Carole Migden Is Back In The Legislature

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CAROLE MIGDEN IS BACK IN THE LEGISLATURE
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How long will she be charmed by Arnold Schwarzenegger?
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by Randy Perry
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A moment of levity while in her f inal year on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Carole Migden would become Assemblywoman Migden in a
couple of months. (AP, 1996)
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There is some agreement that New Yorkers and
Californians are as different as the Golden Gate and
Brooklyn Bridges. The generalities are endless, from the
brashness of New Yorkers to the laidback style of
Californians. Because the basis for these perceptions is
rooted in image, lore, conjecture, sports fans, and the arts,
some competition between the coasts, and what we see in
the movies and on television, the truth oftentimes gets lost.
However, once in a while, you cross paths with a person
who, like the bridges above, is a link to two worlds,
usually because she was raised in one state and settled in
the other. Newly elected California State Senator, Carole
Migden, originally a New Yorker, and now a 35 -year San
Franciscan, is one of these people.
California Conversations met with Senator Migden in
her new Capitol office. A white carpet, maybe eggshell
white judging by the way we entered, had just been put
down and the dark wood shelves behind the desk were still
mostly empty. Carole Migden was sitting behind her desk.
The diminutive senator has an electricity about her –
some of it is the kind we call political charisma and some
of it is the kind that runs through a chair. First impressions
of the Senator are what we imagine to be pure New York;
expensively dressed, meticulous, straightforward, precise,
and naturally intense. Her reputation, of course, preceded
the meeting. She would say she is focused. Others might
say she is difficult. The bottom line is that she has the
senate seat that belonged to Senator John Burton, the cofounder of the San Francisco political machine and former
pro tempore of the Senate. It is the same seat that was
coveted by Willie Brown, the self-described Ayatollah of
the Assembly and two- term mayor of “The City.”
Whatever people say, and she prompts extreme reactions
from both allies and detractors, she is accomplished and
powerful.
Migden’s staff was attentive. She has a veteran team,
and her chief of staff worked for the Senator in the
Assembly and came back when Migden was elected by an
overwhelming margin to the Senate. We expected to get a
little of the bum’s rush. Surprisingly, we didn’t. The
Senator turned out to be enjoyable company. In private,
her humor is more evident. She leans forward when
answering questions, which she does without hesitation
while gesturing, laughing and, even with a cup of herbal
tea, not bothering to hide a continual restlessness.
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PAGE 33 CAROLE MIGDEN
Saturday, February 26, 2005 2:20:47 PM
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California Conversations: Where did you grow up?
Carole Migden: Most people don’t have to ask.
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CC: New York.
CM: (smiles) I grew up in New York, New York, which
was always a fine address, and frankly, I found it’s been a
great asset to be a New Yorker as a politician,
humanitarian, and a Californian. People like New
Yorkers. They like to have a good time. New Yorkers
seem to be folks of consequence and, you know, it’s the
‘you make it there, you can make it anywhere’ kind of
thing. New Yorkers bring the moxy and the knowhow
and the sensibility of New York to this fabulous landscape
of opportunity in California.
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CC: Your mother was French?
CM: My mother still is.
CC: (laughs) I guess so. Can you tell us about your
family?
CM: My father was a second -generation Jewish immigrant
and grew up on the lower east side of New York. He was a
stockbroker and a weisenheimer and a man of numerous
opinions, a product of City College. He met my mother
when he was an American soldier in WWII. My mother,
incidentally, is self - taught in Spanish, too, in addition to
English and German. We’re kind of a polyglot family.
His mother, Grandma Migden, ran luncheonettes, and she
said, “I don’t make the best, but I make the quickest
sandwich on the lower east side.” So, the quickest
sandwich is something that is always heralded, and I
learned a work ethic and a can-do ethic from my family.
After WWII my father became a Certified Public
Accountant. My brother eventually went into business
with him.
CC: One brother?
CM: I have an older brother who is a CPA. I have a
younger sister who lives in Ohio. She has a fa ncy job.
(playful) Yeah, let’s talk about those Migden sisters, wow!
She’s the public utilities watchdog person in Ohio.
CC: Are you two close?
CM: You know, we’re close in that we’re similar, but
again, we have lived apart, so I am close in that I care
about people. I’m not close in that I don’t see them that
much or we’re not on conversational tracks the same week.
I take great spirit and strength (from them)…It’s not
conventional, but there’s a closeness.
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CC: Do you love them?
CM: I love them.
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CC: Was your family involved in politics in New York?
