Pubdate: Mon, 24 May 1999 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX LOCKYER THRUST BIPARTISAN BUT ATTORNEY GENERAL REASSURES HIS ALLIES SACRAMENTO -- As he moved into the 17th-floor suite atop the Department of Justice building, Attorney General Bill Lockyer no doubt left more than a few law-and-order conservatives feeling a bit uneasy. Unlike his Republican predecessor, Lockyer is a Democrat whose political roots can be traced back to one of the state's most liberal pockets -- the east San Francisco Bay area. But the savvy political veteran was never as far left as his University of California Berkeley degree might suggest, and he has cast a decidedly moderate image as the state's chief law enforcement officer. Lockyer has built a bipartisan administration, while moving quickly to reassure his natural allies and shore up sagging morale among the department's 5,000 employees. He has re-established the attorney general as a leading advocate of gun control, moved the office to the middle in the medical marijuana debate and ordered a renewed emphasis on civil rights, consumer advocacy and environmental protection. None of that, he says, will require any retreat from the war on crime. "In the past, too often the focus has been purely on criminal justice. Civil justice often has been neglected," Lockyer said. "That's changing." While it's early, Republicans and representatives of corporate California say Lockyer has not set off any alarms. Political analyst Tony Quinn, a Republican who worked under former Attorney General Evelle Younger, said former colleagues at the department have yet to offer up any significant criticism of their new boss. "He seems to be learning his way, hasn't made any major errors, hasn't done anything to undercut any of the particular units in the office," Quinn said. In one of his first politically sensitive decisions, Lockyer dropped criminal charges against a sitting Republican lawmaker, Assemblyman Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach. Baugh, who has since been elected Assembly Republican leader, had been accused of trying to hide campaign contributions and other acts of political misconduct. The charges were filed by another Republican, former Orange County District Attorney Mike Capizzi. Attorneys in the San Diego office of the Department of Justice reviewed the case and recommended referring it to the Fair Political Practices Commission for a possible civil penalty, Lockyer and others said. "They were professional lawyers and investigators who spent hundreds of hours with the file," Lockyer said. "They concluded there had been some mistakes or wrongdoing, but that it was not a matter that could be proven to be criminal." A Different Kind Of Top Cop Lockyer, 58, was forced out of the Legislature last year by term limits after a 25-year career that included a stint as Senate leader. Considered one of the most prolific and influential lawmakers of his era, he upset conservative Republican Dave Stirling to claim an office many political analysts expected the GOP to hold. Not a typical candidate for the job, Lockyer earned his law degree by attending night classes while in the Legislature. He has limited legal experience and was never a prosecutor. His inauguration was choreographed to send an unmistakable message. During the campaign he had promised to run a Department of Justice, rather than a department of "just us." Among the speakers and special guests were a pair of Republican Supreme Court justices; two women, including a Latina; a black church choir; and Viejas tribal Chairman Anthony Pico. "Justice is not a partisan pursuit," Lockyer said. "All aspects of California society ought to feel like the chief lawyer for the people is fighting for everybody." There was no love lost between Lockyer and his immediate predecessor, Republican Dan Lungren. Upon moving into Lungren's former digs, Lockyer has relaxed what he suggested was a security-happy, imperial air that pervaded the office. Magnetic cards are no longer required to open bathrooms and interior offices. A garage reserved for the attorney general, a cinder-block bunker Lockyer calls "the bomb shelter," has been converted to an "employee of the month" parking space. The moves, along with his support for a long-overdue pay raise for staffers, were intended to lift morale. Not long after Lungren's deputies tried to quash an e-mail campaign involving the salary dispute, Lockyer embraced it and ultimately joined it. "He appears to be a lot more interested in us than his predecessor," said Barry Carlton, a deputy attorney general in the San Diego office. Installing Professionals, Not Partisans Lockyer also has reassured the department's veteran legal corps with the selection of his top staff. The attorney general has only eight positions that he can fill with political appointments. Lockyer named his longtime aide Steve Coony and veteran Deputy Attorney General Peter Siggins to serve as his two chief deputies. To head the prominent criminal division, he brought in respected Sacramento County prosecutor David Druliner. Both Druliner and Siggins are Republicans, and both draw praise from Democrats and Republicans alike. Robert Fellmeth, a former prosecutor and founder of the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego, said Siggins' elevation was a particularly shrewd move. "I'm familiar with what happens in prosecutor's offices when they change administrations," Fellmeth said. "There is a tendency for the troops to take sides. It's a good idea to make it clear you're going to be a professional. "That also calms down the right wing within the office, the people who think, `Oh my God, we've got a Berkeley nut on our hands.' " In contrast to Lungren, Lockyer also appears to be building a strong rapport with the governor. Lungren and former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson had a chilly relationship, especially during their final years in office. Sources say Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, deferred to Lockyer in an early legal motion on tribal gaming. The attorney general also may have been instrumental in Davis' surprise decision to pursue mediation to resolve the prickly lawsuit against Proposition 187, the initiative aimed at illegal immigrants. Lockyer disclosed that mediation was among a list of options he proposed to Davis. Like the governor, some say Lockyer also could be held to answer if those who voted for Proposition 187 conclude he abandoned the measure. "A real test for any AG is how he does in defending the will of the voters as expressed in the initiative process," Quinn said. "Like it or not, it's Lockyer's job to defend Proposition 187." Low-Key Death-Penalty Support While adamant that his administration will not pull back from the fight against crime, Lockyer has lowered the department's public prominence in death-penalty cases. He supports capital punishment, but did not attend the February execution of Jaturun Siripongs or the more recent execution of Manny Babbitt. "There is no legal, no lawyering need for the attorney general to be there," Lockyer said. "That's a PR decision. "Perhaps in the future, if there were families of victims who were there and I felt like that would be an important supportive role for those families, I would attend. But it's not a task that I relish." Rob Stutzman, who served as Lungren's press secretary, said Lockyer's silence has given defense attorneys and others an uncontested forum to sow public doubt about the death-penalty cases. "I think it's a discernible lack of leadership on the issue," Stutzman said. "It goes with his job. The men and women who work for him do a great job defending these cases on appeal." The attorney general, Stutzman said, should "mount the bully pulpit and assure the public that these cases are sound." Gun control was a dominant theme of Lockyer's campaign. Even before he was sworn in, he convened a task force to weigh enforceable options to crack down on combat-style assault weapons. Unlike Lungren, who resisted gun control as an answer to violent crime, Lockyer has endorsed Handgun Control Inc.'s top priorities -- measures to overhaul and expand California's assault-weapons law, restrict sales of inexpensive handguns and require the sale of trigger locks with new guns. Lockyer voted for the medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215. He has argued the cause before U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, but warns that federal laws against marijuana still prevail. He says Proposition 215's guidelines need to be tightened and has convened a task force to that end. "My general policy during this period of uncertainty is to respect local prosecutorial decisions," he said. So far, Lockyer has persuaded the new governor to give his department additional funding to beef up enforcement of environmental laws, expand the civil rights division, enhance consumer protection and to pursue elder and group-home abuses. His office also has assumed a lead role in a national review of antitrust implications of mergers and pricing practices of the oil industry. In one of his first acts, Lockyer staged a news conference to announce a doubling of the small civil rights unit. But he left Lungren's appointee running the office. "The people who work here are professionals," Lockyer said later. "I regularly tell them . . . I don't particularly care what their personal philosophy is. I want them to do competent work on behalf of the people." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake