Sacramento, CA (special) --Assemblyman Howard Wayne (D-San Diego) led me to the front of the nine-ton statuary that dominates the rotunda of the state Capitol building. It is a heroic representation of Christopher Columbus meeting with Queen Isabella and an unidentified child just before his first voyage to America. Just the name of Isabella makes me grit my teeth in memory of the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. But it wasn't history that Wayne wanted to impress upon me; it was geography.

While growing up in San Diego, he recalled, he came to Sacramento on a field trip and somehow became separated from the other school kids. He recalled that the rotunda had been especially disorienting. When you're walking in a circle under a 120-foot high dome, how can you know what direction you are facing when you stop? Wayne directed my attention to the statuary, and then summarized the important lesson he had learned as a school boy. "They're looking west," he said. Possibly sculptor Larkin Goldsmith Mead, who created the larger-than-life grouping in 1883, wanted visitors to imagine that Columbus was envisioning the great body of water he planned to sail in search of a new route to the Indies. But in the Capitol, people-in-the-know will confide to you that he's really facing the Sacramento River.

Some people believe that Columbus himself secretly might have been one of the Jews affected by King Ferdinand's and Queen Isabella's infamous expulsion order, but until that is proven, the honor of being the most famous Jew in the Capitol belongs to Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys). 

Hertzberg's office is on the second floor, just north of the rotunda and a relatively few steps away from the Assembly chambers. His suite number is 219, prestigious because it has only three digits while most legislators have offices with four-digit numbers, like Wayne's suite 4005 in the long eastern extension that was added to the Capitol. Not all suites in the extension building lag behind the speaker's office in prestige: the governor's office is at the very eastern end of the extension building, overlooking the squirrel haven known as Capitol park. The "corner office" is one of the few suites that doesn't even need a number. It is simply identified as the Governor's Office.

The Capitol is a busy place when the Legislature is in session, but rarely more so than it was on Monday, Jan. 8. Before Wayne gave me my tour, I wandered from the first floor of the rotunda to a foyer and found myself amid a crowd of motorcyclists carrying signs with the acronym ABATE. Notwithstanding their somewhat fierce get ups-- leather jackets, tattoos, beards, beards, bandannas and the like -- they were the politest bunch of bikers you'd ever want to meet. It was raining outside, and I watched them all wipe their feet on the rubber mat at the entrance way, so as not to track water or mud into the rotunda. 

One of the spokesmen turned out to be Myke Shelby, owner of San Diego Harley-Davidson. Shelby is a Jewish community member who goes by the moniker "New York Myke." On two occasions, Shelby sought the Republican nomination in the 78th Assembly District, but GOP voters decided to chose more conservative-looking candidates as their nominees in the 1998 and 2000 elections. Wayne, a Democrat, won the seat in 1998 and retained it following the last election. 

Shelby told me ABATE stands for "American Bikers Against Totalitarian Enactments," and that they were there, in particular, to protest what they consider an unseemly addition to their costumes -- state-mandated helmets. As far as Shelby and the others are concerned, bikers should have the right to choose what's best for themselves. Helmets are objectionable to the motorcyclists, not only because of their looks but because of the way they obstruct peripheral vision, Shelby said.

I asked Wayne about that later, and the assemblyman said he is convinced helmets really promote safety. The state requires people in automobiles, who already have steel surrounding them, to wear seat belts, he said. Does it make sense to have no protection at all for people who accidentally may go flying off their motorcycles at high rates of speed into the pavement or a tree?

Colorful though they may be, demonstrations on the west steps of the Capitol are part of the routine of the state government. State workers have seen so many, they walk by with hardly a glance. The high level of excitement on this Monday was the fact that Governor Gray Davis was about to give his State of the State message. It already had been leaked that a large percentage of Davis's speech would deal with electricity rates which have soared in the state since deregulation.

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In anticipation of the late afternoon speech, Hertzberg and Assembly Minority Leader Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park) announced at an early afternoon news conference the creation of a new, bipartisan Assembly Committee on Energy Costs and Availability. Assemblyman Roderick Wright, (D-Los Angeles) was named as chairman of the 18-member panel. Among its members were three of Hertzberg's nine Jewish colleagues in the Assembly: Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento); Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Carole Migden (D-San Francisco).

All three are committee chairs in their own right: Steinberg, an attorney, is chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. In the inevitable speculation about who will become the next Speaker after Hertzberg (who is now in his third and final term as a member of the Assembly), Steinberg's name is one of those mentioned as a possibility, although that of Herb Wesson, an African-American legislator from Los Angeles is mentioned more often. Migden is chair of the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee. Jackson, a liberal who many are surprised was elected from a conservative area like Santa Barbara, heads the Assembly Environmental Safety Committee.

Other Jewish machers in the Assembly are Wayne, who chairs the Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on Biotechnology; Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley), chair of the Human Services Committee, with responsibility for welfare bills, and Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), chair of the Housing and Community Development Committee. There are three Jews in this year's freshman class: Rebecca Cohn (D- Saratoga); Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) and Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood). Cohn was appointed to chair the Aging and Long Term Committee as well as the Select Committee on Traffic Congestion.

Goldberg, Aroner and Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) all were members of Delta Phi Epsilon sorority at UC Berkeley together during the time of the Free Speech Movement.

Sen. Byron Scher, D-Palo Alto, and Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, bring the minyan of the Assembly to an even dozen persons. Many remember Kuehl from the old "Dobie Gillis" television series, in which she played Dobie's sometime girlfriend, Zelda.

