Villaraigosa Reelected Speaker; Burton Returns as Senate Leader

SACRAMENTO —  Los Angeles Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa, promising a new era of bipartisanship, was easily reelected Assembly speaker on Monday, while John Burton (D-San Francisco) was chosen again as Senate leader and new and returning lawmakers were sworn in.

In an unusual move, Gov.-elect Gray Davis presided over the state Senate on Monday, and also called for moderation and bipartisanship.

“It is my hope that the era of inflexible ideology will end and a new era of pragmatism and problem solving will begin,” said Davis, who as lieutenant governor also serves as president of the state Senate. Davis will be sworn in Jan. 4.

Although Democrats hold strong majorities in each house, Davis went out of his way to temper expectations, warning ambitious lawmakers not to send him too many costly bills from their wish lists.

Noting that the state budget could be short by $1 billion or more by the time the next spending plan is scheduled for adoption in June, Davis said: “There is not much candy left in the candy store.”

After they were sworn in to their $99,000-a-year jobs, lawmakers made a show of introducing new bills, with Democrats introducing measures that outgoing Republican Gov. Pete Wilson had vetoed.

Democratic topics ranged from providing health care coverage for children of low-income parents to recognition of domestic partners, including giving them health care benefits, and renewed efforts to ban assault weapons and cheap handguns.

Republicans pushed bills to pare back the capital gains tax, something Democrat Davis embraced during the campaign, and to impose the death penalty on repeat child rapists.

Republicans and Democrats alike introduced legislation to improve public schools, Davis’ stated priority. Villaraigosa made a point of calling for a new University of California campus to be opened in Merced.

In one of its first acts, the Senate Rules Committee, led by Burton, met for less than five minutes behind closed doors and appointed three retired Democratic senators to commissions that, though obscure, pay handsomely.

The committee named newly retired Sen. Ruben Ayala of Chino to fill an unexpired term of former Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) on the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. The post pays $100,001 a year.

In turn, Roberti was appointed to a four-year term on the Integrated Waste Management Board, which pays $106,273 a year. Roberti succeeds Democrat Wesley Chesbro of Arcata, who was elected to the Senate on Nov. 3.

The committee also appointed newly retired Sen. Leroy Greene of Carmichael to the California Medical Assistance Commission, a part-time board that oversees the award of Medi-Cal contracts to hospitals, and pays $99,000 a year.

Roberti, 59, was forced out of the Legislature in 1994 by term limits. Greene, 80, and Ayala, 76, were termed out this year.

Democrats control the Senate by a 25-15 margin and hold the Assembly by a 47-32 majority. There’s one vacancy in the lower house because former Assemblyman Don Perata (D-Alameda) won a Senate seat in a special election.

Burton was elected Senate leader unanimously, although Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) was absent Monday. An aide said Hayden was attending a film festival in Havana with his wife, Barbara Williams, a Canadian actress.

In the lower house, the vote for speaker fell along partisan lines. Villaraigosa received 47 votes. Assembly Republican Leader Rod Pacheco received 31 votes. One Republican, Jim Cunneen (R-San Jose), was absent for the vote.

“If we focus on the things which unite us rather than those that divide us, we can create a new way of doing the people’s business,” Villaraigosa said in his acceptance speech. “Doing so only requires that instead of governing from the left or from the right, we govern from the center.”

At Villaraigosa’s invitation, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals swore him in. Wardlaw is married to Bill Wardlaw, who is Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s closest advisor and a major player in Democratic politics.

Bill Wardlaw called Villaraigosa “a very talented speaker” and acknowledged that Villaraigosa might run for mayor of Los Angeles in 2001, but said Riordan would not make an endorsement for another two years.

Once the official work was done, legislators fanned out for receptions put on by lobbyist groups, and prepared to begin the task of raising money for the 2000 elections.

Villaraigosa kicked off what will be a weeklong series of fund-raisers by Democrats and Republicans with an event Monday night. High rollers were to plunk down $25,000 for the right to be called part of the speaker’s “Finance Cabinet,” or $10,000 to be a “Friend of the Majority.”

Burton has scheduled an event for Wednesday in San Francisco, and plans to appear at a $500-a-plate breakfast for freshman Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) this morning in Sacramento.

Davis, meanwhile, said he plans to accept almost all of the controversial 26% pay increase that was ordered for state lawmakers and office holders last May by an independent commission.

The governor-elect, who was critical of the raise during his election campaign, said he will deduct 5% from the raise. That will drop the governor’s new annual salary of $165,000 by about $8,000. The old salary was $131,040.

“I believe the state is going to be faced with difficult financial challenges and I think leadership starts at the top,” Davis said. “It’s not a huge step, but it’s an important symbolic step.”

Times staff writer Dave Lesher contributed to this story.