Customer Reviews

Big Daddy: Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At last! A political biography that's also a page-turner! Bill Boyarsky's "Big Daddy, Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics" is a great political biography that has everything; sex, war and larger than life personalities. Follow Jess Unruh from his roots in Depression era Texas though the turbulent sixties and seventies to the prosperous 1980s. Unruh revolutionized civil rights legislation and was instrumental in making California the great & prosperous state it is today.

Bill Boyarsky has written an incredibly colorful book about the hard-drinking California politics of the 20th century, when politicians weren't expected to live like clergymen. Boyarsky brings this era to life with oral history from the principal players throughout Unruh's life. This book is great reading, and a fascinating inside look into the personalities that once ran California.

Fully referenced and indexed, with lots of photographs, this book will be a welcome addition to any library and should become required reading for any student of California history or political science.

A man of huge appetites--for power, food, drink, and women--Unruh shaped a political culture that was rough around the edges but got a lot of work done for the people of California. As an AP and LA Times reporter, Boyarsky covered Unruh in Sacramento and brings a valuable, first-person perspective to this story. He resisted the temptation to produce a tome; this nifty little book (265 pages) can be read in a few sittings. As a significant political figure in a fascinating era, Unruh could support a longer work, but I like Boyarsky's decision to keep it relatively brief and moving quickly.

Boyarsky's portrait jibes well with a growing list of books on California politicians of that period. These include John Jacobs's bio of Phil Burton, Lou Cannon on Ronald Reagan, James Richardson on Willie Brown, and Ethan Rarick on Pat Brown. *Big Daddy* is a solid contribution to an impressive collective portrait of mid-century California politics.

I found the book extremely interesting as I either knew or knew of most of the people mentioned. I wish there had been more about the numerous bills Jess sponsored and/or was instrumental in their passage. Also more about his ability to get along well with the Republicans and with Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California....and perhaps less about his "womanizing".

A book about a moderate Sacramento politician who died in the 1980s and has been more or less forgotten might be something that could induce the reaction of "I should write down that title. I'll check it out of the library the next time my insomnia flares up."

And you would be wrong.

This book vividly portrays an over-the-top-and-out-of-control California LBJ, combining an intense hostility toward the wealthy and powerful with a tendency to accumulate power to himself -- one who operated when the press demurely looked the other way as the state capitol was more or less, in the author's words, a frat house.

An example of the wildness of the events discussed from fairly early on in the book that gives a good sense of its flavor: the passage of the Jesse Unruh Civil Rights Act, a 1959 law that emphatically supported the equality of Californians. The NAACP had been working on more modest legislation and was skeptical of Unruh and largely kept its distance. Unruh, whose dirt poor background led him to take discrimination very personally, wrote a much broader law and twisted a lot of arms to get the law through the Assembly, at which point it was supposed to quietly go into the good night because it was never going to get out of committee in the Senate (or even get heard at the committee level). Pretty much everyone but Unruh and his staff accepted that this was what was going to happen. As the legislative session was winding down, no action had been taken and the bill looked headed toward the dustbin of history. In a (probably drunken) fury, Unruh used his power as the head of the Assembly to block consideration of all Senate legislation until his civil rights bill saw action. The Senate voted to support the bill, but only after gutting the list of places to which it applied. This infuriated Unruh even more until an aide pointed out that while deleting all the kinds of places to which it applied, the Senate version still retained the phrase "in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever", meaning that the gutted bill was just as strong as the original if not stronger and the Assembly hurried up and accepted the Senate version. And thus sausages are made.

While I enjoyed this book, I have to confess that I found its episodic meandering frustrating. When reading the biography of a famous person, the most obvious question to ask is, "How did they become famous?" This book postulates that early poverty made Unruh deeply concerned about inequality and campus politics showed him that he was in fact very good at politicking. From these two sources, the book suggests, his future flowed inexorably -- a not very satisfying explanation to Unruh's rise to power. In the above anecdote about the civil rights legislation, it's only mentioned in passing that he reached the position where he could block all Senate legislation. How he got to that point, however, feels like it ought to be a central moment to the story, but it's not. Unruh just magically becomes powerful.

The book, though, is so short that it's still worth the time despite its faults.

This is a biography of Jesse Unruh, California's legendary House Speaker who for years influenced national politics while towering over California politics. In the words of the author, Unruh was "the most influential pragmatist who dominated American politics in the past World War II era." The author sees Unruh as a leader during a time when government operated more effectively, compared to today, and when strong political leaders were able to achieve significant goals. Unruh is credited, as a state legislator, for directing efforts that significantly reformed and improved school financing and giving shareholders rights in the companies in which they owned stock. Unruh was an important partner in public policy efforts that helped transform California through growth in highways, schools, and infrastructure that attracted millions to settle and make California our nation's most populated state. He guided enactment of policies that improved the mental retardation and mental illness systems (including ending the nation's largest program of sterilization of the mentally ill), modernized child welfare systems, and vastly advanced civil rights laws.

Unruh loved power, enjoyed playing power games, and was good at achieving power. The author admires Unruh in that while Unruh seemed obsessed with obtaining and using political power, Unruh did so because he truly wanted to help people. He was not a politician who sought influence for the sake of power. He did so with strategies to help others.

Unruh's political finagling was a main factor in the successful movement to make the California legislature into a full time job. He thought this was necessary to reduce the reliance on lobbyists and state administrators as the source of information and influence. Unruh won the fight to hire full time professional legislative staffs so the legislature could develop its own expertise. The system of professional legislatures was one that was copied by many other states.

