In a legislator’s shoes

Alicia Robinson

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This week, Daily Pilot government and politics

reporter Alicia Robinson is in Sacramento to provide a firsthand look

at Newport-Mesa’s elected representatives. She will be checking in on

freshmen Assemblymen Chuck DeVore and Van Tran and seeing how state

Sen. John Campbell is adjusting to life in the Senate. Pilot

photographer Kent Treptow is also on the assignment in the state

capital.

SACRAMENTO -- It’s just before 8 a.m., and Chuck DeVore is on his

way to the Capitol building to read the Bible.

This is how he spends about an hour every Wednesday morning, along

with several of his colleagues in the state Legislature. They pray

together and talk about how faith can help them through the tougher

moments of being an elected official.

It’s also the beginning of a long day made up of bursts of

frenzied activity and stints of mind-numbing waiting. DeVore, Newport

Beach’s assemblyman, doesn’t complain, because it’s what he signed up

for when he ran for office in 2004.

THE DRILL

After about four months on the job, Newport-Mesa’s freshmen

assemblymen -- DeVore and Costa Mesa Assemblyman Van Tran, both

Republicans -- are settling in to a routine in the capital, albeit a

constantly changing one.

If it’s a Monday or a Thursday, the Assembly meets in its

high-ceilinged chambers for about 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon.

Legislators all have computers at their desks to see what’s on the

agenda, and they all have microphones in case they want to say

something about a bill.

At the clang of a bell, they cast a vote by pushing a button on

the desk. The results are shown on screens at the front of the

chambers. On Monday, they had to get through about 30 bills in two

hours -- that’s why the dirty work of analysis and writing amendments

is mainly left up to committees.

“You get enough time to get a sense of what the bill is and how

you’re going to vote on it, but never enough time to understand all

the details,” Tran said. “As a legislator you have to be a quick

study and always be prepared for what’s coming at you.”

THE HIRED HELP

That’s why a good staff is so important. Tran’s chief of staff is

Paul Hegyi, who hasn’t been in Sacramento long but has worked for

several legislators on campaigns and in the office.

Sometimes the deadlines in Sacramento are unreasonable, Hegyi

said.

“It doesn’t allow for the best work to be done. It makes things

get rushed,” he said. “Our job is to try to minimize the damage.”

Staffers help write up bills, get information on what’s coming up

for a vote and keep legislators’ schedules. The assemblyman and his

staffers live and die by their Blackberries -- legislators can get

work done with them while out of the office, and staff members can

amuse themselves sending messages during boring committee hearings.

THE SCENE

When they’re not sitting in committee hearings of the committees

or pushing their own bills, Newport-Mesa’s assemblymen are usually on

the run, darting into elevators on the way to meet a lobbyist or to

cast a vote. No one pays anyone much attention as people bustle down

corridors, yakking into cell phones.

Of course, any time the governor is moving about the building, his

pathway is cleared, roped off and lined by security staff. School

children and tourists congregate outside his office, snapping photos

of themselves under the name prominently chiseled over the door,

“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

People would gawk a little at former Gov. Gray Davis, but he

didn’t emanate the same sparkle of celebrity, said state Sen. John

Campbell, who’s been in Sacramento for four years now.

“People would hang [around] to see, but they didn’t scream, and

they didn’t cheer, and they didn’t wait in those kind of numbers,” he

said.

THE JOB

Other legislators get much less fanfare, but they still have to be

“on” at a moment’s notice. If their bill is being heard by a

committee -- there may be dozens of bills on the agenda, so they wait

in the audience at the hearing room or in their own office if that’s

close by -- they rush to the podium when called to sell committee

members on the bill.

And they’ve got to have persistence. That makes DeVore just right

for the job, because he’s got a seemingly unlimited flow of energy.

As he puts it, “we operate on coffee and adrenaline.”

He wrote a bill that would have offered a marriage contract with

provisions to discourage divorce -- it required counseling before

marriage and also if one spouse seeks to end the union. DeVore’s goal

was to shrink the divorce rate, and he included exceptions for

abusive situations.

The bill was voted down in committee Tuesday, but DeVore plans to

bring it back.

“To me, this is a six-year project,” he said. “I’m not

disheartened by this. I knew I wasn’t going to win.”

As a Republican in the Democrat-controlled legislature, Tran has

experienced the same frustrations but they haven’t dampened his

enthusiasm.

“We may go down in flames legislatively on some of these bills,

but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t bring it up and discuss it,” Tran

said.

THE LIFE

Tran and DeVore don’t always get proper meals. If there’s not a

lunch meeting scheduled, DeVore said he often works until

midafternoon before realizing he’s hungry. And they spend a good

number of evenings at receptions, fundraisers and other events with

finger food and drinks in plastic cups.

They may get invited to a dozen events a week, but even at those

events, they may not get more than a bite because of all the people

trying to bend their ears. Tran was co-hosting an event for the 30th

anniversary of the fall of Saigon on Monday, and he came straight

from working and had to deliver a short speech.

“When Van comes in here, he won’t be able to touch the food

because the people will be mobbing him,” DeVore said as he filled a

plate.

Just like gaining weight in college, the Legislature apparently

has its own “freshman 15” -- but DeVore has actually lost a pound

since being elected because he doesn’t have time to scarf hors

d’oeuvres.

Even after the events are over, it’s not bedtime for Tran, who

returns to the office to read up on legislation, sometimes bringing

material home. For DeVore, it’s back to his apartment in the

“Sacramento governor’s mansion,” a joking reference to the fact that

Jerry Brown once lived there.

The days are long, and Tran and DeVore often are fighting losing

political battles. But they’re both happy with their work.

“I marvel at the fact that I get paid to do this, even when I’m

running from one place to the other, even when things don’t go the

way I want them to go,” DeVore said. “I’m still in love with the

job.”