Another Side of Pat Nolan : Conservative Assemblyman Becomes More Conciliatory in Dealing With Liberals

SACRAMENTO —  Assemblyman Pat Nolan once was so right-wing he picketed the Ku Klux Klan for espousing what he believed was socialism.

During his college days at the University of Southern California, he helped hang actress Jane Fonda in effigy. And not long ago, he was criticizing Republican Gov. George Deukmejian for being too liberal.

That same Pat Nolan today, however, is showing such a pragmatic side that he is even getting along with his traditional political enemies--liberal Democrats. “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day,” he said last week in an uncharacteristic burst of generosity. “Even a liberal can be right on an issue or two every once in a while.”

The turnabout is no accident.

As the newly elected Republican leader in the state Assembly, Nolan is out to prove now that he is more than just a New Right ideologist. And toward that end, the 34-year-old Glendale legislator in the last few weeks has helped bring a temporary halt to partisan squabbling in the lower house, talked of his “cooperative working relationship” with Democratic Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco and won such concessions as the appointment of four Republicans to chair Assembly committees.

His long-term goal remains the same--to win a GOP majority in the Assembly by 1988. But temporarily, at least, Nolan says he will be a friendly, not pugnacious, adversary of his Democratic colleagues.

“Standing up and railing against the wind and losing doesn’t do what I believe any good,” he explained. “I’ve got to balance my long-range goals with the fact that my views have to be voted on by a majority of my colleagues to be put into practice.”

How Nolan juggles the two will be the test of his leadership in the months ahead. Republicans and Democrats alike see him as a man divided between his loyalty to conservative causes and his budding pragmatism.

“Pat wants two inconsistent things,” said one GOP assemblyman, who asked not to be identified. “On the one hand, he wants to be well liked by everyone and get his bills passed. On the other hand, he wants to be the hard-right conservative. Sooner or later there is a conflict. There are some tough decisions that have to be made.”

The boyish Nolan, tall but pudgy, has a quick wit. Wisecracking and gregarious, he enjoys sparring with his Democratic colleagues on the floor of the Assembly.

Before he became minority leader of the Assembly, one of the biggest thrills of his life, he said, was riding in the 1974 Rose Parade as Tommy Trojan, a USC symbol.

Well connected to the national New Right movement, he lists conservative credentials that date back to his high school days in Sherman Oaks when he was a member of Youth for Reagan.

But he also has a penchant for exaggerating the truth about himself in ways that might serve to enhance his political image.

Last year, for example, he called himself a Marine and allowed himself to be introduced to a crowd of Medal of Honor winners as a “highly decorated combat veteran.” His official biography said he was a member of the American Legion and he displayed a picture of himself in uniform on his office wall.

But he was later embarrassed when it was reported that he had served only nine days in the Marine Corps on reserve active duty before he was discharged.

A Marine Corps spokesman said Nolan’s only experience in the service came in June, 1970, when he attended a “training syllabus” as part of a Platoon Leaders Class, the Marine counterpart of ROTC.

Nolan says he was discharged because of a bad knee that sometimes locks involuntarily.

More recently, Nolan said in an interview that he had practiced law in Los Angeles for three years before he won election to the Assembly in November, 1978. However, according to the State Bar, he did not receive his license to practice law until Sept. 21, 1976.

When asked about the discrepancy, he explained that he spent one of those years working as a law clerk while he took the Bar exam twice, passing the second time. After he was admitted to the Bar, he began practicing law with the same firm--Kinkle, Rodiger & Spriggs.

Reserve Deputy

Nolan also is proud that he is a reserve deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and likes to talk about patrolling the banks of the Los Angeles River on horseback. But neither he nor the Sheriff’s Department can remember the last time he rode on patrol--even though department regulations require that reserve deputies spend 16 hours on duty each month.

“I have other duties, too,” he explained. “An assistant sheriff just called me about a legislative problem they’re having, so I’m helping him with that.”

Born in Los Angeles, Nolan is the sixth of nine children. Primarily of Irish descent, the Nolan family remains close and often celebrates St. Patrick’s Day by donning Irish kilts and dancing a jig. One year, Nolan wore his kilt to a floor session of the Assembly.

Nolan said he is a fifth-generation Californian and that the city of Agoura was named for his great-grandfather, a Basque sheep farmer.

When Nolan was in high school, he worked in Reagan’s first gubernatorial campaign and joined the ultra-conservative youth group Young Americans for Freedom.

As a new YAF member, he said, he picketed a Ku Klux Klan rally in the San Fernando Valley because “racism is a form of socialism. What the Ku Klux Klan advocates is a state domination of who we can associate with.”

The summer he graduated from high school, he went to Miami for the 1968 Republican National Convention to work as a volunteer on behalf of Reagan against Richard M. Nixon.

