THE WASHINGTON CONNECTION / ALAN C. MILLER : Tale of 2 Cities--and 2 Waxmans

WASHINGTON — Henry Waxman has long been a man of almost dual identities.

In Washington, the 18-year Democratic congressman from the Westside of Los Angeles is an influential advocate for the poor, the elderly, AIDS patients and environmentalists as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and environment.

In Los Angeles, he is also the senior namesake of the so-called Waxman-Berman machine--an alliance of turf-conscious liberal Democrats who have pooled their collective political muscle to elect like-minded friends and allies.

Over the last decade, Washington Henry has increasingly displaced Los Angeles Henry. Waxman has lent his name and his campaign funds to various efforts but has largely deferred to Rep. Howard L. Berman and his brother, Michael, a political consultant, on the campaign front.

After a disastrous 1992 for the Waxman-Berman forces, expect Waxman--whose congressional district could not be safer--to be even less involved in Los Angeles politics in the future.

“I’m more oriented to Washington,” Waxman acknowledged recently. “I don’t see a reason to be involved (politically) unless I see an outstanding candidate.”

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The boys, as they call themselves, suffered painful setbacks last spring when Rep. Mel Levine--a co-partner of 14 years--stumbled badly in a Senate primary and another charter member, state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal, was edged out in a reelection bid.

The other big losers were Michael Berman and Carl D’Agostino, who act as the alliance’s tactical arm through their consulting firm, BAD Campaigns. They came under fire for gambits many criticized as cynical and divisive--and, ultimately, unsuccessful.

Not only did they oppose Barbara Boxer, now the junior senator from California, but they antagonized Dianne Feinstein with ads attacking her--comparing her to Leona Helmsley yet--on behalf of Controller Gray Davis in the other Democratic primary. Feinstein is now the state’s senior senator.

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The campaign also created tensions between the longtime friends. One strain arose when Washington Henry and Los Angeles Henry found themselves in conflict.

Just weeks before the June 3 primary, Waxman lobbied Levine to leave the campaign trail to return to Washington for a vote to reauthorize funding for the National Institutes of Health, including money for fetal tissue research. The measure’s passage was never in doubt, but Waxman wanted enough votes to prove that the House could override a threatened veto by President George Bush.

Waxman says he urged Boxer to return as well. But he had no clout with her. A confidant of the Bermans said that Waxman’s pressure on Levine indicated that “Henry was much more focused on his legislative struggle than on Mel’s life-and-death struggle.” Levine did not come back for the vote.

Waxman and Howard Berman remain friends--as they have been since working for presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson and looking for dates together at UCLA in the late 1950s. They were the leading edge of organized Jewish political power in Los Angeles and, three decades later, remain bound by shared ideology, mutual supporters and long experience.

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Waxman can still be expected to weigh in personally and financially on behalf of friends--as he did in Los Angeles Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman’s reelection campaign last fall. But his more active involvement in political projects with the Bermans is largely a thing of the past.

Waxman, who began his career as a political reformer, has always been most sensitive to the connotations of bossism and corruption in the term “the machine.” He has long been distressed to see his name associated with BAD’s controversial campaign tactics-- especially when they failed as resoundingly as they did last spring.

The Bermans are more comfortable as risk-takers. They have thicker skins; besides, they’ve found the swaggering aura surrounding them and their allies useful at times.

In any case, this has never been more than a loose-knit coterie of friends who band together for specific causes--particularly when their self-interest is at stake, such as during the once-a-decade redrawing of political boundaries. One insider compared these joint ventures to “herding cats.” After last year, he predicted, it will be even harder to pull off now.

Take the Los Angeles mayoral race. Waxman said he does not plan to be involved in a wide-open contest that could play an important role in shaping the city’s identity as it moves into the 21st Century. And, at least through the April primary, the Westside alliance that helped bring Tom Bradley to power 20 years ago appears to be on the sidelines this time.

Washington Henry will be busy working with the Clinton Administration to try to forge a landmark health care reform program. That’s clearly where he’s most at home these days.