CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Berman-Waxman Group’s Low Profile Puzzles Observers

Sheila James Kuehl, a Westside Democrat running for the state Assembly, recently made a pilgrimage to the Beverly Hills offices of BAD Campaigns.

Kuehl, a women’s rights attorney who played Zelda Gilroy on the old “Dobie Gillis� television show, was seeking support from the two political consultants for whom BAD is named--Michael Berman and Carl D’Agostino. For good reason. BAD is the operational arm of the Westside political organization headed by Berman’s brother, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles).

“It was like . . . presenting yourself for consideration,� said Kuehl, who left the meeting empty-handed. “It’s a good thing I had watched all the ‘Godfather’ films.�

The ‘Godfather’ analogy is apt: For more than two decades, the key to winning Westside legislative seats has been support from the Berman-Waxman group.

After a thumping in 1992, that may be changing. The Berman-Waxman forces, once quick to king-make, have failed to endorse anyone so far in two key Westside Assembly races. And the hands-off approach has confounded many political operatives.

“(The Westside) is the heart of the Berman-Waxman machine,� said Democratic political consultant Rick Taylor. “Where are they?�

Although the group is expected to eventually make its choices for Assembly known through pre-election slate mailers sent out by BAD, that falls far short of the massive fund raising and campaign help that made Berman-Waxman candidates virtually unbeatable in the past.

One reason for the group’s low-profile stance is that this year’s contests have attracted a dizzying crush of candidates.

Facing ejection from the Assembly in two years under the legislative term limits law, a trio of Democrats who collectively represent most of the Westside are running for other offices--Terry B. Friedman of the 41st District is seeking a judgeship, Burt Margolin of the 42nd District is running for state insurance commissioner, and Gwen Moore of the 47th District is a candidate for secretary of state.

Twenty-two Democrats and five Republicans filed for the soon-to-be-vacant seats. Yet the Berman-Waxman machine has picked a candidate in only one of three races--Ed Johnson, in the 47th District.

Some say the organization, which grew out of a college friendship between Waxman and Berman, is still regrouping after its disastrous 1992 election season. That year, three of its high-profile candidates lost--Mel Levine and Gray Davis in runs for the U.S. Senate, and state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal in his bid to win another term in a district created by reapportionment.

For a time, the group’s leaders “left the radar screen of politics in California,� said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. “Now they have to decide whether to reinvent themselves. . . . They have to be very careful (and) pick their spots.�

Howard Berman says the low profile is mainly because of term limits. “We’re not that much operating as a group in some ways,� he said. “There’s a bunch of good people (running) and no compelling reason to endorse anymore.�

But the droves of Democratic Assembly candidates, none of whom have the name recognition of the departing incumbents, are not taking no for an answer.

As Michael Berman and D’Agostino prepare their slate mailer for the June 7 primary, Assembly candidates are lobbying hard for a paid spot on the cards, which are intended mainly to help Margolin, Moore and, in the state controller’s race, Don Perata.

“The word on the street was they weren’t doing the slate at all,� said consultant Joe Cerrell. “They got so many calls, they probably said, ‘Oh, hell, let’s do the damn thing.’ It’s a humongous profit (maker) for them.�

Kuehl’s meeting with BAD involved “some good intellectual give and take,� she said. “They wanted to talk about the issues and where the country was going. I liked them.�

Did they like her? No one at BAD returned calls seeking comment last week.

Kuehl’s Democratic opponents in the 41st District, which extends from Santa Monica to the west San Fernando Valley, are attorneys Roger Jon Diamond, Bill Rothbard and Ed Tabash, and businessmen Pat McGuire and John Shallman. Republicans will choose between two unknowns: banker Peter Eason and law student Michael T. Meehan.

The low profile of the Berman-Waxman group is apparent in the case of candidate Rothbard, a close friend of Friedman’s.

When Friedman decided to give up his seat, he told supporters privately that Rothbard was his heir apparent. But in doing so, he broke the rules of the Berman-Waxman clan by not getting their approval beforehand. Friedman’s faux pas, campaign watchers say, has kept the Berman--Waxman group from endorsing Rothbard.

In the neighboring 42nd District, which includes Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and the canyon areas, the Democratic field is more crowded, with seven candidates.

The Berman-Waxman group tried behind the scenes to encourage any two of the three candidates with ties to the organization to step aside. But all three--Los Angeles Unified School District board member Mark Slavkin, Los Angeles Community College District board member Wally Knox and West Hollywood Councilman Paul Koretz--stayed in the race.

Sources say they expect either Koretz or Knox to get a spot on the slate card.

The 47th District is the only one in which the Berman-Waxman team followed past practice by picking a candidate allied with the organization or one of its members. Their guy is Johnson, a longtime deputy of Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles).

Johnson has stiff opposition in the heavily Democratic district, which includes Culver City, Crenshaw, Ladera Heights and Cheviot Hills.

Assemblyman Willard W. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) is backing his son, attorney Kevin Murray. And so are friends of the elder Murray, including Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys).