San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Lieutenant governor hopefuls plan big
The lackluster portfolio of California’s lieutenant governor job makes the position easy to overlook. Even some who have held the post have complained that with almost no duties, it’s a bore.
But two Democrats asking voters to elect them Nov. 6 say they have a plan for making the most of the opportunity.
Eleni Kounalakis says she would bring a strong voice to the boards the lieutenant governor sits on — particularly the University of California regents and California State University trustees.
“I think you can make a full-time job just fighting against higher tuition,” Kounalakis said. “This job is designed to be focused on higher education.”
Her opponent, state Sen. Ed Hernandez of West Covina (Los Angeles County), said he sees a way to expand the role the lieutenant governor has as president of the Senate. The lieutenant governor now has few duties except to be a tiebreaker vote in case of deadlock. Hernandez said he would take a more active role in presiding over the upper house when legislative deadlines are looming, to ensure priority bills are dealt with in a timely fashion.
Those priorities, he said, should include moving the state to a single-payer health care system — something Kounalakis also supports but be-
lieves is outside the scope of the lieutenant governor’s job.
“Unlike the insurance commissioner or the attorney general or the treasurer, you can do whatever you make of this office,” Hernandez said. “I want to work on controlling health care costs and moving the state to universal coverage.”
The lieutenant governor’s post, however, is largely devoid of political clout. Former Gov. Gray Davis is one of the few who have gone on to higher office after holding the position, and current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to do the same as he runs for governor.
The old joke is that the lieutenant governor’s main job is to wake up in the morning and see if the governor is still alive. Officially, the lieutenant governor is next in line for the top job in case the governor dies, becomes incapacitated, is impeached or resigns. In addition to sitting on the boards of the state’s public university systems, the lieutenant governor is on the Commission for Economic Development, State Lands Commission and Ocean Protection Council. Newsom has been critical of the job’s low profile, deriding it as a ceremonial do-nothing post with “no real authority and no real portfolio.” He once called the position “dull.”
“The name sounds a lot flashier than the responsibilities that come with the job,” said Larry Gerston, a political analyst and former political science professor at San Jose State University. “There is virtually no power in this office.”
Hernandez said that’s what makes it important to ensure the person elected to the office is well connected in the Legislature.
“I’ve already built those relationships,” he said, pointing out that Kounalakis, U.S. ambassador to Hungary during the Obama administration, has never held office in Sacramento.
Whether the lieutenant governor has enough to do “depends on the occupant,” he said.
Hernandez was first elected to the Assembly in 2006 and then to the Senate in 2010. He wrote bills that raised the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21 and required drug companies to give advance notice of price increases.
Hernandez, who is an optometrist, said his bill to increase drug pricing transparency angered pharmaceutical companies. Those companies are now donating heavily to exact “political payback” and defeat him, he said.
“I’m willing to lose an election over something I believe in,” Hernandez said.
Kounalakis pledged not to take pharmaceutical money, but the industry is able to spend money to help her without her asking. An independent expenditure committee supporting Kounalakis accepted $200,000 from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America political action committee.
By law, such committees cannot coordinate their activities with candidates’ campaigns. Although Kounalakis is not affiliated with the PAC that accepted the donation, a majority of its funding has come from her father, wealthy developer Angelo Tsakopoulos.
Kounalakis scoffed at Hernandez’s contention that he sacrificed his political future by taking on Big Pharma.
Campaign finance records show Hernandez regularly took money from drugmakers as a lawmaker, including while he was chair of the Senate Health Committee. Last year alone, Hernandez accepted money from some of the largest drug manufacturers, including $6,300 from Pfizer, $3,000 from Merck & Co. and $2,100 from Abbott Laboratories Employee PAC. A Sacramento Bee analysis found that Hernandez was the top recipient of drugmaker money in the Legislature since 2011, accepting at least $207,411 from pharmaceutical firms and their interests.
“I don’t know anyone in the pharmaceutical industry,” Kounalakis said. “He has spent 12 years doing business with them, carrying their legislation. He is supported by special interests.”
Kounalakis’ run has largely been funded by her father, who has contributed more than $8 million to her campaign and the PAC to elect her. For that, she makes no apologies.
“My family is not a special interest — they are just proud of me,” she said.
Kounalakis’ father is a Greek immigrant who worked as a farmworker before creating a successful real estate company, a story she said should resonate with voters. She said she entered politics in hopes of helping other families attain the American dream like her family has.
To do that, education has to be priority in California, she said. Kounalakis said with the lieutenant governor sitting on the CSU and UC boards, she would push the state to spend more on enrolling in-state students and ensuring that tuition remains flat. She pledged never to vote for a tuition increase.
Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez