Politicians adjust to committees

Alicia Robinson

If it’s a bill that deals with raising taxes, it will have to make an

important stop: a state legislative committee that now includes

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. It might remain just a bill, if DeVore can

help it.

DeVore, a freshman Republican who represents Newport Beach, will

spend his first term in the legislature serving on a committee that

deals with revenue and taxation as well as the veterans’ affairs and

budget committees.

Before any bill can be voted on, it needs approval from a

committee, and local legislators will try to use their committee

assignments to benefit their constituents in Newport-Mesa.

On the seven-member revenue and taxation committee, DeVore will be

one of just two Republicans, but he still thinks he can fight new

taxes and wasteful spending.

“I see my main role in this environment as a gatekeeper,” DeVore

said.

“We would kind of serve as an early warning signal to the

Republicans in the legislature that this [bill] is not something you

want to vote for.”

Van Tran, a GOP assemblyman who represents Costa Mesa, is happy to

have been appointed to the business and professions committee.

He’s also serving on the banking and finance and the environmental

safety and toxic materials committees.

“I’m very interested in [the business and professions] committee

because it has wide-ranging jurisdiction and oversight authority over

most, if not all, of the professions that require state license, and

it also affects the economic health of the state as well,” Tran said.

State Sen. John Campbell, a Republican representing Newport-Mesa,

has a full load of six committees, but the two with the most clout

are likely to be the environmental quality and the government

modernization committees.

The latter is a new committee that will decide how to implement

recommendations in the California Performance Review, a massive

report commissioned by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to save the state

money and streamline its operations.

“That’s been one of the governor’s biggest proposals, to

completely revamp the government bureaucracy, and I get excited about

revamping bureaucracy,” Campbell said.

Committee assignments can be important toward raising money for

future campaigns, but their influence to help constituents may be

limited for legislators in the minority party, said Gil Ferguson, a

Newport Beach Republican assemblyman from 1984 to 1994.

“It does help if you’re on a committee that a bill that is

important to your district comes through,” he said.

“You can fight for it. It doesn’t mean you’re going to win.”

Campbell served two terms in the Assembly before being elected to

the Senate, so he’s already acclimated to Sacramento. While DeVore

and Tran are both new legislators, that shouldn’t diminish their

effectiveness, said UC Irvine political scientist Louis DeSipio.

The result of term limits is that even first-term legislators can

rise through the ranks quickly, because the party leadership wants

them to have as much time in power positions as possible, he said.

But whatever power DeVore wields, he said he’ll use it to get

legislators off Californians’ backs.

“I think the constituents in our district first and foremost want

smaller and more responsive government,” he said.

“It’s not like the people in my district are looking for a new

bridge to be built or some big, pork-barrel project.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].