Duane Garrett

Despite a hardball political move designed to block Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s plans to sink exploratory wells in the Pacific Palisades, the California Coastal Commission on Tuesday approved the controversial drilling plan on a 7-5 vote. The approval came at the close of a dramatic meeting marked by the abrupt dismissal of a coastal commissioner and the appointment of a replacement.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton's successes in Tuesday's primaries probably settle whatever doubts may have existed about him becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, but leave unresolved deep misgivings about his chances of toppling President Bush this fall. Clinton won his bitter two-week campaign in New York against former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. and the shadow candidacy of former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas.

Fed up with the liberal leadership of Art Agnos, this troubled city picked as its new mayor a nice-guy career cop who calls Gandhi his hero but who won over voters by promising less official compassion for panhandlers and welfare cheats. It may seem peculiar for San Francisco--city of tolerance and whatever-works lifestyles--to crown former Police Chief Frank Jordan as its white knight.

In a series of decisions that cheered environmental groups and angered county officials, the California Coastal Commission has decided to continue a controversial program designed to prevent overbuilding on Malibu's rugged hillsides until the county comes up with rules to regulate the area's growth.

Closing a controversial chapter in their city's history, Carlsbad officials Thursday assumed sole authority over development in the community's coastal zone when the California Coastal Commission narrowly approved a land-use plan for the area. The commission's 7-5 approval in a marathon hearing here caps a highly contentious, decade-long battle between the two agencies for control of about 6,400 acres along the city's coastline.

Mayor Tom Bradley's handling last month of an appearance by black Muslim Louis Farrakhan probably set back Bradley's effort to recast his image as he prepares to run for governor in 1986, according to some Democratic strategists. It remains to be seen, however, how badly Bradley hurt himself with Jews, a group that has always been crucial to his political success. Before the incident over Farrakhan's Sept.

The California political Establishment was in panting pursuit last week of an answer to the hottest-yet version of a perennial question: "What's Willie up to?" What's this? Running for governor? Assembly Speaker Willie Brown? Really? Incredible. No way would he do that. But then. . . . As usual, no one had the answer except for Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) himself, the peripatetic master of intrigue and manipulation whose political plots always seem to be deep and enigmatic.

It was early in the morning after Election Day and Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were seated side by side beneath a towering set of klieg lights in the Fairmont Hotel. The two U.S. senators-elect, making the round of television news shows just hours after claiming their historic victories, were instructed by a sound technician to count to five for a voice check on their microphones. "One, two, three, four, five," Boxer responded in rapid fire.

At first, Gary Hart thought the multimillion-dollar debt left over from his 1984 presidential campaign might be "a blessing in disguise." He told an interviewer in 1985: "If I do run another national race, this has forced me to be on the road, instead of sitting in Washington having a good time." But this week the 1984 debt--far from being a blessing--turned into a potentially embarrassing problem for Hart's newly launched quest for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton wakes up today in California, where, sure as the earth moves and the waves crash, Democrats lose the elections that matter. Take the presidency, a position in which Clinton, as the presumptive Democratic nominee, is acutely interested. The last time a Democrat won California in a presidential election, Bill Clinton was a gangly freshman at Georgetown University.