Posted on 04/30/2012 1:45:01 PM PDT by SmithL
He's almost 71. And his wife just resigned from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors after a drug-fueled affair with a meth addict. Her sensational downfall included shocking allegations that he once supplied her with drugs and encouraged her to commit suicide during a recent argument.
So now, after months of personal turmoil and four decades as one of the state's most powerful Democrats, is state Treasurer Bill Lockyer preparing to quietly fade away?
Not a chance. In fact, he's already squirreled away more than $2.5 million to run for another statewide office when he's 73.
Asked whether recent events will affect his plans to become California's new controller, the state's top fiscal officer, his spokesman, Tom Dresslar, replied with a firm "no."
"He still plans on running," Dresslar said Friday.
Whether Lockyer can survive the fallout from the scandal, however, is still an open question. Many Californians no doubt find it hard to reconcile his reputation as a political powerhouse with his troubled marriage to a woman three decades his junior who claimed that he plied her with drugs earlier in their relationship -- something he vehemently denies and which police say doesn't amount to much.
Lockyer's critics look skeptically at his contention that he didn't know his wife, Nadia, was in outpatient treatment for alcoholism when he poured $1.5 million from his political war chest to get her elected in November 2010.
But most of California's political gurus predict Lockyer, who has remained mum since shortly after the scandal broke, will weather the storm just fine. They note that he's been an elected officeholder since 1973, as well as a formidable fundraiser.
"It's very dicey to attack a politician on the failings of a spouse," even if that politician helped that spouse win an office of her own, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a veteran political analyst at the University of Southern California.
"Remember, love is blind," she said. "If you love your spouse, sometimes you can be in denial."
Dresslar said voters will reward Bill Lockyer for a litany of accomplishments. As a lawmaker, he said, his boss streamlined the court system. As attorney general, he established a Megan's Law website to track sex offenders, created a "do not call" list for telemarketers, recovered billions for energy ratepayers and improved the state's DNA lab, Dresslar said. And as treasurer, he said, Lockyer took on Wall Street to protect taxpayers.
Dresslar said Lockyer truly didn't know how much his wife was struggling with alcoholism when he was bankrolling her campaign.
"She had maybe a few too many drinks on occasion, but throughout the campaign, she by all appearances seemed capable of discharging her duties," Dresslar said. "In hindsight, he missed some signs.
"He believed Nadia was the best candidate in that race," Dresslar said. "He regrets the way things turned out. If he'd had a crystal ball, he would've discouraged her from running."
The Lockyer for Controller 2014 committee had about $51,000 cash as of March 31, and his 2010 treasurer campaign committee still has $2.55 million that could be transferred.
Veteran Democratic campaign strategist Dan Newman predicts that any opponent's attempt to take advantage of the scandal is bound to backfire. "He's such an established figure, I don't think it impacts his future beyond sadly increasing the prurient interest in his personal life," Newman said.
Even Jon Fleischman, a former California Republican Party vice chairman who publishes the conservative FlashReport political website, said how the scandal affects Lockyer's future is really up to him, not any potential opponent.
"It would be a significant challenge for an opponent to move this away from being the personal tragedy of the Lockyer family and into the bad political judgment of him supporting his wife's candidacy," Fleischman said. "If Bill Lockyer wants to run for state controller, given the amount of money he has in the bank and the gravitas he has with the party, he'd be an instant front-runner.
"Obviously that's a very personal decision that he has to make," he continued. "But as a practical matter, it seems he should really be concerned with what's going on with his wife. ... I'm wondering what kind of a campaign animal he is, because at some point, wouldn't you stop running for office to be a representative for all of California and instead just be a husband and a father?"
Lingering questions
From a legal standpoint, Nadia Lockyer's allegation that her husband supplied her with drugs, first made in a recent text sent to this newspaper, seems destined to go nowhere.
Hayward police Lt. Roger Keener said it's unclear when and where such a thing might have occurred, leaving questions of jurisdiction: Did it allegedly occur at the couple's Hayward home? Sacramento? Santa Ana, where Nadia Lockyer lived before their 2003 marriage and birth of their son, now 8?
There's also the question whether the alleged crime would be beyond the three-year statute of limitations for most felonies.
And Nadia Lockyer is unlikely to cooperate with an investigation, having already asked the public "not to hold anything against my husband for actions that happened a long time ago."
Besides, her credibility is shaky, no doubt part of the reason the state Department of Justice announced Friday that it was not charging her ex-lover, Steve Chikhani, of San Jose, with attacking her in a Newark hotel room on Feb. 3.
Lockyer had also claimed that Chikhani hacked into her email account to send this newspaper the original claim that her husband had given her drugs. She since has admitted sending the email herself.
He should stay home and take care of his son. Obviously his wife is incapable of doing that.
In California he will be reelected. They love them old time democrats
All you need to win in California is the D after your name. Nothing else matters.
All you need to win in California is the D after your name. Nothing else matters.
Maybe Bill might get to escort himself..
"I would love to personally escort Ken Lay [Enron CEO Kenneth Lay] to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey'". (from 10 - 12 years ago)
Another life-long politician in California...
Never had a real job.
Never had a real brain...
Never understood the real meaning of the word “responsibility” to the taxpayers.
Jabba the Hut of the Democrat world in Calif.
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