Drop in the Pols : Legislators Bergeson, Leonard Plummet in Sky Dive

LODI, Calif. —  Sen. Marian Bergeson took a flying leap Tuesday, but it had nothing to do with angry taxpayers or the plummeting popularity of politicians.

The soft-spoken Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and colleague Bill Leonard (R-Big Bear)--two conservative members of the Legislature’s staid upper house--just thought it would be fun to make like Evel Knievel and take their first sky dive together.

So they and a number of staff members took the afternoon off to drive to a small airport here, about 30 miles south of Sacramento, where they plunked down $135 each, packed their parachutes and jumped out of an airplane at 9,000 feet.

“It was neeeeeat!” Bergeson gushed after she touched down. “It’s the most exhilarating feeling. . . . It is almost euphoric.”

The idea for the daredevil expedition originated with Bergeson, a grandmother who turned 64 in August. She said she decided to give sky-diving a try after her son raved about a recent jump of his own, and when she overheard two of her Sacramento staffers chatting about sky-diving a month ago, she demanded to come along.

“She said she really wanted to do it,” said aide Chris Kahn. “We said: ‘C’mon!’ ”

But Bergeson insisted. After all, she has faced her share of dangers before. She once broke her leg skiing, has gone para-sailing, and is the last one to leave the rides on her periodic excursions to Disneyland.

Sky-diving “is less dangerous than the Temecula cow chip throwing contest that I was involved in a few years ago,” she quipped before the dive, insisting she sought no political gain from her adventure. Bergeson was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for lieutenant governor last year.

Leonard, 44, invited himself along after Bergeson issued a press release last week announcing her intention to make the jump.

“I saw her at a hearing last Wednesday in San Bernardino and I was giving her a hard time about it. I was saying: ‘You’re a macho lady, Marian. . . .’ I can’t let (you) have all the fun,” chuckled Leonard, who plays splatball, a war game played with paint guns, and harbors the dream of one day walking the spans of the Golden Gate Bridge with maintenance workers.

Before going aloft in a stripped-down small plane, members of the group watched a mandatory video and signed waivers acknowledging that the “tandem” jumps they were about to attempt were considered experimental--and potentially dangerous.

Then, each of them put on gray jumpsuits and, in turn, were fastened by the back to a sky-diving pro, who was responsible for pulling the rip cord after a 30-second free fall covering about a mile.

Both Bergeson and Leonard floated flawlessly to earth, emotionally buoyed by the experience and vowing to try it again. “That’s a piece of cake,” declared Bergeson, who had red marks on her forehead where her goggles had pressed against her face.

Leonard, who wore suit pants and a tie under his jumpsuit, declared the dive a thrill before heading off for a late-afternoon meeting with Bob White, Gov. Pete Wilson’s chief of staff.

While Tuesday’s sky dive came off without a hitch, there had been a quiver of anxiety beforehand. Mike Ward, the Senate’s budget officer, made sure to check the Legislature’s health and life insurance policies (there were no exclusions for sky-diving, so Bergeson and Leonard were covered).

Explained Ward: “With the Senate, we generally have an older bunch of members, so it is a little surprising to have some of them take such risks.”