Unruh had his faults, both personally and professionally. His full time legislature failed to motivate those legislators who didn't do much to do anything more. Still, the new system was regarded as a vast improvement over what existed.

On a personal level, Unruh was a hard drinking, swearing, womanizer, and proud of it. Yet, he never let his personal flaws mix with his work ethic. It was Unruh was stated, and meant, the famous line that "if you can't eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women, take their money, and then vote against them, you've got no business being here."

Unruh was a leader in making the school systems more accountable. He also saw a future in providing more training of students in emerging technologies, which had the benefit of setting the stage for the creation of Silicon Valley's high tech industries.

Unruh both grabbed power, and kept his fellow Democratic legislators above the taint of lobbyists, by insisting that all lobbyists contribute directly to him and then let him decide how to parcel out the funds to Democratic candidates. This thus made Unruh both the point person for all lobbyists to contact and for all Democratic legislators and legislative candidates to plead for campaign financial assistance.

Unruh was elected to the legislature in 1952. He understood the importance of informing and connecting with voters by publishing a political tabloid in his district which, of course, favorably mentioned his work. Unruh also foresaw a changing California with increasing numbers of immigrants, whom Unruh helped become citizens and, in the process, become favorable to Democrats. He also saw the increasing industrialization of his part of the state, and the need of Democrats to reach out to the interests of working class voters.

Unruh led a challenge against the virtual control of the California legislature by a lobbyist, Arthur Samish. (See the December 2005 D Tails for a review of Arthur Samish's autobiography.) Samish continued virtually ruling the legislature even after imprisoned for corruption. Samish, while a private citizen lobbyist, controlled much of the flow of campaign funds from lobbyists to legislatures, a practice that Unruh used as a model for cementing his legislative power.

The power that Unruh obtained led many to question his connections to the lobbyists who contributed to him. Lobbyists more often seek not to pass legislation but to kill legislation. It is also less obvious to show what caused a bill not to pass.

Unruh once combined principles with power in support of his proposed to ban racial discrimination in public schools, restaurants, and most any institution where the public was a customer. His bill passed the House but was held in Senate committee. Unruh then refused to allow any Senate bill to be considered by the House. He held this position until the Senate leadership caved in and allowed the bill to move. The Senate amended the bill in hopes of weakening it yet left in the key phrase that banned racial discrimination "in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever." Its enactment provided California with one of the most extensive anti-discrimination laws then in the country.

Still, Unruh remained a person of contradictions. The author and fighter for strict laws against racial discrimination opposed fair housing legislation. Unruh felt this bill would upset too many people. Unruh would fight and find ways to win, yet he never saw himself, nor did most observers, as an ideologue. Unruh believed in the fights he fought, but he saw little need to stand up for principles when it might mean a political loss.

Nor did Unruh always fight fairly. A legislator threatened to spread the word about Unruh's mistresses. Unruh responded by promising, if the legislator did so, to spread lies about the legislator that would destroy her career.

The test of loyalty for Unruh was supporting Unruh's budget proposal. Unruh once locked the legislature in its chamber for two days until it passed his budget proposal. Unruh won some key projects for neglected urban areas that he thought would have won approval from the press. Yet the press was very critical of the manner in which he had strong-armed the legislature. It was noted that Unruh's nickname of "Big Daddy" (the title of this book) before then had been a name stated out of respect. From then on, "Big Daddy" was a title meant for a disrespected bully.

Unruh then tangled with organized labor, which refused to support his reelection because they felt he had not been supportive enough. Unruh responded with rage and threatened to publicize a labor leader's arrest record in retaliation. As one labor leader put it, that incident "really sort of brought down my hero...to a degree where he's now mortal like all of us."

Unruh's policies also did not always operate as desired. He fought for legislation that moved many people out of poorly run mental health institutions. He had hoped that better run community health facilities would provide better service for many of these patients. Yet Governors Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown refused funding for the community health facilities. It is believed that this instead led to a large increase in the number of people in prisons and jails.

Unruh was a supporter of Robert Kennedy for President and was beside Kennedy when he was assassinated. After the shooting, as the assassin Sirhan Sirhan was being arrested, he proclaimed "I did it for my country" to which Unruh inquired "why him?", to which Sirhan only replied "it's too late."

Unruh ran for Governor in 1970 yet lost to Ronald Reagan by 53% to 45%. Unruh was later elected State Treasurer. Unruh transformed the State Treasurer's office from one with little power into a power base. Unruh personally chaired seven of the state's nine authorities and he was a member of 29 government bodies. Along with this influence came the ability to hire many staff people in these agencies. The author states that Unruh was the most powerful public finance officer other than the U.S. Treasurer.

Political campaigns began transforming. Personal campaigning and sending out tabloids soon became outdated. In 1974, Unruh was elected State Treasurer by spending $12,699. In 1985, Unruh raised $513,592 and most contributors were from financial firms. The special interest politics that Unruh had taken away from Samish found a way to return. Still, Unruh felt himself a populist. He was offended by greenmail, which he felt was businesses rewarding financial extortion. This upset him directly as the California pension funds lost $7.5 million solely due to Disney's efforts to prevent a takeover from Saul Stenberg. Unruh became a champion of stockholders' rights.

Unruh died in 1987. He was a legendary state legislator. He had his many imperfections, yet overall, he tried to make his state better, and in that, he succeeded.

I have not finished the whole book; but at this point, it gives one a good feel for what it was like in Sacramento for politicians in the 50's and 60's. A most enjoyable read for a Democrat and Jesse Unruh fan, even though the book gives an objective view of Jesse and his faults.