Wealthy Wilson Donor Confirmed as Regent

SACRAMENTO — With no votes to spare, a restive state Senate on Thursday approved the appointment of wealthy attorney S. Stephen Nakashima, a major contributor to Gov. Pete Wilson’s gubernatorial campaign, as a regent of the University of California.

The action seemed to signal that other Wilson appointees to higher education governing boards likely will confront intensified demands that they reflect the wide-ranging and changing diversity of California populations.

Although Nakashima is a second-generation Japanese-American who was locked up in an Arizona relocation camp during World War II, critics in the Senate noted that he has been a generous contributor to Wilson’s political campaigns and, as an unconfirmed regent, was associated with controversial compensation decisions made by the board last year.

He was approved for a 12-year term on a 21-8 vote, the minimum required in the 40-seat Senate.

The vote concluded a bruising floor fight against Nakashima that was led by Sens. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco). They portrayed Nakashima as the newest member of an elite and mostly white board long dominated by affluent political appointees unresponsive to students and California taxpayers.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), who voted for Nakashima, told reporters later that the close vote indicated that a second Wilson appointee to the board, John G. Davies, who is white and also a wealthy Wilson contributor, may face an even more difficult fight at a hearing next week.

“It’s getting increasingly tougher,” said Roberti, who often spearheads the floor fights against gubernatorial appointees but found himself Thursday leading the battle to confirm Wilson’s first appointee to the board.

The nomination of Davies, a law school roommate of Wilson, already has drawn fire from some groups who cite a requirement of the state Constitution mandating that regents be “broadly” reflective of the state’s economic, cultural, social and ethnic diversity.

Davies contributed $39,000 to the governor’s 1989 campaign. Nakashima, of San Jose, who received undergraduate and law degrees from UC Berkeley, donated $33,000 to Wilson.

Hayden and Kopp charged that Nakashima was unfit to serve as a regent, noting that he was an unconfirmed member of the board that last year approved a controversial $2.4-million retirement package for former UC President David P. Gardner. The regents also were criticized for fashioning the generous program in secret meetings at the same time student fees were being increased because of a budget shortage.

Hayden said he will introduce legislation that would make major contributors to a governor ineligible for appointment as UC regents or trustees of the California State University System.

During debate, Democratic critics of Nakashima cited his wealth and extensive investments, drawing an angry response from Sen. Becky Morgan (R-Los Altos).

“He came back to San Jose poverty-stricken (from internment camp),” Morgan said. “Now he is being criticized for coming from poverty to having some (investments in) stock. We’re sitting here today criticizing a person for having done well. What kind of example is that for young people?”

Wilson has announced his intention to nominate to other vacancies Wardell Connerly of Sacramento, a housing consultant and an African-American, and Lester Shin-pei Lee of Sunnyvale, a business executive and a Chinese-American.