Youth Movement Stirs Up State Democratic Party : Convention: Commentator Bill Press of Los Angeles is elected new chairman.

SACRAMENTO — In a fleeting and poignant moment, California Democrats paid muted tribute Saturday to retired--and disgraced--U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston for three decades of elected public service, and then moved quickly to a future dominated by youth and new faces.

The brief appearance by the 78-year-old Cranston before the biennial organizing convention of the California Democratic Party represented a final passing of the torch from the generation of Democrats who came to power in their historic victory of 1958 led by Edmund G. (Pat) Brown as governor.

This weekend, the 2,409 delegates are celebrating their biggest triumph since 1958--in last November’s election--and are organizing for a challenge to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson in 1994.

Based on the hubbub that followed her wherever she went, the clear favorite among the delegates to lead that charge was state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, 47, daughter of Pat Brown. Also roaming the halls seeking support for his prospective gubernatorial campaign was state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, 48.

Brown and Garamendi have been around California politics for a long time, but both have served only two years in statewide office. They are considered fresh, mediagenic faces on the state political scene.

An emphasis on youth also marked the election of a new state party chairman, the major official business of the convention. The winner was Bill Press, a commentator for Los Angeles television station KCOP Channel 13 and a talk show host on radio station KFI.

Press is 52 years old and has been active in party politics for two decades, but mostly as a reformer working on the fringes of the party Establishment. He said California Democrats must aggressively recruit young people if they are to build on the major successes of 1992: the election of U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and the winning of California’s 54 electoral votes for President Clinton.

Every college and university campus in California should have a Democratic organization, Press said. He even proposed the creation of Bill Clinton Democratic clubs in high schools.

Press noted that nearly one-fourth of the convention delegates are in their 20s, drawn to the party primarily by the MTV-age allure of the Clinton campaign. Two years ago, he added, there were only 20 such youthful delegates. Press’ major opponent for the chairman’s job, Rock the Vote organizer Steve Barr, put it another way: Half the delegates are attending their first state party convention.

And most of them clearly are focused on the future, barely pausing to acknowledge the Cranston tribute.

Cranston left the Senate in January after 24 years, during which he had been the No. 2 Senate leader, venerated as an unswerving keeper of the liberal flame in Washington and a man who was passionate about world peace.

But Cranston’s name was barely whispered in California Democratic circles after he was targeted by Senate ethics rule enforcers in 1991 as the No. 1 culprit among the Keating Five. The five senators were accused of attempting to intervene with federal regulators on behalf of former savings and loan magnate Charles H. Keating Jr., who had made heavy contributions to the senators or their causes.

When Cranston announced in 1991 that he would not seek reelection, he said the reason was prostate cancer. But most political observers said he could not have won reelection after the public censure by fellow senators and his refusal to repent for any crossing of ethical boundaries in the Keating affair.

If youth was one hallmark of this convention, another was the transformation of the organization from an opposition party to the party in power on the national level. Clinton addressed the delegates by videotape, pledging that “we are committed--committed--to doing everything we can to get your economy moving again.”

Clinton aides present in the hall included Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm and White House assistants Tom Epstein and Bob Hattoy.

Press was among those emphasizing that the fortunes of the California Democratic Party are inextricably linked to the success of the Clinton Administration, which he described as “a kind of a star pulling our wagon” into the 1994 state elections.