Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg 'very interested' in entering Senate race

Photo by Chris Pizzello

Bob Hertzberg

Fran Pavley

A potentially bruising primary fight among Democrats may be in store for the new state Senate district that covers eastern Ventura County, as a former speaker of the Assembly says he is "very, very interested" in running in a contest that includes incumbent Sen. Fran Pavley of Agoura Hills.

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg said he thinks Pavley would have a difficult time winning in November in the highly competitive 27th District. Democrats hold a narrow voter-registration edge but it was carried by Republican Meg Whitman in the 2010 gubernatorial contest.

"My politics are moderate, and the community is substantially moderate," he said.

Pavley said Hertzberg's assertion that he is a better fit for the district is nonsense.

"That gave me a chuckle because he's never represented any part of it," she said, noting that his former Assembly district encompassed communities to the east of the new Senate district.

As for her political positions, Pavley said she has always focused on "quality-of-life issues that the people of this district respect and support."

Hertzberg said his motivation to run heightened with the expectation that Republican Sen. Tony Strickland will drop out to run for Congress in the wake of Rep. Elton Gallegly's retirement announcement last week. The Simi Valley congressman has served 13 terms.

Republican leaders are now turning to Assemblyman Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita, a candidate seen as more moderate and perhaps a better candidate for the Senate district than the conservative Strickland. Smyth has not committed to the race and said last week the prospects of him becoming a candidate are "50-50."

The largest segment of the district is in the San Fernando Valley, Hertzberg's political base as a member of the Assembly and in his 2005 campaign for mayor of Los Angeles.

"I'm a Valley guy. I've represented the Valley. That's my heart," he said.

More than a third of the district consists of portions of Ventura County east of the Conejo Grade. It also includes Santa Clarita and Malibu in Los Angeles County.

In an interview with The Star, Hertzberg stopped short of declaring his candidacy, saying he will wait to decide until after the state Supreme Court resolves a legal challenge that could reshape the Senate districts. That decision is expected by the end of the month.

If he were to run, it would represent a breach of political protocol — a challenger running against an incumbent from his own party.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Thursday he and fellow Democrats in the Senate will rally behind Pavley.

"Fran Pavley will win the 27th," he said. "She is an outstanding, accomplished legislator — in fact, a national figure around the issue of how to combine economic growth with environmental sustainability. My caucus is going to do everything in its power to help elect her."

Pavley's supporters see her as a good match for the seat because she has a footing in both ends of the geographically split district. She was raised in the San Fernando Valley and graduated from CSU Northridge but has strong connections to Ventura County, having spent 25 years as a teacher in Moorpark. In addition, she represents about a third of the new district's voters.

The idea of a Hertzberg candidacy first arose shortly after the new districts were adopted in August. There was discussion at the time of Pavley moving to her condo in Oxnard and running in the adjacent 19th District and Hertzberg becoming a candidate in the 27th. Hertzberg, however, was unable to commit at that time. Pavley decided to stay put, and the two Democratic candidates in the 19th District — former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara and Oxnard Harbor District Commissioner Jason Hodge — moved forward with plans to run.

Pavley said Hertzberg pledged then that he would endorse her, an assertion confirmed by a source familiar with the conversation who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Responding to the potential Hertzberg challenge, Pavley's campaign this week took the unusual step of releasing early her fundraising results for the latter half of 2011, which showed she had more than $575,000 in her campaign account at year's end.

Hertzberg said he is unconcerned about funding and that he would potentially finance his campaign with personal funds should he decide to run.

He is co-chairman of California Forward and a member of the Think Long Committee, a blue-ribbon group founded by billionaire Nicholas Berggruen that includes former Gov. Gray Davis, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

He said his experiences with those reform groups have led to him to consider seeking the opportunity to play a direct role in reshaping state government.

"I am deeply concerned about California," he noted this week in a Facebook update in which he posted a link to a newspaper story about his potential candidacy.

Parke Skelton, consultant to the Pavley campaign, called Hertzberg "the Democrats' answer to Newt Gingrich: a middlebrow intellectual who thinks he's God's gift to policy."

Skelton noted that Pavley has received the unanimous endorsement of the board of the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley, an umbrella group of 27 regional Democratic clubs.

"I don't know what would motivate him to run," Skelton said. "Fran's not rolling over."