Shooting at Big Daddy

"It's a little like being the fastest gun in the West," mused Jesse ("Big Daddy") Unruh, speaker of the California Assembly and 265-lb. strongman of his state's Democratic politics. "Every punk who comes around wants to try you out for size." Unruh knew what he was talking about: he was, after all, being shot at from all sides.

Among Unruh's many critics is Bart Lytton, a Los Angeles savings and loan millionaire, who does not believe Unruh has paid him the deference he deserves as one of California's top Democratic fund raisers. Unruh describes Lytton as "a mad genius, in equal parts." Lytton recently suggested that President Kennedy name Unruh to replace outgoing U.S. Postmaster General J. Edward Day. Explained Lytton: "There is a growing feeling among prominent and responsible Democrats that if Unruh is the issue in 1964, we'll probably lose the state. I am trying to advance his career beyond the borders of California."

When he heard of Lytton's notion, Ed Day, himself a sometime Californian, said: "I am confident that the President will not appoint a man whose main qualifications are political manipulation and power plays. I am sure the President wants a continuation of the emphasis on better mail service rather than boss politics in the Post Office Department." Lytton's gibes did not bother Big Daddy a bit, but Day's did. After all, Unruh had recommended Day to the President for the Postmaster General's office in the first place.

How to Disagree. Perhaps the noisiest of Unruh's critics are the leaders of the California Democratic Council, a liberal organization of some 75,000 members that can produce a lot of votes on Election Day but is not very effective between times. Unruh considers the CDCers a bunch of dreamy, troublemaking amateurs. He recently pushed through the California legislature a bill requiring the C.D.C. and similar groups to serve notice on all political advertisements that they are "unofficial" political organizations--and to specify, in large type, that such "notice to voters is required by law." Moans C.D.C. President Thomas Carvey: "This is a sort of poison label. It implies that there's something wrong with the endorsement --just as you might start worrying about a can of food if it carried that kind of notice."

The C.D.C. has accused Unruh of being a "boss," a "bully" and a "dictator." Last week, when Vice President Lyndon Johnson arrived in Sacramento to attend a California State Democratic convention, he was greeted at the airport by a forest of placards saying: "Down with Big Daddy." Upset by such evidence of Democratic discord, Johnson pleaded: "If we must disagree, let's disagree without being disagreeable."

How to Stay Out. Unruh's enemies are not, of course, all Democrats. Just a couple of weeks ago, in successfully pushing through the legislature a bill to augment Democratic Governor Pat Brown's $3 billion state budget, speaker Unruh took advantage of a quorum-requiring "call of the house" to lock up foot-dragging Republicans overnight in the state capitol; he made the Republicans even madder by offering them the use of his own razor and shower bath if needed. Cried Republican State Chairman Caspar Weinberger, ordinarily a mild-mannered fellow: "These are tactics Stalin, Hitler and other dictators used."

For all Unruh's critics, he is likely to remain a power in California politics for some time. The Kennedy Administration loves him; it gives him the major share of credit for carrying Los Angeles County for Jack Kennedy in 1960. Last week White House spokesmen made it clear that Unruh is still the Administration's favorite Democrat in the nation's most populous state. As for Big Daddy himself, he could only mourn: "Sometimes I think the only thing I could do to stay out of controversy would be to cut my throat. But then they'd blame me for bloodying up the speaker's podium."

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