

Johnson said any successor had the right to install his or own management team.

To do otherwise “just does not make a lot of sense,” Johnson said.

As the recall election campaign has intensified in the last few weeks, Davis, who has been criticized for moving slowly in filling vacancies, has rapidly selected numerous nominees for state posts.

If Davis remains governor, Johnson said, he can resubmit their names in January.

Most appointees can remain in office without Senate confirmation for one year. None faces imminent unemployment.

Senate leader John L. Burton (D-San Francisco), chairman of the Rules Committee, said that the GOP move caught him by surprise, but that he understood the reasoning.

“I don’t blame them,” he said. If the tables were turned, Democrats could be expected to do the same thing, Burton said.

But Davis’ chief spokesman, Steve Maviglio, called the action a payback by Republicans who failed to defeat Davis in last year’s election.

“Gov. Davis won. They lost and need to get over it.... Republicans ought to stop measuring the drapes and get on with the business of governing,” he said.

Johnson said Republicans would continue to vote to confirm qualified nominees named by Davis to “pleasure” terms, meaning that they could be replaced by the next governor.

Under the law, most appointees to an education governing board are subject to a two-thirds favorable vote of the Senate.

On Wednesday, the four education appointees received yes votes from the three Democratic members of the Rules Committee, and their nominations were sent to the floor. The two Republican committee members refused to vote.

But, if Republicans stick to their promise, those nominees are certain to be rejected by the full Senate for lack of GOP support.

In addition to Huffman,, the others are: Melinda F. Guzman Moore, a Sacramento lawyer; Fahari Jeffers, a San Diego union official; and Ronald W. Wong, who was a deputy appointments secretary to Davis. All four are in line for four-year terms.

Johnson said he believed that Davis also understood the Republican action because as soon as he took office in 1999, he withdrew about 160 appointments that former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson had made in his final days in office.

Four more appointees to education boards are scheduled to be considered by the Rules Committee.

However, they will be advised to stay home because there is virtually no chance that Republicans would vote to confirm them, a source said.