Enrolling at USC later that year, he said, he founded the school’s YAF chapter to counteract the influence of radical students. He helped organize various protests--such as hanging Fonda in effigy--and worked on an underground newspaper, the Free Trojan.

At USC, Nolan developed contacts that have helped him to this day. Republican Assemblymen Dennis Brown of Signal Hill and John Lewis of Orange, two of his closest allies in the Legislature, attended college with him and belonged to the YAF.

So did Bill Saracino, Nolan’s close friend whom he hired as chief of staff when he became minority leader. Until November, Saracino had been working as executive director of the Gun Owners of America, a political fund-raising organization founded by conservative Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora).

After three years at USC Law School, Nolan renewed his political contacts by working in Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign. He ran for the Assembly in 1978 and rode into office with several other young GOP candidates on the tide of tax-cutting Proposition 13. He was 28 at the time.

In the Legislature, the group formed a new breed of hard-line conservatives, the products of California’s tax revolt, and were immediately labeled “Proposition 13 babies.”

Among Nolan’s political supporters were prominent conservatives such as Richardson, U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina) and Reagan adviser Lyn Nofziger.

In early 1983, he reinforced his reputation as a New Right ideologist when he opposed Deukmejian’s plan to erase California’s massive $1.5-billion deficit. Nolan, who had opposed Deukmejian’s nomination because he was not conservative enough, fought the governor’s compromise plan to allow a temporary sales tax increase if the fiscal crisis worsened.

The episode helped earn Nolan and his conservative allies the nickname “cavemen.”

Within the Republican caucus, Nolan worked for nearly two years to unseat Minority Leader Robert W. Naylor of Menlo Park. Under constant pressure from the Nolan group to prove his conservatism, Naylor was handicapped in his ability to compromise with the Democrats. Partisan bickering dominated the 1983-84 session, and Naylor finally stepped down in November.

Since becoming the GOP leader, Nolan has been able to do what Naylor could not--deal with the Democrats and bring an aura of harmony to the Assembly. He likens his conciliation with the Democrats to former President Nixon’s historic trip to China after decades of battling Communism.

“I’m strong enough in my beliefs I’m not threatened when there’s an issue on which a liberal happens to agree with me,” Nolan said. “I don’t think I have to rethink my position and run the other way just because we can agree to work together.”

By backing Brown for Speaker, Nolan has won a number of concessions.

For example, the Republicans now sit together on the Assembly floor instead of being dispersed among the Democratic members. In addition to giving the GOP four committee chairmanships, Brown also passed out 26 vice chairmanships to the Republicans and promised: “There will be a job for everyone in the Republican caucus.”

Nolan acknowledged that his feeling of security is bolstered by a nationwide surge in the popularity of conservatism. For the first time in his life, the philosophy that Nolan embraced as a teen-ager is coming into vogue.

“One of the intriguing things about Pat is that he is used to being in the wilderness where his politics are out of fashion,” said Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica). “Now things are changing very rapidly, and conservative is a proud label, even among younger people.”

During the last legislative session, there were hints of Nolan’s ability to strike a deal with Democrats--such as his alliance with Hayden on several issues.

Hayden--Jane Fonda’s husband--gained renown as an anti-war protester in the 1960s and has been a GOP target for years. But Nolan joined with the former radical to support legislation aiding veterans who suffer from exposure to Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used in Vietnam.

Working Relationship “He didn’t particularly expect to be working with me when I first met him,” Hayden said. “But we have developed a good relationship--so good it worries some of his supporters.”

Nolan also received assistance from the Democratic Speaker during his protracted battle with Naylor. In 1983, when Nolan lost his first bid to oust the then-GOP leader, Brown prevented Naylor from retaliating by stripping Nolan of his staff.

Furthermore, Brown said Nolan was a key figure in negotiating an end to a stalemate last session that paralyzed the Assembly over the issues of child pornography, veterans bonds and the adoption of Assembly rules to comply with Paul Gann’s Proposition 24.

Brown denied any role in helping Nolan undermine Naylor. But according to one Democrat close to the Speaker: “Willie supported Nolan. Nolan was in constant contact with Willie.”

Nolan said his aim is to deal with the Democrats on procedural matters and confine his fights to carefully selected issues, such as the death penalty, taxes and education reform.

“My point all along has been, let’s stop this procedural nonsense, the petty partisan bickering and squabbling, and instead really go at it hammer and tong on the issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nolan has moved to improve his relations with Deukmejian. The governor, he says now, is as conservative as he could wish.

“He proved me wrong,” Nolan said. “Many of us in the caucus underestimated the governor’s willingness to hang tough and hold the line on spending. I underestimated his determination.”