LOCKYER THRUST BIPARTISAN BUT ATTORNEY GENERAL REASSURES HIS ALLIES

SACRAMENTO -- As he moved into the 17th-floor suite atop the Department of
Justice building, Attorney General Bill Lockyer no doubt left more than a
few law-and-order conservatives feeling a bit uneasy.

Unlike his Republican predecessor, Lockyer is a Democrat whose political
roots can be traced back to one of the state's most liberal pockets -- the
east San Francisco Bay area.

But the savvy political veteran was never as far left as his University of
California Berkeley degree might suggest, and he has cast a decidedly
moderate image as the state's chief law enforcement officer.

Lockyer has built a bipartisan administration, while moving quickly to
reassure his natural allies and shore up sagging morale among the
department's 5,000 employees.

He has re-established the attorney general as a leading advocate of gun
control, moved the office to the middle in the medical marijuana debate and
ordered a renewed emphasis on civil rights, consumer advocacy and
environmental protection.

None of that, he says, will require any retreat from the war on crime.

"In the past, too often the focus has been purely on criminal justice.
Civil justice often has been neglected," Lockyer said. "That's changing."

While it's early, Republicans and representatives of corporate California
say Lockyer has not set off any alarms.

Political analyst Tony Quinn, a Republican who worked under former Attorney
General Evelle Younger, said former colleagues at the department have yet
to offer up any significant criticism of their new boss.

"He seems to be learning his way, hasn't made any major errors, hasn't done
anything to undercut any of the particular units in the office," Quinn said.

In one of his first politically sensitive decisions, Lockyer dropped
criminal charges against a sitting Republican lawmaker, Assemblyman Scott
Baugh of Huntington Beach.

Baugh, who has since been elected Assembly Republican leader, had been
accused of trying to hide campaign contributions and other acts of
political misconduct. The charges were filed by another Republican, former
Orange County District Attorney Mike Capizzi.

Attorneys in the San Diego office of the Department of Justice reviewed the
case and recommended referring it to the Fair Political Practices
Commission for a possible civil penalty, Lockyer and others said.

"They were professional lawyers and investigators who spent hundreds of
hours with the file," Lockyer said. "They concluded there had been some
mistakes or wrongdoing, but that it was not a matter that could be proven
to be criminal."

A Different Kind Of Top Cop

Lockyer, 58, was forced out of the Legislature last year by term limits
after a 25-year career that included a stint as Senate leader. Considered
one of the most prolific and influential lawmakers of his era, he upset
conservative Republican Dave Stirling to claim an office many political
analysts expected the GOP to hold.

Not a typical candidate for the job, Lockyer earned his law degree by
attending night classes while in the Legislature. He has limited legal
experience and was never a prosecutor.

His inauguration was choreographed to send an unmistakable message. During
the campaign he had promised to run a Department of Justice, rather than a
department of "just us."

Among the speakers and special guests were a pair of Republican Supreme
Court justices; two women, including a Latina; a black church choir; and
Viejas tribal Chairman Anthony Pico.

"Justice is not a partisan pursuit," Lockyer said. "All aspects of
California society ought to feel like the chief lawyer for the people is
fighting for everybody."

There was no love lost between Lockyer and his immediate predecessor,
Republican Dan Lungren. Upon moving into Lungren's former digs, Lockyer has
relaxed what he suggested was a security-happy, imperial air that pervaded
the office.

Magnetic cards are no longer required to open bathrooms and interior
offices. A garage reserved for the attorney general, a cinder-block bunker
Lockyer calls "the bomb shelter," has been converted to an "employee of the
month" parking space.

The moves, along with his support for a long-overdue pay raise for
staffers, were intended to lift morale. Not long after Lungren's deputies
tried to quash an e-mail campaign involving the salary dispute, Lockyer
embraced it and ultimately joined it.

"He appears to be a lot more interested in us than his predecessor," said
Barry Carlton, a deputy attorney general in the San Diego office.

