Related Links
Wiggins outburst sparks new questions, concerns
Sen. Pat Wiggins at a hearing in Sacramento.
File photoPublished: Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 26, 2010 at 10:02 p.m.
State Sen. Pat Wiggins' latest outburst at a Capitol hearing has heightened concern about her ability to carry out her duties and has led to increased calls for the Santa Rosa Democrat to resign.
The fallout is spilling into the race for her seat, as well as that of the seat currently held by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, who is a close political ally of Wiggins and is running to replace her.
A Sonoma councilwoman who also is seeking Wiggins' seat said the senator is no longer capable of doing the job and is being protected by a political “machine.”
The audio of the Feb. 17 committee hearing reveals the extent to which the 69-year-old senator was enraged about an unfilled water canister. She yelled repeatedly and, at one point charged toward committee staff members before another state senator and a Wiggins aide intervened.
Her behavior has raised new questions about the mental stability of the senator, whose staff has acknowledged she is receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition, but has refused to give further details.
Sonoma City Councilwoman and business owner Joanne Sanders suggested that Evans is entrenched with a group of politicians and their supporters who have a vested interest in protecting Wiggins.
Sanders noted that when Wiggins announced last August that she would not be seeking her second four-year term — a decision that followed media accounts about the senator's odd behavior — Evans within hours announced her own intention to run for the seat and cited endorsements from several key Democratic players.
“That all happened without even waiting to see who else might jump in the race and who might still jump in the race,” Sanders said. “I'm a new candidate with new ideas. I'm not part of that group of people. I don't have the same campaign contributions. I'm not part of that machine.”
At her Capitol office Thursday, Evans said she is “very concerned” about Wiggins' well-being based on her behavior at the committee hearing, which Evans did not witness.
She called suggestions that she is protecting Wiggins for political reasons “silly,” saying that she would be criticized whether she called for Wiggins to remain in office or step down.
She said such suggestions represent “people trying to take advantage of a sad situation for their political gain, and I'm really sad to see that happening.”
Asked whether she believes Wiggins should continue in office, Evans said that decision is “between Pat, her doctor, her husband and the Senate leadership.”
No comment from Wiggins
Other than a brief phone interview last summer on a budget-related matter, Wiggins has not granted an interview with The Press Democrat since meeting with a reporter in her Capitol office on Aug. 14, 2008 to address concerns raised by her interrupting a pastor during a hearing on global warming to tell him his argument was “bull----.”
On Friday, Wiggins answered the phone at her Santa Rosa home but quickly handed it over to her husband, Guy Conner, who is a prominent local Democratic party consultant, including for his wife.
Conner initially said he would not comment, then invited a call back later in the day. But then David Miller, the senator's press secretary, sent an e-mail saying Wiggins and Conner would not comment and not to call back.
Miller said earlier this week that Wiggins has not commented on the issue because “she does not feel that it adds anything to the discussion.”
Outburst at recent hearing
But speculation about Wiggins' political future has only increased since her outburst last week at the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which is composed of Assembly and Senate members.
Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, and state Auditor Elaine Howle are heard on the audio tape talking about committee business when in the background Wiggins begins screaming about the water.
Following a brief silence, Ducheny and Howle begin speaking again, only to be interrupted again by Wiggins. Witnesses said Wiggins got out of her seat in the horseshoe-shaped table where the lawmakers were seated and charged in the direction of two female staff members seated next to the committee's chairwoman before others intervened.
Both Ducheny and Howle declined comment on the outburst, as did the committee's chairwoman, Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-El Dorado Hills, and Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, who intervened.
Political calculus
Political considerations are playing a role in Capitol and district discussions over whether Wiggins should continue in office for the remainder of her term, which ends Dec. 1.
There are 25 Democrats in the Senate, just shy of the coveted 27 needed for a two-thirds majority that would allow them to pass legislation on the budget and other major bills without having to seek Republican support.
If Wiggins stepped down, Democrats would have to woo one more Republican. If Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria is confirmed as lieutenant governor, the task would be even harder, as Maldonado crossed party lines last summer to vote for the budget package.
Should Wiggins resign before March 17, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would have to call a special election to fill the vacancy. The governor could bundle the election with the June 8 primary or set it for another date, a more expensive option because costs in Sonoma County alone would be an estimated $500,000.
If Wiggins steps down after March 17, the seat would remain vacant through the remainder of her term and would not be decided until the November election.
Evans has already said she would seek the seat in a special election. If held with the June primary, that would mean she would be running in two races for the same Senate seat simultaneously, as the special election only covers the remainder of Wiggins' current term.
A special election victory for Evans would create a separate problem in the Assembly, where Democrats are just short of the two-thirds majority. Evans also would have to give up her influential post as chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Committee.