CM: No. The fact is I’m one of the last sort of on-the-jobtraining kind of people. I didn’t get a PhD planning to be a
political scientist. My parents weren’t particularly
political. They certainly d id vote. I think they shifted
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from libs to conservatives as they got older, not different
from many. I really am a product of a vocal generation of
great conviction and whether Abby Hoffman went on to
sell brushes door-to- door or somehow there was a switch
and some folks became entrepreneurial, the energy of
social action has always felt to me the most pre-eminent of
drives.
Migden moved to California in 1970 with her boyfriend.
They landed in San Francisco and were immediately
immersed in the issues of the times. Migden is one of the
first openly gay members of the Legislature and she tells a
funny story about possibly ending the curiosity people in
Sacramento have about her boyfriend, who later became
her husband, by putting a cloth over a portrait of him and
allowing colleagues and lobbyists to have one quick peek.
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Carole enjoys the company of kids. (2002, Migden collection )
CC: What was happening in your life that made you
decide to leave New York and move to California?
CM: You know, it was the sign of the times, a harkening,
an excitement about a cultural revolution in California.
The year was 1970. We were pulsating, excited students.
We were engaged. It was the era before “whatever” or
“checking-out.” We didn’t even know what those terms
meant. In 1971, I was a Haight Ashbury Medical Clinic
employee who went on to work with schizophrenics. I got
a Masters Degree at Sonoma State. So, I was essentially
involved in the helping professions, and we were political
as a consequence of who we were as young people in the
world. We said free Erica (Eri ca Huggins), and free
Bobby (Bobby Seale). We said no to the invasion of
Cambodia. The nature of our generation was engagement.
But we had the arrogance to believe we could change
things, and we had the caring and, really, the sense of
destiny. I think that period linked me to California.
California was also receptive of the new frontier and many
of us escapees landed here. That’s the wealth and the
beauty of this state in its most unique diversity.
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Migden and her boyfriend were married in San Francisco.
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PAGE 34 CAROLE MIGDEN
Tuesday, March 01, 2005 1:13:06 PM
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CM: Both of us worked in the Haight. I moved out here
and we were kind of living together, then married, and
separated after four years. That was 1975. He’s back in
New York City as a journalist. He’s a terrific fellow. He
has a wife who is an artist with her paintings in the Chase
Manhattan Bank.
CC: (laugh) Has your weight changed in forty years?
CM: You know, like most hummingbirds, we kind of stay
at the same weight.
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Migden is a crusader for gay and lesbian rights and
equality, including being the author of California’s
original domestic partnership legislation.
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CC: When did you come out, and how did it change
your life fundamentally?
CM: I came out in 1975. I think how it changed my
life was suddenly being aware that I then became a
little bit of a social outlaw, even in the glorified Bay
Area. So, I realized I wasn’t everyone’s immediately
preferred dinner partner, and that, coupled with my
persona, gave me new and interesting perceptions.
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Mayor Newsom, of San Francisco, marries Migden and her longtime partner,
Cristina Arguedas.
CC: Were you a flower child?
CM: I was a little post flower child. I was a little too
persnickety to be a flower child, because I always wanted
my flowers pressed (laughter).
CC: How did you avoid the excesses of the ’60s?
CM: All you have to do is look at me. I’ve always been
caffeinated, fast-talking, up in the morning… I’ve always
been a fairly disciplined person with a purpose. I did drug
rehab work, the work that makes people say someone’s a
bleeding heart, which I don’t understand, but I believed
that I ought to have some good public service
component to a life I lead. I always voted. I never
burned a card or a book or a bra. I would say I
skittered along some fringes of small, serious activism,
but I took from it the commitment to make life better
for people. Maybe I was explosive in personality, but
not deed. What I took from the ’60s, in hindsight, is to
look at some of the messages that were in the movement.
You know, we could spruce them up and they still hold as
needing attention.
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CC: How did your family and ex-husband handle
your coming out?
CM: Yeah, immediately everyone’s shaking their
heads and wondering, “Where do we assign blame?”
And not too long afterwards, well, there’s the
normalizing and a stabilization, and renewal. My
mother and father ended up being terribly proud of me.
CC: If you were 20-years-old now, and you were
coming to this new life, “escaping” to this new world,
would you have come out earlier?
CM: Well, I was 25 or 26 when I came out. There were a
couple of years that got lost that I might have done
differently. Being straight clearly wasn’t my real natural
identity, but the label I used was also a byproduct of the
times as we all kind of grew to adjust to our own
independence.