Installing Professionals, Not Partisans

Lockyer also has reassured the department's veteran legal corps with the
selection of his top staff.

The attorney general has only eight positions that he can fill with
political appointments. Lockyer named his longtime aide Steve Coony and
veteran Deputy Attorney General Peter Siggins to serve as his two chief
deputies.

To head the prominent criminal division, he brought in respected Sacramento
County prosecutor David Druliner. Both Druliner and Siggins are
Republicans, and both draw praise from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Robert Fellmeth, a former prosecutor and founder of the Center for Public
Interest Law at the University of San Diego, said Siggins' elevation was a
particularly shrewd move.

"I'm familiar with what happens in prosecutor's offices when they change
administrations," Fellmeth said. "There is a tendency for the troops to
take sides. It's a good idea to make it clear you're going to be a
professional.

"That also calms down the right wing within the office, the people who
think, `Oh my God, we've got a Berkeley nut on our hands.' "

In contrast to Lungren, Lockyer also appears to be building a strong
rapport with the governor. Lungren and former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson
had a chilly relationship, especially during their final years in office.

Sources say Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, deferred to Lockyer in an early
legal motion on tribal gaming. The attorney general also may have been
instrumental in Davis' surprise decision to pursue mediation to resolve the
prickly lawsuit against Proposition 187, the initiative aimed at illegal
immigrants.

Lockyer disclosed that mediation was among a list of options he proposed to
Davis.

Like the governor, some say Lockyer also could be held to answer if those
who voted for Proposition 187 conclude he abandoned the measure.

"A real test for any AG is how he does in defending the will of the voters
as expressed in the initiative process," Quinn said. "Like it or not, it's
Lockyer's job to defend Proposition 187."

Low-Key Death-Penalty Support

While adamant that his administration will not pull back from the fight
against crime, Lockyer has lowered the department's public prominence in
death-penalty cases.

He supports capital punishment, but did not attend the February execution
of Jaturun Siripongs or the more recent execution of Manny Babbitt.

"There is no legal, no lawyering need for the attorney general to be
there," Lockyer said. "That's a PR decision.

"Perhaps in the future, if there were families of victims who were there
and I felt like that would be an important supportive role for those
families, I would attend. But it's not a task that I relish."

Rob Stutzman, who served as Lungren's press secretary, said Lockyer's
silence has given defense attorneys and others an uncontested forum to sow
public doubt about the death-penalty cases.

"I think it's a discernible lack of leadership on the issue," Stutzman
said. "It goes with his job. The men and women who work for him do a great
job defending these cases on appeal."

The attorney general, Stutzman said, should "mount the bully pulpit and
assure the public that these cases are sound."

Gun control was a dominant theme of Lockyer's campaign. Even before he was
sworn in, he convened a task force to weigh enforceable options to crack
down on combat-style assault weapons.

Unlike Lungren, who resisted gun control as an answer to violent crime,
Lockyer has endorsed Handgun Control Inc.'s top priorities -- measures to
overhaul and expand California's assault-weapons law, restrict sales of
inexpensive handguns and require the sale of trigger locks with new guns.

Lockyer voted for the medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215. He has
argued the cause before U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, but warns that
federal laws against marijuana still prevail.

He says Proposition 215's guidelines need to be tightened and has convened
a task force to that end.

"My general policy during this period of uncertainty is to respect local
prosecutorial decisions," he said.

So far, Lockyer has persuaded the new governor to give his department
additional funding to beef up enforcement of environmental laws, expand the
civil rights division, enhance consumer protection and to pursue elder and
group-home abuses.

His office also has assumed a lead role in a national review of antitrust
implications of mergers and pricing practices of the oil industry.

In one of his first acts, Lockyer staged a news conference to announce a
doubling of the small civil rights unit. But he left Lungren's appointee
running the office.

"The people who work here are professionals," Lockyer said later. "I
regularly tell them . . . I don't particularly care what their personal
philosophy is. I want them to do competent work on behalf of the people."