The political calculus extends to filling Evans' seat. Michael Allen, Wiggins' district director, already has announced his bid for the Assembly seat and, to date, has raised more money than any other candidate.
Asked to what extent politics are playing a role in how Wiggins' health issues are being addressed, Allen said he is “not connected to what's going on in Sacramento and to what leadership is thinking.” He also said he is not privy to any discussions Wiggins has had with her doctor.
But from his perspective, he said, Wiggins is still able to do the job.
“What I've observed is, she's still functioning. She's attending meetings. She's working with staff on new legislation,” he said.
Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said based on representations from Wiggins' staff, Steinberg still has confidence Wiggins can perform her “core functions,” which he defined as being able to vote and to understand that vote.
Barankin said any conversations Senate leadership has had with Wiggins about her health are private. He also noted that whether a senator needs to be removed from office is an issue for the ballot box.
“Everyone has a theory to fit their conclusion,” Barankin said of speculation about Wiggins. “This is a health matter involving a senator.”
Troubling signs
But there are signs that Wiggins' health is worsening, further affecting her ability to perform her public duties.
Several people who attended the Feb. 17 audit committee hearing noted that an aide was watching and helping Wiggins throughout the proceedings. Wiggins also had to re-cast her vote on an audit item to reflect what she initially intended to do.
Evans, who is a member of the audit committee but was not present at the hearing during Wiggins' outburst, said she was not able to observe whether the senator was able to read and comprehend what was before her.
“It's hard to say,” she said. “We're all sitting there with our packets. She did have her staff with her.”
On Thursday, Steinberg's office excused Wiggins from attending a Senate floor session that dealt with energy efficiency loans designed to spur job creation and reduce energy improvement costs for consumers and small business owners.
The absence was for personal reasons, according to Steinberg's spokeswoman.
To what extent Wiggins is involved in Capitol or district affairs is not publicly known. The Press Democrat has filed a legal request for the senator's schedule after numerous requests from her staff for that information were denied.
Political legacy
First elected to the Santa Rosa City Council in 1994, Wiggins has steadily risen through the political ranks, along the way earning praise for working hard, being fair-minded and effectively representing the interests of the nearly 1 million people who live in the vast 2nd Senate District, which spans from Sonoma County to Solano County and as far north as the Oregon border.
Some worry that that legacy is tarnished every time Wiggins has an embarrassing outburst.
“All of that legacy of the past several years goes out the window if the last six or eight months are frequented by these types of episodes,” said David McCuan, a political scientist at Sonoma State University.
Such episodes also increase calls for Wiggins to provide a fuller accounting of her health issues to alleviate concerns she is not capable of doing her job, which after a recent cut pays about $95,291 annually.
Call for proof of competency
The Santa Rosa Neighborhood Coalition, a grassroots organization that says it represents several hundred local residents and among other causes promotes transparency in government, has called on Wiggins to prove her competency or resign.
“We think it's important that questions be asked about Pat Wiggins,” said Rosa Koire, a commercial real estate appraiser who lives in Santa Rosa and is on the coalition's steering committee. “Is she competent to serve, and if she's not, who has been watching legislation in her name? Who is voting for her?”
McCuan said neither Wiggins' staff nor the Senate leadership have shown “any proclivity for getting out front on the issue.”
“The senator's personal staff may interact or obviously seek to intervene when she acts out, but for the pro tem's office, this is ‘out of sight, out of mind,' ” McCuan said. “They're not doing anyone any favors.”
He said the risk for Evans, Allen and others aligned politically with Wiggins is that her behavior could play a role in how these candidates are viewed by voters, and by their opponents.
“Her competence and performance spills over into the general perception of the job legislators are doing, at a time politically when most voters think all incumbents should be tarred and feathered,” McCuan said. “It not only affects Noreen Evans running for the seat, but it also potentially affects those who want to get in down the ballot.”
Challenger's concerns
Sanders said she first considered running against Wiggins after observing the senator's behavior at a 2007 fund-raiser for Santa Rosa Councilwoman Marsha Vas Dupre.
She said her concerns about Wiggins were further underscored last December when she sat across the table from Wiggins and Conner at an event in San Francisco attended by Mayor Gavin Newsom and former Mayor Willie Brown.
Sanders said Wiggins did not recognize her — even though by then the Sonoma councilwoman had announced her intention to run for the Senate seat — and that Conner guided his wife by telling her who everyone was.
“It was shocking to me, and it was uncomfortable for people who were at the table,” Sanders said.
She called Wiggins “popular and well-loved,” but said that based on what she observed at the event, the senator is incapable of doing the job and should step down.
“I don't think we are being leveled with,” Sanders said. “Tell us what is going on so that we can make a decision whether the person we elected is able to represent us.”
You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.