Schabarum Snubbed by Willie Brown

SACRAMENTO —  Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum--who has assailed the Legislature and proposed limiting the terms of its members--walked into the enemy’s camp Wednesday, paying a visit to the Assembly floor.

But Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) refused to allow the former assemblyman’s Republican allies to introduce him, twice cutting off the microphones of GOP lawmakers who tried to mention Schabarum’s presence.

Asked afterward to explain his action, Brown shouted vulgarities at a reporter and said he would have allowed Schabarum to be introduced at “the appropriate time.”

Brown has vowed to defeat Schabarum’s Proposition 140, which would limit Assembly members to three terms and senators and statewide officers to two terms. The measure would also reduce the Legislature’s operating budget and eliminate the lawmakers’ pension program.

Brown’s ire was not shared by all of his colleagues. Several Republicans and a handful of Democrats went to the back of the chambers to greet Schabarum, who served in the Assembly for five years before then-Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Board of Supervisors.

“It’s gutsy of you to come,” said Assemblywoman Sally Tanner, a Democrat from Baldwin Park.

“It’s part of my nature,” Schabarum replied.

Schabarum said he was in the Capitol to keep an eye on “three or four bills” of interest to the county and to “highlight the fact that Proposition 140 is on the ballot.”

With polls showing the initiative leading by a wide margin, Schabarum said he is confident that it will win, even if legislators wage a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to defeat it. Speaker Brown has claimed that, by increasing turnover in the Legislature, the measure will make lawmakers more dependent on lobbyists for information on subjects they do not understand.

But Schabarum scoffed at that idea and said voters would not be persuaded by the opposition campaign.

“The only group that seems to be opposed to this are legislators and their attaches in this building,” he said.

Republican Assemblyman Richard Mountjoy of Monrovia planned to introduce Schabarum when he came to the floor Wednesday morning, a common courtesy that the members routinely extend to guests. But Mountjoy said Brown told him that he would not be recognized for that purpose, and when he tried, Brown ignored him.

Then, during a debate on a bill that would make it easier for legislators to spend their campaign contributions on travel costs for family members, Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) tried to sneak in a reference to Schabarum, noting that the county supervisor opposed the measure that was being debated.

Brown cut Nolan off in mid-sentence. “You are not going to pull those kinds of stunts on me,” Brown said.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) was next to try. He said the bill in question was a “very good reason to support the Schabarum initiative, whose author, Pete Schabarum, is in the back of the room.” Brown cut him off too.