CALIFORNIA LOSES CLOUT IN WHITE HOUSE
January 13, 1985
Section: METRO
Page: A01
By Jeff Raimundo Bee Washington Bureau
--WASHINGTON - Never again will California's wine industry find
Interior Secretary William Clark around to walk into the Oval Office
with their appeal for improved foreign trade status. No longer will
Sunkist Growers, the huge San Joaquin Valley farmers cooperative, be
able to march Agriculture Secretary John Block into White House
Counselor Edwin Meese's office to win a fight over legalized price
fixing that protects some farmers, as they did in 1984.
California's unique relationship with President Reagan's White House
appears to be over.
The sudden exodus of Reagan's California clique of top advisers
leaves the state bereft of the special influence it has had in the
inner councils of the West Wing.
The loss comes at a crucial moment, just as the administration is
launching a new budget-cutting crusade that could cost the state and
its citizens billions of dollars in federal revenues.
That's the assessment of several key Californians in Washington
who have watched the virtual dismantlement this week of the
California-based team that helped Reagan administer his first term.
'The Californians in the White House, particularly Meese and
Clark, were the appeal body of last resort for this state,' said
Rep. Vic Fazio, D-West Sacramento.
A member of the House Appropriations Committee who focuses on
agricultural and water issues important to the state, Fazio said the
old guard provided 'a kind of subtle interplay of forces that won't
be there anymore.
'There's not going to be that California contact who can get you
that last hearing with a Cabinet official or perhaps even in the
Oval Office,' he said.
Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-San Bernardino, another member of the House
Appropriations Committee, conceded that the loss will leave people
in power 'who have no idea what 20,000 square miles of California
desert is like.'
But in the end, the real power resides in the man in the Oval
Office, he said.
'Ronald Reagan is the president, and he is from California,' Lewis
said.
Reagan's chief image maker and closest personal adviser, Michael
Deaver, announced his departure from the White House last week. Only
a few days earlier, Clark notified the president he is returning to
his California ranch.
Meese is expected to move soon from Reagan's elbow to the Justice
Department to succeed Attorney General William French Smith, who is
moving back to California.
All four officials served Reagan during his years in the
governor's office in Sacramento and have been among his closest
advisers in Washington, enjoying a personal relationship with Reagan
unparalleled by most of his other top aides.
On international wine trade, offshore mineral development, water
management, key agricultural issues, immigration reform and taxation
of multinational corporations, for example, those players in the
White House protected California interests, said a number of top
lobbyists and public officials.
Some observers, Republicans most notably, tended to minimize the
impact of their departure.
'It's true to a degree,' said GOP Sen. Pete Wilson. 'But I think
it's easy to exaggerate. There will continue to be a very distinct
California presence in the Cabinet' - Meese, Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger and newly appointed Energy Secretary John
Herrington.
Wilson said he sees the shake-up as 'a mixed blessing.' He said
it will increase pressure on him from those who need a contact with
the White House, but it also will 'give me an even stronger role in
the process.'
Added Gov. Deukmejian's chief lobbyist in Washington, Karen
Spencer: 'Sure, it's helpful to have Californians there
because you don't have to explain things. When you talked about the
breeze over the mountains, Bill Clark had felt the breeze.
'However, we have always tried to work through the departments
and agencies and we will continue to do so.'
Nevertheless, the direct White House links, the Californians
virtually at Reagan's elbow, have been lost, said Rep. Tony Coelho,
D-Merced.
'It's not going to be the same, there's just no way around it,'
he said.
Rep. Leon Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, pointed to the almost
unprecedented role played by the inner-circle staff in the Reagan
White House, 'an influence greater than with almost any president
we've ever had. That tends to magnify the impact the staff had on
California.
'I don't see in this new staff people with that same sense of
attachment to the issues that are important in the West. They're
basically Easterners.
Representatives of private interests in Washington share the
belief that California will miss the White House contacts.
'I don't know what we're going to do yet,' said one who asked not to
be named. 'We have no idea how sympathetic these new guys are going
to be.'
Art Silverman, chief lobbyist for the Wine Institute, credited
Clark's intervention last year with helping convert the White House
to support the Wine Equity Act, which for the first time gave full
recognition to wine as an instrument of international trade.
'Certainly, the California people in the White House who
understood the merits of our arguments were very helpful to us,' he
said.
At the beginning of Reagan's term, former Interior Secretary
James Watt waged a relentless battle to develop offshore oil and gas
reserves, a policy that sparked strong opposition in California.
When Clark took over for Watt, the Interior Department's public
posture on the issue softened dramatically.
Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., complained last year that it was the
Californians in the White House who helped torpedo his landmark
immigration reform plan. When the state's growers objected to
provisions that would have penalized farmers for using illegal
aliens in their fields, Reagan's support for the bill virtually
evaporated.
Some critics complain that Reagan listened to California only
when it benefited his political allies, such as farmers.
'On most issues crucial to the state, the White House was on the
wrong side, even given who was there from California,' insisted one
key Democratic staff member.
When it came to agricultural interests or other Republican-leaning
groups or friendly special interests, the White House team helped
out occasionally, agreed Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Sacramento.
'But with broader issues involving all state taxpayers,
particularly in health and welfare areas, they could care less,' he
said.
He pointed to a fight last year over federal payments for social
services to Indochinese and Central American refugees who have
concentrated in California. The administration was unsympathetic to
pleas for relief for the state, he said, and the problem was
corrected only through congressional action.
In 1981, when the first wave of Reaganomics was surging through
the corridors of power in Washington, one key proposal increasing
the states' contributions to Medicaid would have cost California
hundreds of millions of
dollars.
'The Californians in the White House didn't give a damn,' said a
budget lobbyist on Capitol Hill. 'They only help out where they see
a political benefit to the president, and they didn't see anything
like that in this case, when Jerry Brown was governor.'
With Republican George Deukmejian in the governor's office, an
appeal from Sacramento directly to the West Wing quelled Treasury
Secretary Donald Regan's drive to wipe out California's 'unitary'
method of taxing multinational corporations.
A change in the law could have cost the state $500 million at a
time when Deukmejian was hard pressed to balance the state budget.
Now, the fight over the state's tax system is likely to be
rekindled. Regan, the man who most wants to force a change on the
state, is the White House's new chief of staff - the man who
controls the flow of information to the president. |
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