“I’m not dazzled by movie
stars, particularly.”
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Even then I loved to read (Migden was an English major at
Delphi University before moving to California). If you
asked me what I do in the Capitol hours when a lot of us
are marooned and we’re away from home, I like to
converse and be collegial…I love to just fluff up pillows,
read a book and have a cup of tea.
CC: Is that how you relax?
CM: I go to the gym. I like to go to movies. I like to read
books.
When talking with most elected officials, they usually
speak of mentors, or persons in their lives who were
influential. Migden credits life itself for being her guide.
CM: You know, I’m more of an everyman’s kind of
person and everywoman’s kind of person… you can’t help
but admire people who have the courage to step out and do
something unusual or difficult or different in the midst of a
regular life – and not a rich or famous life. What worries
me most is the adherence to conformity, that if you hear
anybody’s name, it’s because they said something different
– that it is automatically vilified with all the “I
gotchaisms.” It used to be that we wanted an honest
exchange of different ideas. That is what I hope to bring
here during my time in the Senate.
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PAGE 35 CAROLE MIGDEN
Thursday, March 03, 2005 12:50:33 PM
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A member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors,
Migden won a seat in 1996 to the California State
Assembly. After being termed -out she ran successfully for
one of five spots on the Board of Equalization
(California’s tax board) and then cleared the field – a
major feat for a non-incumbent seeking a legislative seat
from the Bay Area – and was elected in November to the
State Senate. The seat belonged to John Burton, who has
held elective office in San Francisco since the early ’60s
and is a longtime, close friend of Willie Brown, who
wanted to return to the Legislature. There is a story,
perhaps apocryphal, but close enough to Burton’s humor
and disposition to tell - that he once said he had two goals
in life – to throw a football like Joe Namath and to sleep
with Carole Migden…Migden told him to buy a football.
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and left then sitting Governor Gray Davis without a job,
there is no question that the environment in the Capitol
hallways has changed. With Migden in the state
legislature for the final part of the Pete Wilson
administration, and the beginning of Gra y Davis’ tenure,
many Capitol insiders are wondering how Migden will
handle working with Governor Schwarzenegger.
CC: Senator John Burton was charmed by Governor
Schwarzenegger.
CM: Yes.
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CC: Are you the same way?
CM: You know, I admire the Governor.
CC: I guess the real
CC: Were you John
question is, do you
Burton’s
choice
to
expect to be as charmed
replace him for Senate?
by Schwarzenegger as
CM: You know, I don’t
Burton was?
know. He
has great
CM: I’m not dazzled by
affection for me, and I for
movie stars, particularly.
him, and I don’t think he
I admire the Governor as
is disappointed in my
a self-made man who
victory. Good evidence of
came to this country years
that is the 150-pound
ago, and created not just
cappuccino
machine
personal acceptance, but a
outside my door (a gift
real social phenomenon,
from
Burton). Now,
fitness and gyms, and so
whether it makes as good
on. One has to tip one’s
a cappuccino as John
hat to a visionary and a
made for the Governor, I
successful promoter and
Relieved, and deserving a laugh, Migden celebrates Governor Davis'
don’t know if we’re going
entrepreneur. There are
signature on her domestic partnership legislation. (AP, 2003)
to put it through the test.
many appropriate labels.
He certainly had longstanding friendships with other
So I give him his due. I understand his bedazzling and
speculative candidates, and I think he wisely stood on the
immediate success as a political figure. I do think it will
side and counseled from the sidelines.
be a little more sobered environment this year, and that
celebrity is kind of beside the point. We’ve got a new
CC: Willie Brown?
finance director who is talking about painful issues. We
CM: Willie and I didn’t have much to do with each other
Dems are going to want different solutions.
over the last couple of years. There may have been some
campaign reasons for that, but I’m happy to stay connected
CC: What do you see as a difference between you and
with the Mayor. I think he’s enormously talented.
Schwarzenegger, either personally or professionally?
CM: I think that I am a little more blunt and forthright. The
CC: Did Willie ask you not to run?
