Area's 4 Freshmen Begin Defining Goals at Capital : Government: The newcomers--all women--are sworn in and begin working on their political agendas.

By JANET RAE-DUPREE

Dec. 13, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The South Bay’s new state legislators were sworn in last week amid the confusion of moving into new offices, learning new rules and hiring new staff.

But the four newcomers--all of them women--also have begun playing their political hands, battling for committee assignments and preparing their first legislative proposals.

Of the four, only state Sen. Teresa Hughes has Sacramento experience. She was elected to her inland South Bay district after 16 years in the Assembly.

Even that experience, however, could not fully prepare her or her staff for the changes.

“Good afternoon, Assemblywoman Hu-- oh, dear. I mean Senator Hughes’ office,” said a flustered staff aide answering telephones Wednesday. “I’m so sorry, whoever this is. Everything’s changing so fast around here.”

Freshman Assemblywomen Debra Bowen and Betty Karnette, both considered underdogs in their bids for state office, have just begun hiring staff aides and still are unsure where their Sacramento and field offices will be.

And, even though she breezed through the general election, freshman Assemblywoman Juanita McDonald is not much farther along.

“It’s been overwhelming,” McDonald said, laughing. “We’ve got tons and tons of black binders with information crammed in them. But it’s also been encouraging because we’re all working together to learn and get down to business.”

Indeed, the four women have definite ideas about what they want to accomplish starting Jan. 4, when the Legislature reconvenes.

25th Senate District

Staff aides said Sen. Hughes was not available for comment because she was taking a long-delayed vacation following her swearing-in on Monday. But administrative assistant Joseph Hew Len said Hughes’ legislative plans are well under way.

Hughes has asked to be assigned to the Governmental Organization Committee because it handles bills dealing with horse racing, professional sports teams and card clubs. All are issues of interest to her district, which includes Gardena, Hawthorne and Inglewood. Gardena, for instance, is home to two card clubs, and Inglewood is the home of the Lakers, the Hollywood Park racetrack and a planned card club.

Hughes also would like to serve on the Senate’s Health Committee because of her longstanding interest in health care issues, Hew Len said.

Although Hughes is new to the Senate, her previous 16 years of service in the Assembly give her more power and seniority than any other Senate freshman this year, he said.

“She is ahead of all the other freshmen, so that will be an advantage for her area,” Hew Len said. The district “has so many problems, it’s hard to know where to start, but we’re going to concentrate on trying to improve education in our area . . . on health care issues . . . and on welfare reform.”

After spending the last 16 years at the breakneck political pace required of those officials who face election every two years, Hughes is looking forward to working on projects that may require more time to complete, Hew Len said.

“The stability of the four-year term will be something new for us, so maybe we can accomplish a few more things,” he said.

53rd Assembly District

Economic development and environmental preservation of the high-tech coastal South Bay and Westside district will be Assemblywoman Bowen’s primary concerns in 1993.

But first she needs to clear her Venice law office conference table of the stacks of individual constituent requests already swamping her still-volunteer staff.

“We haven’t hired a single staff member, but somehow the work is getting done,” said Bowen, who will represent El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance and Lomita.

Repeating a campaign vow, Bowen said she plans to do what she can to help laid-off employees from the South Bay’s sagging aerospace and defense companies.

“We haven’t done a high-level powwow to translate it into a few key pieces of legislation yet,” Bowen said, but a number of ideas are on the drawing board.

One approach, she said, might be to let some workers draw their unemployment benefits in a lump sum to fund start-up costs of their own businesses.

“I realize anything like this has the potential for fraud and abuse . . . but I want to see whether there’s a way to help people be entrepreneurs without trying to find a whole new revenue source,” she said.

In addition to requesting a seat on the Assembly’s Economic Development Committee, Bowen also would like to serve on the Natural Resources Committee to keep an eye on the coast’s myriad environmental concerns.

“At this point I’m not really ready to discuss any particular ideas,” she said. “I like to do my homework before I formally present anything.”

54th Assembly District

Assemblywoman Karnette, who handed veteran Assemblyman Gerald Felando a surprise defeat in November, said she has “hit the ground running.”

Her new constituents have kept her telephone ringing with ideas and requests for her to bring jobs, better education and improved transportation to her district, which includes the Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro, Harbor Gateway and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Karnette said her primary focus will be building the legislative coalitions needed to make those things happen.

“I’m going to do my best to open those lines of communication with the other elected representatives for this whole area so that we all can get a common agenda, if that’s possible,” she said. “This is a dream, true, but it’s also my plan.”

She declined to discuss any specific legislative proposals, insisting that she would support any bills that spring from “a cooperative effort.”

Rattling off a lengthy list of committee requests, she said nearly any would put her in a position to help her district. Included on the list were transportation, health, labor and employee relations, utilities and commerce.

“Constituents are tired of the confrontations,” she said. “They want us to get down to business together, so instead of setting up my plans against (my colleagues’) plans, I’m going to do some talking to see where things are headed first.”

55th Assembly District

From her vantage points as a school administrator and City Council member in Carson, Assemblywoman McDonald has learned all about the needs of schools and cities.

She hopes to use those experiences to improve conditions in her largely minority, blue-collar district, which encompasses Carson, Wilmington and part of Harbor Gateway.

Exactly which issues she will be allowed to focus on, however, remain undetermined.

“Only heaven and the Speaker know what committees I’ll get,” McDonald said. “My two big focuses will be jobs and education, and I am looking at legislation that I can introduce pertaining to those two things.”

Exactly what those bills will propose remains a negotiating point between her and the state’s legislative counsel, she said.

“I’m new on this job and so I’m trying to get the full gist of it before I go announcing any solid legislative plans,” she said. The counsel’s office, she said, “does the research and helps us draft the language and I just don’t think we’re far enough along with doing that to go talking to reporters about it.”

She has requested assignment to the Education Committee, she said, both because she wants to help improve the Los Angeles Unified School District and because there are two universities and three junior colleges in her district.

McDonald also wants to speed improvements along the Alameda Corridor, a key transportation route for trucks and train traffic moving goods to and from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.

In addition, her district’s high crime rate has prompted her to seek assignment to the Judiciary Committee.

“I want to see what we can do about the laws and the courts and the disproportionate number of . . . African-American young men who are being drawn into the criminal justice system,” she said.