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By climbing the hand-carved Honduran mahogany and ash staircase from the rotunda to the third floor (or by taking an elevator), one reaches the gallery of the state Assembly. Before one goes in to hear the State of the State Address, one must turn off all pagers and cell phones (mine plays Mozart's Ein Kleine Nachtmusik quite loudly). The sergeant-at-arms will give you a receipt for any camera or recording device you might be carrying, as they are forbidden in the gallery. Wayne was kind enough to secure for me a gallery pass, signed by Hertzberg, which afforded me entrance.

One section of the gallery was reserved for the staff and special guests of Gov. Gray Davis. Among them were his wife, Sharon Davis, who is referred to as California's First Lady; former Rep. Lynn Schenk of San Diego, who now serves as the governor's chief of staff; film director Rob Reiner and Susan Grossman, principal of Melvin Elementary School in Los Angeles. With the exception of Schenk, who shuns the limelight anyway, all were later acknowledged by Davis during his State of the State message.

Before the governor could speak, however, there were quite a few rituals to be performed in the chambers. Assembly members greeted each other on the floor, slapping and patting each others backs and shoulders; laughing at each other's jokes, and lobbying each other for their pet projects, while all the while we in the gallery watched the proceedings. Hertzberg was a particularly active schmoozer, taking the physicality of greetings to a higher level by hugging almost everyone with whom he came into contact. "People call him Hug-berg," commented political columnist and local oracle Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee.

The Assembly chaplain is Rabbi Mona Alfi of Temple B'nai Israel, one of three Sacramento synagogues that were firebombed by white supremists. When Susan Davis was a member of the Assembly, she had invited Rabbi Alfi to speak to the Legislature during women's achievement week. Members were so impressed by the rabbi, she was invited to become the chaplain -- a position which not only involves saying a few inspirational words at the beginning of the day's session but also being available for spiritual counseling. Hertzberg has told her he is particularly pleased; he never got to hug his rabbi before her.

High above the rostrum is a painting of Abraham Lincoln in a contemplative pose. Perhaps subconsciously inspired by this portrait, Rabbi Alfi paraphrased Lincoln as saying that once a goal is decided upon, it is not so difficult to find the means to achieve it. But agreeing on the goal -- that is the trick. I asked her later why she chose that particular invocation, and she said she knew the governor and the Legislature would be grappling with the energy question.

There was a break in the Assembly's proceedings as members of the state Senate filed in en masse, prompting a new round of patting, slapping and hugging until Hertzberg, apparently sated, rapped his gavel for order. No one on the floor appeared to hear him, so great was the clamor. He rapped again and again, until at last the members took their seats. I noticed that Wayne, and two members of the Legislature from San Diego, former City Councilmembers Christine Kehoe and Juan Vargas, had desks close to each other, describing three sides of a rectangle.

Kehoe was among members of the Assembly and Senate who were designated by Hertzberg to ceremonially escort Governor Davis into the chamber. Introductions were made of various dignitaries in the Chamber and gallery including Mrs. Davis; the various state constitutional officers and members of the Board of Equalization; state Supreme Court judges (including the venerable Justice Stanley Mosk), a visiting member of the British Parliament and a visiting member of the Congress.

Then came the formal introductions: Hertzberg introduced Senate President pro tempore John Burton (D-San Francisco), who in turn introduced Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamonte, who serves as president of the state Senate. Bustamonte then introduced Governor Davis, whose speech, read hesitatingly from a faulty teleprompter, dealt primarily with a series of recommendations for dealing with the electrical energy crisis.

These included building more power plants, putting consumer advocates on energy boards, funding an investigation by the attorney general into power rates, giving state government clear authority to order offline utilities back on line, restructuring the energy market to assure the state's power needs are met, possibly using the state's condemnation power to take over power companies found to be engaged in illegal profiteering, and offering $250 million in incentives to the state's homeowners to replace their household appliances with more energy efficient models.

Davis also dealt with other challenges facing the state, including improving education. Recognizing Grossman in the gallery as a principal of a school which had made dramatic improvements in test scores, Davis proposed funding 30 additional days of school in districts that volunteer for the program to make California's school year the longest in the nation. 

The governor also pledged state funds to recruit new algebra teachers and to provide in-service training for math and reading teachers as well as for school principals.

"To help our children prepare for the rigors of the classroom, I will appoint a task force led by my new Secretary for Education, Kerry Mazzoni, to work in partnership with the California Children and Families Commission, including its chairman, Rob Reiner, to explore a comprehensive School Readiness Initiative," Davis said.

"I will ask them to focus on finding ways to provide local communities with critical resources - including Proposition 10 funds - to help prepare our children for a lifetime of learning and success."

Reiner, who as an actor was famous as the character "Meathead" in the television series All in the Family, waved from the gallery in acknowledgment of the applause coming from around and below him.

Following the address, the rotunda was veiled from ordinary view by a ring of blue curtains. A privately sponsored "State of the State" reception required tickets for entry. Thanks again to Howard Wayne, I was admitted to the invitation-only event.

Over canapes of many varieties, lobbyists -- who are politely referred to as the "Third House" -- conversed with legislators, the governor and his staff, and guests. Wayne introduced me to a number of his legislative colleagues, as well as to the chief lobbyist for the University of California system, Steve Arditti, whom I quickly recognized as the student government activist who went to UCLA with me in the 1960s. I had always thought Arditti was an Italian name, but he told me in fact that his family are Sephardic Jews.

An ironic coincidence, I thought as I looked back up at the statue of Queen Isabella and Christopher Columbus.