Steve Glazer may represent the California Legislature's wave of the future. Then again, he may just crash on the rocks.
Glazer is a moderate Democrat running for the Assembly while bucking powerful organized labor.
That just is not done in California for the most part, at least successfully.
A "Jerry Brown Democrat," he calls himself with some credibility. Not only was Glazer the governor's chief strategist during his lopsided election victory in 2010, he also espouses fiscal restraint like Brown.
Lately, Glazer, 56, a veteran political consultant and Orinda City Council member, has been calling out unions by advocating that the Legislature ban transit strikes.
That's a salient issue in his suburban East San Francisco Bay district, where rail commuters have just been tormented for the second time since July with a four-day strike by Bay Area Rapid Transit workers. Roughly 400,000 people ride BART daily.
The strike ended Monday night, but another is being threatened by bus drivers for Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District.
"Another strike in the Bay Area is the last thing we need," Brown said as he sought a 60-day cooling-off period Wednesday.
Brown, gearing up to run for reelection next year and counting on heavy labor support, isn't going as far as Glazer in calling directly for a ban on transit strikes. But when the Legislature was in session, he did take a stab behind the scenes at pursuing binding arbitration in the BART dispute, and thus avoiding a strike.
Democratic legislative leaders flatly rejected the idea.
But Glazer has been outspoken, visiting BART stations — five are in his district alone — and asking commuters to sign his online petition urging the Legislature to ban transit strikes.
"Transit is an essential public service, just like police and fire," he says, noting that cops and firefighters are forbidden to strike in California.
"Business requires a workforce. Regional economies are dependent on allowing people to get to where they need…. When BART stops, it drives everyone onto the highways, putting more smog into the air. It takes people hours to go from the East Bay into the city" of San Francisco.
Los Angeles commuters also have been harassed by transit strikes lasting more than a month in 2000 and 2003.
Glazer notes that New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C., have banned transit strikes. In fact, so has San Francisco. "These are public services owned by the public," he says.
But Steve Smith, communications director for the California Labor Federation, calls Glazer a political opportunist.
"He saw the BART strike as an opportunity to further his political aspirations," Smith says. "He's a shrewd political tactician. It's indicative of the kind of politician he would be in the state Legislature."
Leaving out the opportunist bit, Glazer agrees that his position indeed is indicative of the kind of legislator he'd be. He wouldn't be a labor lackey.
He's the only Bay Area Democrat, Glazer says, who's advocating a ban on transit strikes.
But another one indicated Wednesday that he's getting close.
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