Schrag: Do California Voters Want a Dysfunctional Government?

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Peter Schrag

PPIC, the staid San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, has been trying to make more of a mark in Sacramento, and last week it succeeded, not with its customary research reports but by putting on the best entertainment of the season.

The stars, at an event called "Restoring Confidence in the Legislative Process" that packed a large hotel ballroom, were four former high-profile politicians with almost as many exes attached to their names as all three Gabor sisters combined.

Among them: ex-Gov., ex-U.S. Sen. ex-San Diego Mayor and ex-Assemblyman Pete Wilson; ex-Republican state Senate leader and ex-Assembly Republican leader Jim Brulte; ex-Assembly Speaker and ex-San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown; and ex-Assemblyman, ex-U.S. Rep. and ex-Senate President Pro Tem John Burton.

Collectively they didn't cast much light on how to restore confidence in the legislative process or whether such a restoration was even needed, but they certainly reminded the 400-plus people jammed into in the room how much fun politics can be – or at least used to be.

Wilson, Brown and Burton, the grizzled veterans in the group, also shared more than a little nostalgia about the good/bad old days, before political reform got in the way of the bipartisan boozing and carousing that fostered collegiality and prevented the ugly partisanship of latter-day politics. Brown added fond memories of the back-room dealing, now also mostly gone, that got budgets passed in time. Transparency, he said, impedes judgment.

The implicit message here: Beware of excessive enthusiasm for political reform. It was a useful message for goo-goos to hear.

Fabian Nunez, the current Assembly speaker, was the fifth wheel on the platform. As he himself noted, he wasn't born when some of the others were first elected to state office. Nunez, whose recent spending sprees got him in political doo-doo, was mightily aggrieved by what he regarded as the unfairness of the press and the lack of appreciation he was getting for his efforts.

The basic assumption of the session, expressed by PPIC President Mark Baldassare and PPIC Research Fellow Eric McGee is that the system is dysfunctional, that voters don't like or trust the conventional political process, and that there's a long menu of possible fixes.