Governor talked about being against autopilot spending,
CM: No, he once told me that he was running and I think
but he began the aut opilot spending with this after-school
he thought I would step aside. And I told him, no, I’m
program. The Governor talks about wanting certain kinds
running.
of free markets and business protections, but he
campaigned to give iron clad fiscal deals to counties with
While we had more questions about Willie, the Senator
no accountability. There’s just a lot of flip - flopping and,
chose instead to be gracious and respectful of Mr. Brown.
dependence upon the vagaries of the daily press, as to what
She did not cut us off, but she made it clear that she would
seems to be the order of the day. This kind of autopilot
prefer to honor the service Mr. Brown provided to
spending that Tom Campbell is talking about, didn’t the
California rather than talk about a campaign that is
Governor borrow to create the autopilot spending last
behind her.
year? We’ll have t o pay eleven cents on the dollar for the
rest of our lives just to pay off the debt. I want to stand up
With the election of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in
for the parents, and the kids and grandchildren.
October of 2003, the recall election that rocked the nation,
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PAGE 36 CAROLE MIGDEN
Tuesday, March 01, 2005 1:16:19 PM
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CC: Have you ever sat down and spoken with
Governor Schwarzenegger?
CM: I’ve said hello, but we h aven’t had that much contact
yet. He didn’t really see all that much of me as a BOE
member, but we certainly had cordial contact.
CC: What do you view as different in the Capitol since
you came back?
CM: Well, there’s a little less of the freewheeling,
CC: Why hasn’t Bush paid Arnold back?
CM: I mean what’s going on? We’re vulnerable because
of our access and the exposure. California is really a very
vulnerable part of the country. The first thing I’m going to
ask is why aren’t we getting back our fair share of federal
spending. The President thinks he can ignore us because
we are the ultimate blue state. Our Republican governor
needs to use his charisma and clout to change that.
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“…being chair of
Appropriations means you
become the repository of
everyone’s disappointment.”
anything goes, because we had the house in the high times
of surpluses, and money to spare. There’s a sobriety that
comes with toughness and a little bit of being subdued
associated with that. I believe we have a little more
evenhandedness within the caucuses, with no oversized
personalities that may be dominating to the extreme. It
may lead to better “member development” and institutional
development. I think we’re not dewy -eyed about the new
Governor. I think everyone was kind of pixilated in the
beginning, but remember, here is a guy that said he is
going to go to New York (Republican convention) to just
do his duty, instead he rocked the house. Here’s a guy that
said, “I’ll pick one state to campaign in”, and it was Ohio
on the weekend before the election that he pulled out all
stops and headed a stampede for Bush that led to the White
House. What do I think? Where’s California’s money for
the payback? I want them (the press) to be writing about
that, rather than repeating rhetoric about autopilot
spending.
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people?” That is my only mantra. Can we rebuild the
economy? What’s predominant to me is will the
legislation in front of me do some fiscal good or help
people or make sure for kids the schools are strong? I think
we’ve got to give some latitude to the locals
where it is deserving, because there is no cookie-cutter
approach. My message is to not oversimplify the
complexities of a big state, of a North/South dynamic, of a
term-limited Legislature, of a movie star governor, of no
value anymore on pretty much anything but
money.
CC: After dealing with federal funding are there issues
that are litmus tests for you?
CM: I think I want to get away from the extreme
polarization. How did Betty Crocker say you make a
cake? You take a little flour, you leaven the flour, you add
a little sugar and those are the ingredients. How do you
make a sound and stable fiscal budget? I hope we’re
trying to say, “Do the legislative efforts help do some
good, help solve the budget problems, help take care of
CC: Would you like to be governor?
CM: I don’t think, you know, a personality
like me will aspire to that role. I don’t mind
being a muckraker. You make a choice
between being loved or being effective. And
I’ll choose effective. I’ve had the privilege
to serve in different positions. If you’d said
to me I was going to be on the Board of
Equalization forever, I might not have been
happy, but I had to get that personal experience. If I can
give just a little bit of connection to Northern and Southern
Californians and people of color and gays while reassuring
Joan Didion’s California, then in eight years I’ll have done
quite a lot. If that makes me suitable to look to something
else, I’ll be pleased to.
When Carole Migden was in the State Assembly, she ran
the powerful Appropriations Committee, which heard all
the bills with any significant fiscal impact. Her well earned reputation was of a tough, no-nonsense chair, with
a very quick and heavy gavel, rarely allowing statements
longer than simply “oppose” or “support.” Her
hometown newspaper used words like spitfire and frenetic
to describe her. The stereotypical New York abruptness in
her personality was prevalent. Her style, however, was
not gratuitous or selective. She cut off legislators,
lobbyists, members of the public and her own colleagues
on the committee with equal impunity. It was a gruffness
that allowed her to reduce the Appropriations’ hearings
from a marathon experience of sometimes several days, to
getting the business done in a single long morning. Her
sharp comments, often caustic and dismissive, were the
source of enormous comment in the Capitol offices.
