Fed-Up Killea Wants Out of Party Politics : Legislature: Democratic state senator says she wants to become a political independent. She warns colleagues that voters have lost confidence in lawmakers.

SACRAMENTO —  Delivering a scorching attack on the Legislature, Sen. Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) said Monday she wants to quit the Democratic Party and become a political independent because partisan lawmakers “have lost the public’s confidence.”

Addressing colleagues in a highly unusual speech on the Senate floor, Killea said voters believe “that this Legislature is interested only in itself” and warned her colleagues that public opinion polls are giving them failing marks.

“I would be surprised if we got 30% (of the voters) approving of our job,” she said. “That’s an F grade.”

Killea’s announcement drew a cool reception from colleagues, who had returned for the first day from their summer break. Senate President Pro Tempore David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) suggested the speech was designed to aid Killea’s political fortunes next year in her heavily Republican San Diego district.

“I think it has to do with her reelection,” said Roberti, who helped her win a narrow upset victory December, 1989, in the 39th Senate District, which generally runs along Interstate 8 and includes conservative enclaves such as Tierrasanta, El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside and Alpine.

A Roberti spokesman estimated the Senate leader helped steer from $175,000 to $200,000 to her campaign, which drew national attention because of her pro-abortion views.

Roberti also said Killea’s defection was “symptomatic” of a larger problem for the Democratic Party nationally--its leaders have failed to define and project “what our essential message is” or even field presidential candidates.

“The Democratic Party is going through some soul-searching problems. . . . We really don’t have national leaders to form and articulate a coherent Democratic message. If we did have that, we probably wouldn’t be suffering these small erosions,” he said.

Killea herself struck the same chord in her speech Monday, saying she has been a Democrat for more than 40 years and registered as such when she got out of college, specifically to vote for President Franklin D. Roosevelt--a leader she said was dedicated to protecting working Americans.

In contrast, she said, today’s lawmakers are commonly viewed by the public as self-serving, concerned primarily about picking up their tax-free expense allowances, “carving out” safe political districts through redistricting and collecting huge campaign war chests to discourage challengers.

“I’m talking about a much deeper dissatisfaction, even resentment, a sense among a broad section of the public . . . that this Legislature is interested only in itself,” she told her colleagues, who sat stone-faced.

Roberti publicly rejected Killea’s charge that the Legislature has failed to respond to demands for reform. Within the last two years, he said, lawmakers have voted to ban honorariums, limit gifts and throw the politically thorny issue of pay raises to an independent salary commission.

Although Roberti and others took Killea’s pronouncements seriously, the gesture was largely symbolic, at least for now. State law prevents her from changing registrations less than a year before next summer’s primary.

Killea said she didn’t know about the law until she tried to re-register as an independent last week, before coming back to Sacramento. In her speech, she asked her colleagues to change the law in time for her reelection bid, but Roberti said it is likely that Killea is locked into being listed as a Democrat on the 1992 ballot.

Either way, Killea said she will not be attending Senate Democratic caucus meetings and will begin acting as a political independent.

Senate Republican leader Ken Maddy of Fresno said Killea’s announcement caps months of frustration on her part with the upper chamber’s power structure, which rewards longevity with committee chairmanships and other desirable assignments.

Killea, a popular former San Diego city councilwoman and Assembly member, has openly complained about the Senate’s “good-old-boy” leadership system. And this year her impatience was palpable as she sponsored a bill that would inject drastic reform into the system by scrapping the two-house Legislature in favor of a unicameral (one-house) Legislature.

“Her complaints have been on-going and daily from the day she got here,” said Maddy. “Maybe she’s frustrated with the political process.”

Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) said the comments by his San Diego colleague were “touching” and characterized them as a “rather dramatic move.” But he dismissed notions that they were politically motivated and geared toward winning reelection.

“I don’t think it is going to amount to one iota as far as her election is concerned, because I think she has her supporters,” Craven said. “She’s extremely well-known in the San Diego area.”

Yet one potential opponent, former Sen. Jim Ellis, said Monday that Killea’s gambit virtually assures that he will challenge her in the fall and try to win back his old seat.

Without the backing of the Democratic Party, Ellis predicted, Killea will be hard-put to win reelection to a district that, if not reapportioned, would have a heavy Republican majority. Now, 49.5% of the district’s voters are registered Republican, with 36.5% Democrats.

“I think she’s compounded her problems now,” said Ellis, a member of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board in Sacramento.

For now, Roberti said Killea’s speech would produce no “major change” in the balance of power in the 40-member Senate, where Democrats hold the majority with 26 seats. There are 13 Republicans and one independent, Sen. Quentin Kopp of San Francisco.

Reacting to Killea’s announcement, Kopp brushed it aside, saying, “What good is it? She can’t run as an independent.”

Killea won the Senate seat after the late San Diego Bishop Leo T. Maher touched off a national controversy by barring her from partaking of Communion because of her stance as a public official in support of abortion rights. Killea instantly became a political celebrity, appearing on national talk shows and drawing support from pro-abortion groups.