Quaint, quirky Sacramento

Alicia Robinson

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

reporter Alicia Robinson went to Sacramento to provide a firsthand

look at Newport-Mesa’s elected representatives: Assemblymen Chuck

DeVore and Van Tran, and state Sen. John Campbell. The final

installment of her work will run in Sunday’s Daily Pilot, along with

photos by Kent Treptow.

Despite the presence of our movie-star governor, Sacramento is not

a glamorous city.

Restaurants and bars near the capitol seem to close by 9 or 10

p.m., and if you drive just a few minutes out of town you’re in a

land of strip malls, auto parts stores and an inexplicable “nut and

gift shop.”

But the city has a certain mystique that raised questions in me on

my three-day junket this week. (I’ve always wanted to use the word

junket. Thanks, Sacramento, for the excuse.)

How is it so mysteriously tidy? There’s no trash on the streets.

And who cleans up after the cops on horses?

When you’re hundreds of miles away in Orange County, it sounds

like legislators are often on the verge of coming to blows and that

the halls of the Capitol building are going to erupt in fist fights

due to partisan bickering.

But in reality, Assembly members who would fight bitterly over a

bill allowing gay marriage might work together on an education

initiative. Staffers and elected officials from the two major

political parties crowd into the same elevators and wave to each

other in the halls.

And why are people in the capital so friendly? In Los Angeles

people would be scowling with suspicion or asking you for money if

you approached them, yet everyone here seemed amenable to answering

my bonehead questions: For example, how do I get to the third floor?

It was exciting to be on my own, away from the office -- my first

time “on assignment,” and you could hear the air quotes when I told

people that -- but it was also a big responsibility. I had to figure

out how to spend time with three legislators who all had full

schedules, and also set aside a few hours to write stories and turn

them in by deadline. (OK, maybe not the deadline, but a deadline.)

I learned a few things, like better ways to plan future trips --

excuse me, junkets -- that I hope to take; the free shampoo at the

Travelodge is definitely watered down; and don’t wear a new pair of

shoes with no socks when you’re walking around all day. (The blisters

are still healing; thanks for asking.)

And, five-inch-thick city council packets notwithstanding,

lawmakers in Sacramento kill way more trees in a month than Costa

Mesa or Newport Beach do.

Here, I’ll give away a secret: As a journalist, I’m not supposed

to express opinions on the issues I cover, but I have plenty. I’m far

from agreeing with everything Newport-Mesa’s legislators say or do,

but after seeing them in action this week, I respect them more

because they work as hard as I do, maybe harder.

You’d think a trip to Sacramento to watch politicians wheeling and

dealing would just strengthen what I call my healthy sense of

skepticism, but somehow, it made me a little less cynical.

I still believe journalists have an important mission of keeping

all levels of government honest by scrutinizing and publicizing their

actions. And my visit up north reminded me that no matter how closely

I work with politicians, I don’t work for them, and they’re not my

friends -- no source should be.

But it’s possible to write about government without assuming

everyone is on the take. Maybe if I stayed in Sacramento longer, I’d

scrap that idea as naivete. I admit, I felt like a dopey kid during

some of the trip -- jumping on the hotel bed (which was intolerably

hard, by the way), getting excited about passing as a “real”

journalist on the Assembly floor alongside people from other

newspapers I’ve actually heard of, and asking a million questions

about everything.

Sacramento isn’t a movie-star town, but even in three days there,

I got to see the governor. (No, not a personal meeting, even though

Newport-Mesa Sen. John Campbell is his close friend.) And I learned

some important things: like it’s the cops themselves who have to

clean up the horse poop. Maybe I should be thankful my job doesn’t

require that.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.