Perata Taking Reins in Senate

Few leaders have taken the helm of the California Legislature under such unnerving circumstances.

Today, Don Perata, a former high school civics teacher who rose to become an Oakland power broker, will be sworn in as Senate president pro tem, a position he won in August in a tie-breaking vote.

The Legislature he will lead -- along with his fellow Democrat, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles -- has so far been unable to produce a compelling agenda to counter Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Republican vision.

The governor is openly planning an institutional challenge to lawmakers by moving to strip their ability to draw their own districts or otherwise limit their constitutional powers.

Most ominously, a federal grand jury has been investigating Perata’s political and business associates and relatives, a probe some fear might end up on his doorstep. Although Perata has not been implicated in any wrongdoing, he is the first legislative leader in a decade who’s at risk of becoming enmeshed in a criminal investigation.

“His career is at a point where, does he go forward or is he permanently damaged?” said Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento). “I think at this juncture, all I’ve heard is universal support for him, a real sense for caring about him as a man. We are not the persons to know the facts, and we are keenly aware of this kind of investigation occurring in the past and turning out to be nothing.”

So far, Perata, 59, has shown resilience and skill, fellow lawmakers and Sacramento observers say. He has satisfied most of his Senate opponents by awarding them appealing committee assignments, and he has won appreciation with promises of a more collaborative leadership style than that of his predecessor, John Burton of San Francisco.

“He has treated everybody fairly,” said Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier), who had been his main rival for Senate president.

Perata’s ambitions go far beyond maintaining a hold on his new position. In an interview last week at his district office in Oakland, he sketched out an agenda designed to restore credibility with California’s electorate, which regularly gives the Legislature poor reviews (even though voters reelected every Sacramento incumbent last month).

“We will put more emphasis on meeting the expectations of taxpayers,” Perata said. “If you drive around, if you visit our institutions, they are gradually decaying. We have failed to invest in the state’s infrastructure. There are a lot of very good ideas that have never seen the field of play, and they will this year.”

Perata hopes to get the ideologically divided Legislature to address quality-of-life issues -- such as high-priced housing, congested roads and a limited water supply -- that are of particular concern to California’s swing voters.

“Focusing on the center is really what we need to be about,” he said. “We have to be bold enough and straightforward enough to say some things have not worked well, and ask ourselves what are we going to do differently. There is no Democratic or Republican way to make the highways less congested, and that’s what [voters] want.”

Nunez is also trying to chart a more centrist path, focusing the Assembly on improving California’s business climate, an issue that Schwarzenegger and Republicans have traditionally considered theirs. “You’re going to see Democrats take on issues of economic development,” he said.

Those are more difficult goals than they may sound. Many of the Legislature’s most notable actions in its last session were highly divisive: making illegal immigrants eligible for driver’s licenses, requiring employers to provide healthcare, permitting prescription drugs to be imported from Canada. Although ultimately unsuccessful, those efforts cemented a perception that the Legislature is beholden to liberal activists, unions and the rest of the traditional Democratic coalition.

“It’s been a very closed, narrow, unforgiving party,” said Wayne Johnson, a GOP consultant. “Without having a knee-jerk response in terms of cutting some areas of government, if they saw it as a way to start over -- if they come of that frame of mind, they’ll have more bipartisan cooperation. But it’ll mean telling some of the unions and some of the interest groups, ‘Hey, we’re not automatic votes anymore.’ ”

Perata insisted that “everything will be on the table. There will be no sacred cows.” He said he is eager to work with Schwarzenegger, and does not take personally his branding of Democrats as “losers” during the election season.

“There’s absolutely no reason to try to back us into a corner,” he said. “There is a lot we can do to be helpful to the governor or to impede what he wants to do. We have a lot of ideas, and we agree on a lot of ways to [alter state government]. So we’ll either be partners or won’t be.”

Despite his narrow victory, Perata’s hold in the Senate seems secure, as he is expected to easily win today’s formal vote for president pro tem. Senators credit him for not holding grudges in parceling out power in the Senate.

Escutia was given the leadership of the Senate Energy Committee. Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica, the other contender for Senate president, will head an enlarged panel overseeing water issues and natural resources.

Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles, an Escutia supporter, was placed on the powerful Rules Committee, and Tom Torlakson of Antioch -- a fellow Bay Area senator who deserted Perata for Escutia -- was given a beefed-up committee overseeing both housing and transportation. (It did not hurt, Perata conceded, that Torlakson helped Perata raise money and assisted other Senate candidates.)

Perata gave other Democrats committee assignments designed to dovetail with their post-Senate ambitions -- one of his campaign planks in running for Senate president. Debra Bowen of Marina del Rey, who plans to run for secretary of state, was made chairwoman of the Senate elections panel. Joe Dunn of Santa Ana, an aspiring attorney general, will head the Judiciary Committee.

Perata has also promised that Democratic policy will be crafted by the entire caucus. He will attempt to demonstrate his resolve with a retreat in Sonoma on Tuesday and Wednesday -- something Burton would have not had the patience or desire to hold.

“Burton really was the dominant personality, and that is what really is going to change,” Kuehl said. “I feel we’re going to have a really well-balanced and equal caucus.”

Perata mollified Senate Republicans -- who hold 15 of the chamber’s 40 seats -- by promising to give them greater roles on committees that in the past had been lopsided in favor of Democrats. He also plans to appoint two Republicans to head committees, most prominently Jeff Denham of Salinas, who will take over the agriculture panel.

The GOP Senate leader, Dick Ackerman of Irvine, said Perata has been “very cooperative.” He praised Perata not only for the committee changes but for pledging to provide lawmakers with voicemail and updated telephones.

“We have the oldest phone system in the entire Capitol,” Ackerman said. “John [Burton] refused modern conveniences. Don is making sure all the offices are adequately equipped.”

But for all the planning, the one thing seemingly out of Perata’s control is the federal investigation, which became public last month. Authorities have issued subpoenas for information on Perata’s friends, relatives and former aides, many of whom work as political consultants or lobbyists.

“I’ll say what I said before: I haven’t been asked, I haven’t been contacted [by investigators]. If and when I am, I’ll cooperate fully,” Perata said. “I think what was unfair was the leaks, because they affected my family. I’ll take any shot -- this is the business I’m in. You’ll have a pretty hard time to get me to cower. But people went after my family. It hurt.”

Even Republicans have empathized with Perata. “That’s hard for anybody,” said Johnson, the GOP consultant. “Whenever you have things printed that are based more on rumor than fact, it’s damaging -- maybe more than if they’re about facts. You can’t answer because there isn’t really a charge to answer.”

Many Perata allies have taken solace in the experience of former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who, like Perata, developed a reputation for fundraising and political practices that tested the limits of what is legal. An extensive FBI probe begun in 1986 never led to an indictment of Brown; instead, GOP Assembly leader Pat Nolan, who had accused Brown of illegal behavior, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in 1994 and was sentenced to 33 months in prison. (Four other lawmakers and nine others were also convicted.)

“In the old days, when Willie Brown was being investigated, that didn’t seem to hamper his effectiveness as speaker,” Escutia said.

Anthony York, the editor of Political Pulse, a Sacramento newsletter, said of Perata: “I think he’ll be elected without incident Monday, but with a watchful eye on him. There’s no shortage of ambition in the [Democratic] caucus, but it’s in the caucus’ interest to present a united front, especially with the budget battle with Schwarzenegger.”

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Times staff writer Nancy Vogel contributed to this report.