Elated Schabarum Sees Blossoming Term Limit Drive : Politics: The retiring supervisor offers to lead the movement in other states. A critic calls the 24-year officeholder a hypocrite.

It began as retiring Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum’s swan song, although some critics said it played more like a mean-spirited, country-and-western tune.

Now, to hear Schabarum talk, the success of Proposition 140 has inspired not only the beginning of a national movement but also a new era for himself.

“I do sense there is a strong interest across the country for this concept,” a buoyant Schabarum said Wednesday of the law that limits legislators to two terms in office. He offered to champion term-limit drives in other states, perhaps even for members of Congress.

On the day after election, Schabarum was caught up in the fever over the success of Proposition 140, the highlight of a long and often frustrating political career.

The measure’s passage represented a shining moment--and some say a parting shot--for the 61-year-old supervisor who is leaving office because the job is not “as much fun as other things.”

Schabarum’s departure caps a career that, in the early years, was marred by his struggles as a conservative maverick on a liberal-controlled board. More recently, his relationship with his fellow Republicans soured to the point where they rarely speak.

But suddenly, almost overnight, a new Schabarum has emerged in place of the cantankerous supervisor--one who, by virtue of this initiative, has positioned himself as a political force in the image of the late tax fighter Howard Jarvis.

Schabarum’s son, Frank, said he sees parallels between his father and the legendary Jarvis, who fathered the landmark Proposition 13 and went on to lead a national tax revolt.

“I think it would be wonderful for him,” to lead a large-scale political organization aimed at overhauling the legislative system, said Frank Schabarum, who hopes to go into the real estate business with his father next year.

“He’s started a forest fire here,” said Merritt Van Sant, a longtime Schabarum friend.

Mike Lewis, a political consultant and Schabarum’s former chief deputy, said he has signed up to help expand the term-limit campaign. “It has the potential to give him a national profile like he’s never had,” Lewis said.

But some lawmakers who fell victim to Proposition 140 were less generous in their assessment.

“I don’t think he is any folk hero,” said Assemblyman John Vasconcellos of Santa Clara. He called Schabarum a “hypocrite who serves 24 years (in public office) and wants nobody else to serve six.”

A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, Michael Reese, said of the supervisor, “His moment may be short-lived.” Since the measure was approved by only 51.8% of the electorate, Reese said, “This hardly is a resounding vote, and it certainly isn’t the making of a Howard Jarvis folk hero.”

Schabarum’s small election night victory party reflected his isolation from the Southern California political structure. No prominent elected officials dropped by. Nor were there any congratulatory telegrams from his board colleagues.

“I understand they have a photograph of me that they use as a dart board,” Schabarum said of the political leadership in Sacramento.

Rarely fazed by the opinions of others, he said, “I’m basking (in the limelight) because it is one of the few issues in my career where I’m regarded as being on the right side by the media.”