Rift Dulls Clout of Women in Legislature : Politics: GOP members bolt caucus that had pushed through important bills. They are angry that Democrats did not back Bergeson for schools chief.

SACRAMENTO —  They were teaching the boys just what cooperation was all about.

Amid the incessant political turmoil here, the Legislative Women’s Caucus stood out in recent years by displaying an invigorating bipartisan spirit rarely seen in the Capitol. Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals--they managed to reach common ground on an array of issues. Then, working together, the women pushed an impressive slate of bills through the male-dominated Legislature.

But this year, the teamwork that had been a hallmark of Sacramento’s women lawmakers has virtually evaporated. The GOP members have bolted and Democrats have been left unable to make headway on any bills.

By most accounts, the political schism was cleaved open by the rancorous confirmation hearings that culminated in April with Assembly Democrats rejecting Sen. Marian Bergeson, a Newport Beach Republican, as California’s superintendent of public instruction.

Republican women were angry that the Democrat-dominated women’s caucus had refused to take a stand on Bergeson’s attempt to become the state’s first female schools chief. They were further rankled when several freshman Democrats who did not know the veteran lawmaker stood up on the Assembly floor and lambasted Bergeson, the caucus chairwoman in 1992.

In the months since, Republicans have been conspicuously absent from the women’s meetings.

“If anyone thinks I’m going to waste my time going to an 8 a.m. caucus meeting once a month only to get run over by a steamroller, forget it,” grumbled Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley). “As far as I’m concerned, all we’ve got now is a Democratic Women’s Caucus.”

Veteran women Democrats have tried to coax back the Republicans, but those small overtures have gone for naught. Meanwhile, most Democrats have refused to budge on their insistence that the caucus rightly had no business adopting a position on Bergeson. Had she been confirmed, Bergeson would have completed the term of former schools chief Bill Honig, who was forced from office by a criminal conflict-of-interest conviction.

“I was appalled by the treatment Marian got, but this body has never, ever, ever endorsed candidates,” said Assemblywoman Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), the caucus chairwoman. “I’m still very hopeful we can come together and find some things we agree on. There can be tremendous strength if women can work together on some of these issues.”

Indeed, the caucus has shown its clout on a variety of fronts in recent years, serving as a model for women in statehouses nationwide. Formed as a supper club, the group evolved and began tackling issues long ignored by men--child support, Pap smears, breast cancer, insurance for child care providers, divorce and sexual battery.

They held high-profile hearings. One centered on the controversial birth control device Norplant. Another took place behind bars at a state prison, where the caucus heard tearful testimony from women inmates convicted of killing their abusive husbands. The result was the enactment of several measures dealing with domestic violence.

A bill pushed by Bergeson was a prime beneficiary of caucus support in 1991--a successful measure outlawing the distribution of cigarette samples that often land in the hands of children. It was one of the first anti-cigarette measures in years to overcome opposition from the politically potent tobacco lobby. “I really feel the women’s caucus is what put us over the top,” said Christopher Kahn, Bergeson’s chief of staff.

But amid outward harmony were a few signs of dissension.

Several Republican members said they were irked in 1991 when Democrats invited Anita Hill, the law professor who accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, to headline a caucus dinner.

At that event, several conservatives quietly smoldered over a decision by Democrats to distribute a commemorative pin featuring the biological symbol of the female gender as part of its logo. As they saw it, the gesture was inappropriate because the gender symbol is routinely associated with the feminist movement, which is anathema to many conservatives.

Such simmering tension began to roil with the events surrounding Bergeson’s confirmation hearings last spring.

“There were some individual attacks by members of the women’s caucus that were very personal,” Bergeson recalled. “That hurt me.”

The Democrats suggested that Bergeson’s nomination was the sort of matter best left untouched by the caucus. Apart from such policy considerations, Assembly Democrats also worried that a Republican appointee, if confirmed, would prove a formidable candidate when the schools chief post comes up for election next year.

But Republicans saw it far differently. The nomination, they said, had nothing to do with an election. Instead, it was a simple matter of whether Bergeson was qualified. “It wasn’t as if she was running, it wasn’t as if she had a Democratic opponent,” Wright said.

In the days after Bergeson’s rejection, several of her GOP colleagues drafted an angry letter announcing their resignation from the women’s caucus. At that point, Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte stepped in and asked that they not take such a drastic step. Instead, the group sent a toned-down missive to caucus chief Alpert.

Alpert said she reacted by attempting to meet with each of the Republican women individually. But she kept the letter under wraps, a decision that further ruffled the GOP women, who felt that their concerns were being shunted off into a closet.

“I just don’t believe in airing dirty linen in front of everyone,” Alpert said.

Alpert still believes that 1993 has been a good year, with the caucus continuing to hold hearings and invite speakers to help spark new legislative ideas. But she does not deny that the Republican exodus and the attendant tension cast a shadow on accomplishments--and she wants to see the caucus united again.

A good starting point, Alpert said, may be to return to the organization’s roots and begin holding meetings focused primarily around socializing. During the past year, there has been precious little of that between Republican and Democrat women.

It could prove a hard sell. Many Republicans remain bitter about the whole situation. Moreover, the changing dynamics of the Legislature could make it difficult for the two camps to declare a truce.

Alpert and others suggest that the new GOP women elected in recent years sport a far more conservative social agenda than the moderates who held sway in the past; the result has been a wider ideological gulf between Republicans and Democrats.

Republicans fear that the flock of new liberal women in the Assembly would prefer to shuck off any pretense of bipartisanship and push the caucus toward controversial stands on the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion. “They don’t need us,” Wright said. “It wasn’t a feeling on our part. It was a feeling on their part. So I never go where I’m not needed.”

Raw numbers may be the biggest obstacle. Prior to the 1992 election, the 22 women legislators were divided relatively evenly--nine Republicans, 12 Democrats and one independent. Today, there are 25 women legislators, but Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1.

To their credit, Democrats tried to even the imbalance by implementing a policy this year that all caucus-backed legislation earn the support of at least half the Republicans, in effect giving the minority members an easy veto. But those good intentions backfired a bit. Without the Republicans participating, Democrats were not able to get caucus support for any bills.

So, one year after historic gains by women in California politics, the Legislative Women’s Caucus has been virtually invisible when it comes to making new law. Bergeson, for one, feels it is a tragedy, but remains optimistic that the wounds can be healed.

“I think it will take a strong leader who is willing to reassert the bipartisan role of the caucus,” she said. “I think it can be restored. I think it can be salvaged. It’s too important not to be.”