As a newly elected Senator, Migden has been given the
chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The
appointment is an acknowledgement of her skills and her
power within the Senate Democratic Caucus.
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CC: When you first came up, you had staff turnover.
Have you resolved that?
CM: I disagree. I don’t think I did. We had some folks in
and some folks out, but in the main I think we’ve done
kind of well. Four of my first seven hires are returning
Migden staffers. And, like anything, it’s a personality
thing. One comes to work here, and one works the
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PAGE 37 CAROLE MIGDEN
Wednesday, March 02, 2005 9:09:56 PM
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8 hours, and at the end, one wants to get something done.
I’m not for everybody, but if you really want to say you’ve
got an opportunity to get something done that is real and
lasting for people, and maybe have the toughness and
perseverance to do it, it’s a darn good job and we have a
lot of fun while we work together. We don’t just occupy
the job here. We get the results.
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When asked about personal issues, Migden is quick to
point out that she looks at things in terms of four -year and
eight-year goals. She quickly states that being able to
reach kids who are in need and helping families are
important goals.
CM: I want to do more to reach kids that are now getting
the short shrift. I’m thinking of the families eligible for
“Healthy Families” money, which California returns to
Washington each year, because w e don’t use it. So the
question becomes how can we really engage and get health
care for the kids, where the fathers work, and the mothers
work at McDonalds? I say if I can get McDonalds and
Carl’s Jr. and others to give out “Healthy Family” money,
that’s a way to get the kids insured. So, one thing, and it
will take me eight years to do it, is to get the minimum
wage employer involved in helping give out health care to
kids.
CC: Even when someone comments on you cutting
them off they never make the comment that you can’t
run a committee.
CM: It’s a little bit of a requisite of what it takes to do a
job. Sometimes it’s a little bit of “get out of the way,” but
Patrick (Senator Patrick Johnston, a former chair of
Appropriations) and I used to talk about this, because it
falls to the chair to kill everyone’s bills. The Speaker or
the Pro Tem says to a legislative member, “ I love your
bill.” Then they come to us and say, “Kill the bill.” The
member thinks they got the bill, and I can’t say I’m pulling
your bill because they said to, so I have to take the rap. I
Senator Migden was unabashed in her admiration and
guess what I’m saying is that fully inherent with being
love for her longtime partner, Cristina Arguedas. They
chair of Appropriations is
were married in a
that you become the
private
ceremony
repository of everyone’s
conducted in the
disappointment. There is
office of Mayor
something inherent in the
Gavin Newsom on
role that puts you on a
February 20, 2004.
little bit of a disquieting
footing with some. That
CC: So this college
is the job. It is my job to
lesbian
stage
say, “I’m sorry Senator,
you’ve been going
we can’t do that at this
through, are you
time,” and to take the hit
finished with it yet?
for
the
leadership
CM: No. (laughs) It
decision, or to just say we
is deep-seeded. My
can’t get it done in this
partner, Cris, is the
time frame. But, what
one, and actually
you’ll never hear is “She
you should be doing
said she’s going to give it
a profile on her.
to me, and she didn’t” or,
She’s a criminal
Migden and former senator, John Burton (2003, Migden collection)
“I can’t believe what
defense lawyer, and
happened with the votes
we
have
been
there.”
together for twenty years. She is successful in what she
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CC: Is your approach of always being tough a shtick at
times, this kind of….
CM: (laughs) Get a joke out…
CC: No, (laughs) what we’re trying to say is do you
play off other people thinking of you as being difficult?
CM: No, but I guess it also comes with the territory.
You’ve got to be a little bit of a character to be able to
wield the gavel. I like to have people laugh. I want them
to be comfortable. I want to disarm them. We also want
to make sure that our arrogance quota is kept intact. So I
try a little bit to shake things up, to take the excessive
abuse of formality and regularize things a little bit.
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does, whether it is defending an unknown client or Kobe
Bryant. We have these two powerful personalities, and
really we just want to go to the movies and split a bag of
popcorn.
CC: Are you happy?
CM: Happy? I think so, to the extent of which an
obsessed New Yorker, constantly- on -the-move kind of gal
can be. I feel pretty good.
CC: You go home at night, you sleep well, and you’re
satisfied?
CM: I’m trying to help people, and I think I do that. So, I
feel I’ve got a virtuous job and an opportunity to do some
good. There is nothing more fulfilling than that.
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PAGE 38 CAROLE MIGDEN
Saturday, February 26, 2005 3:07:58 PM
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