Governor Stops Plan to Negotiate Remap Deal : Politics: Conservative Republican congressmen had wanted to hire a Democratic lobbyist to work with legislative leaders on new district boundaries.

SACRAMENTO —  In a behind-the-scenes struggle, Gov. Pete Wilson has beaten back a plan by conservative Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation to hire a veteran Democratic lobbyist to help negotiate a redistricting deal with the Legislature’s Democratic leadership.

The proposal to retain Jerry Zanelli, a former top aide to state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), was put on hold Wednesday after Wilson, Republicans in the state Legislature and major GOP campaign contributors all opposed it, according to several sources in Sacramento and Washington.

The idea, debated privately in Republican circles for more than two weeks, was seen by opponents as an end-run around Wilson by congressional Republicans seeking to protect their seats by negotiating a sort of “separate peace” with the Democrats who control the Legislature. The Democratic leaders will oversee the drawing of new political district lines that will be based on the 1990 census and shape the state’s legislative and congressional representation for a decade.

By blocking the move to hire Zanelli, Wilson has taken one more step to consolidate his power over a party that includes conservatives who are increasingly edgy about the moderate governor’s stands on abortion, taxes, the environment and gay rights.

The rift is ironic because Republican insiders in California and Washington appealed to Wilson to run for governor in 1990 so he could protect the party when it came time to draw the new district boundaries. Republicans believe they were cheated out of several seats in Congress and the Legislature in 1982 when the Democratic-dominated Legislature drew lines that were signed into law by then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., also a Democrat.

One point of disagreement is whether the Republicans should push for a plan that benefits Republicans while maximizing minority representation or simply fight for new districts that they consider the fairest to their party.

Some of the 19 California Republicans in Congress also fear that Wilson, seeking votes for his state budget plan, might agree to draw boundaries that favor legislators who want to run for Congress because of the new term limits voters placed on legislators when they passed Proposition 140 last year.

“Proposition 140 skews the whole process and creates tremendous pressure to subordinate congressional interests to legislative interests,” said Rep. John Doolittle (R-Rocklin), who proposed hiring Zanelli. “It’s important that we not be lost in the shuffle, that we be able to make our case directly with the people who are drawing the lines.”

Wilson’s threat to veto any plan that is not “honest” and “fair” has also unsettled some congressional Republicans. They believe their interests would be better protected in bipartisan negotiation than in the courts, which would draw the lines if the governor and the Legislature reach an impasse.

“The veto to me is a powerful tool but it’s kind of a blunt tool too,” Doolittle said. “It’s all or nothing.”

Doolittle, who heads the Republican delegation’s redistricting committee, said he wanted to hire Zanelli for $150,000, not to help plot strategy but to represent the delegation with Roberti and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). When that idea was criticized by Wilson aides, Doolittle suggested hiring GOP political consultant Wayne Johnson, who, it was understood, would then hire Zanelli.

But this plan also met with resistance. George Gorton, Wilson’s private political consultant and his point man on redistricting, flew to Washington last week and argued against hiring Zanelli. Gorton also made a presentation over the weekend to a group of Republican contributors, who were angered by the idea and wrote a letter of protest to the delegation.

Ultimately, under pressure from Wilson, the idea was scrapped Wednesday in a private meeting of the delegation in Washington.

“I think it would be very difficult to work with somebody as close to Willie Brown and David Roberti as Zanelli is,” Gorton said in an interview. “I don’t know what they envision his role being with the governor’s reapportionment committee, but I don’t think it would be a very significant one.”

Zanelli declined to comment.

Republican leaders in the Legislature said the idea of hiring Zanelli made it appear that the congressional Republicans were only out to save their own seats.

“This should be an open process designed to serve the interests of the people of California, not the narrow interests of any political faction,” said Assembly Republican leader Ross Johnson of La Habra. “To hire some professional lobbyist at a very handsome salary to go in behind closed doors and say this is what our boys need is entirely inappropriate.”

But Doolittle said he never intended to go around Wilson.

“We had always said we’d work hand in glove with him,” Doolittle said. “Our position has always been to push for the maximum number of Republican seats.”

Weintraub reported from Sacramento and Miller from Washington.