Legislators Get Chewed Out After the Swearing In

California’s legislators were sworn into office for the 1987-88 session Monday and the Assembly immediately faced a stern lecture from Speaker Willie Brown, who charged that “voter turnout turned to voter turnoff” this election year because of the politicians’ negative campaigns.

As families, friends and supporters watched the pomp and ceremony from packed galleries and on closed-circuit television in two large Capitol auditoriums, Brown (D-San Francisco) decried the high cost of campaigning and called for a “personal code of conduct” in future elections.

“None of us should really be too proud of the 1986 election,” said Brown, whose chief of staff, Richie Ross, was responsible for managing many of the Democratic legislative races.

‘New Art Form’

Contending that this year’s campaigns had raised negative advertising to “a new art form,” Brown added: “We ought to try to work out a system between now and the 1988 election that each of us can subscribe to on a voluntary basis to remove the concept of negative campaigning.”

The swearing-in ceremony officially marked the beginning of a two-year legislative session. Serious business will not get under way, however, until after New Year’s Day. The Legislature’s traditional December return is calculated not only to allow time for processing new bills, but for a fair measure of backslapping, handshaking and speech making and for a fleeting spirit of good tidings.

There was plenty of all that to go around as new and returning members held parties that filled the Capitol hallways with the sound of popping champaign corks.

Among the 120 members of the Legislature, the elections brought 11 new faces to the Assembly and two to the state Senate.

They included the first political independent elected to the Senate in this century, former San Francisco supervisor Quentin Kopp, previously a Democrat. Kopp cast his first vote with Republicans to stymie a Democratic-sponsored resolution to condemn President Reagan for Iran arms sales.

Kopp, asked about his vote, said he will side with one party or the other depending on how issues line up with his political philosophy. “I will be just where I am today and always will be, making up my mind independently,” Kopp said.

‘Deeply Moved’

Reactions to the day’s events ranged far beyond the legislative chambers for some new members.

Freshman Democratic Assemblywoman Jackie Speier of San Francisco, for example, sobbed openly during the opening session when told by reporters that Larry Layton had been convicted in the 1978 Jonestown massacre, in which her former boss, Rep. Leo Ryan, was killed.

“Oh, my God,” said Speier, who was wounded in the ambush on a Guyana airstrip. “It is wonderful to have it all behind us and some final recognition for what happened. I am deeply moved.”

It was a confident Brown who addressed the opening session of the Assembly.

Democrats lost three Assembly seats to Republicans in the election. The negative commercials that Brown decried helped, however, to elect a sufficient number of Democrats to retain control of the lower house. And Brown was quickly rewarded, winning his fourth term as Speaker.

In a show of bipartisan support for Brown, Assembly minority floor leader Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) moved that Brown be elected Speaker by acclamation. Nolan previously had been reelected to his post.

There was some leadership shuffling as Assembly majority floor leader Mike Roos of Los Angeles became Speaker pro tem, replacing retiring Assemblyman Frank Vicencia of Los Angeles. Roos was replaced as majority leader by Assemblyman Tom Hannigan of Fairfield. Assemblywoman Maxine Waters of Los Angeles will continue to serve as Democratic caucus chairwoman.

In the Senate, where Democrats lost two seats during the elections but retained control, President Pro Tem David A. Roberti of Los Angeles was unanimously reelected to his leadership post.

Democratic Sens. Barry Keene of Benecia and Milton Marks of San Francisco retained their respective posts as majority floor leader and caucus chairman, and Senate Republican leader Jim Nielson of Rohnert Park and Republican Caucus Chairman John Seymour of Anaheim were reelected.

For most of the new lawmakers, the first week in Sacramento will be a little like the first week in school.

Beginning today, freshmen Assemblymen will start taking lessons from legislative leaders and their staffs on how to navigate the legislative maze. The first course deals with the mundane: how to introduce bills, when public speech making is allowed on the Assembly floor, how to fill out expense vouchers and the all-important hints about how to get free publicity by churning out reams of press releases.

‘Tell the Truth’

Susan Jetton, press secretary to Brown, said she has distributed a manual to get them started. Among its most important suggestions: “Tell the truth now, because it’s going to come out one way or the other.”

In his speech on the Assembly floor, Brown, who persistently has called for campaign spending reform only to see his measures die for lack of support, said he will try again.

Brown, one of the Legislature’s most skilled fund-raisers, said the concept of allowing special interests to contribute millions of dollars to legislative campaigns “has gone beyond the limit” where anyone can successfully argue that the gifts are not influencing legislation.

“We are beyond the stage where that kind of money, that source of money, should be required for campaigns,” he said.

In the Senate, the political advice was of a different nature.

Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, who made a rare appearance to preside over the session, told both legislative veterans and newly elected members to heed the findings of a recent study at the University of California, Irvine, that disclosed, he said, “that flat cheek bones, angular jaws and eyes rounded at the top can add 5% to 10% to (a candidate’s) vote.”

‘Live With That’

He warned, however, that the study showed “there is no direct correlation between raw physical attractiveness and the amount of votes you get. . . . You’ll just have to live with that unhappy finding,” he said.