Legislators California

"I'm doing fine," Alan Cranston told me four days before he died. He didn't sound fine. He sounded weak. Slightly hoarse. Like he was fighting a cold. Or had just woken from a nap. Whatever, I didn't pursue it. I had called the former senator to ask whether he'd like to be quoted in the paper's obituary about retired Times political writer Richard Bergholz, a Cranston contemporary who died the day after Christmas. I left a message and he called back within an hour.

More than a dozen of the 120 state lawmakers meeting in special session here to deal with California's power crisis report stock holdings or business relationships with utilities or electricity suppliers, according to interviews and financial disclosure statements. Several of the reported holdings are significant, although most are relatively modest.

Assemblywoman Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) took the oath of office Monday as a state senator, succeeding Democrat Hilda Solis of La Puente, who was elected to Congress in November. Romero defeated former Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Hills) in a special election last week and will fill the remainder of Solis' term, which expires next year. Romero's win restored the margin of Democrats over Republicans in the Senate to 26 to 14, one short of a two-thirds majority.

She's a student of the antiwar movement who, years later, reached out to developers to bring a shopping center to her hometown. She's an educator who, when Latinos and Asians began to clash at a local high school, helped start conflict-resolution classes. She's a politician who battled against a backlash against Asian Americans in Monterey Park during the 1980s and later won over some of her biggest foes.

U.S. Rep. Gary Condit told Washington police that Chandra Levy has spent the night at his Adams Morgan apartment, according to law enforcement sources, who also said the missing intern told a close relative that she was romantically involved with the congressman. The California Democrat has said he is simply a good friend of Levy, and his office has denied a romance between the two.

Rep. Diane Watson (D-Culver City) was sworn into the House of Representatives on Thursday and vowed to follow in the footsteps of the late Rep. Julian Dixon, her onetime ally and the man she was elected to replace. With more than 100 supporters and her 91-year-old mother, Dorothy Watson, watching from the House gallery, Watson took the oath from Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and then paid tribute to Dixon, a classmate at Dorsey High School and political ally.

Stung by new reports linking him to a missing Modesto woman, Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres) insisted through aides Thursday that Chandra Ann Levy had not stayed overnight in his Washington apartment. Condit's aides denied a report that he had told District of Columbia police detectives about visits by Levy--an account that took both her parents and Modesto investigators by surprise.

The parents of missing intern Chandra Levy urged Rep. Gary A. Condit on Thursday to break his public silence, and spoke of the agony they have suffered since their daughter disappeared more than six weeks ago. "I think he could come out and share what he does know. We would appreciate his help," Susan Levy said.

With just eight weeks to the election, campaign finance disclosure statements helped sharpen the focus on key political races Monday, particularly those involving Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sheila J. Kuehl, Assemblyman Jack Scott and former Screen Actors Guild President Barry Gordon.

Five years after Republicans brashly stormed Washington and took command of Congress, a humbled GOP enters this election year at risk of losing control of the House--a prized bastion of legislative power that could help or hobble whoever becomes president. Although national political debate has been dominated by the voices of presidential candidates, Republicans around the country have quietly armed for an equally intense fight to preserve their wafer-thin majority in the House in the 2000 vote.