ROBBINS RETURNS TO CAPITOL : POLITICAL REFORM ON AGENDA.

Byline: Mark Katches Daily News Sacramento Bureau

For the first time since he resigned in disgrace, cleaned out his desk and was sent to prison, former state Sen. Alan E. Robbins returned Monday to the scene of the crime.

With some trepidation, the former Van Nuys lawmaker convicted of racketeering and influence peddling made his first visit to the state Capitol in five years.

Of all things, he came to talk about campaign finance reform.

``I was a little nervous at first,'' he said. ``I didn't know what to expect. It was all very nostalgic. It was a reminder of the life I had, but I did some things that were wrong and lost that life.''

He made a brief stop inside the empty Senate chamber to visit a staff member there. He only stayed in the chamber a few moments, not long enough to get wistful for the action in the Legislature, which he admits he misses.

And he stayed away from his old desk on the Senate floor.

``It's not my desk anymore, it's someone else's,'' Robbins said. ``I'm just a visitor, but I feel very comfortable in that. Sure, I wish things were different. But you don't get to change the course of events.''

The visit ``brought home that I was coming back in a role that is very different,'' Robbins said.

Very different indeed. Alan Robbins - poster boy for political reform?

It has an odd sound. Robbins, after all, is the former San Fernando Valley representative who served 19 years before pleading guilty five years ago to charges of racketeering and filing a false tax return.

``There is a niche and if I don't fill it, no one else will,'' he said Monday.

``There is no other former legislator who can speak up about what goes on in the Legislature without any fear of being hurt by it,'' he said. ``They can't prosecute me. They already did.''

The former senator's fall from grace began with FBI probes into whether he traded votes for campaign contributions, and culminated with a term in prison where he worked for a time cleaning toilets.

Wearing a double-breasted suit and a patch on his neck to protect against motion sickness, Robbins flew out of Burbank on Monday to attend a meeting of animal rights activists in a cramped committee room one floor beneath the Senate chamber.

Later he had lunch with a group of former members of his legislative staff, and he met privately with a handful of old colleagues, including Sen. Alfred E. Alquist, D-San Jose.

Robbins initially planned to stop by the Senate floor to visit lawmakers while they were in session, but his plane was delayed and they had adjourned before he arrived. Robbins said it probably was just as well.

Because of his background and what he had done, no one was rolling out the red carpet.

Robbins saw the double takes. He watched as lobbyists who once laughed at his jokes and begged for his time turned their back on him.

``One lobbyist deliberately avoided me,'' Robbins said. ``When he saw me coming all of a sudden he developed an intense interest in reading the fire safety regulations on the wall.''

His former colleagues talked behind his back. On the plane flight from Burbank, one state senator joked to another that he wondered if Robbins was wearing a wire.

Robbins endured the jokes and cold stares, and said he's convinced not much has changed since he left Sacramento.

``The same legislators are here,'' he said. ``The same lobbyists are here. There are no limits on campaign contributions here. That kind of influence is still here, and the only way to change it is to change the rules of the system.

``If I can help bring that about by speaking out candidly about what I did that was wrong - and which I regret - but which goes on every day around here, then I want to do that,'' Robbins said.

Common Cause executive director Ruth Holton, who is spearheading efforts to pass a campaign finance reform initiative on the November ballot, said she welcomed his support.

``He's seen the light,'' Holton said. ``He's an example of what is wrong with the system.''

One lobbyist who spotted Robbins in the hallway asked him if he was running for something.

The next question from Dennis Carpenter, a former state senator who now lobbies on behalf of Orange County, was: ``Are you staying out of trouble?''

In an interview later, Carpenter said that although Robbins never lacked chutzpah, it was a surprise to see him at the Capitol.

``I would feel awkward coming around the Legislature if I were him, because he didn't do anything good for the name of the Legislature,'' said Carpenter, who served in the upper house with Robbins. ``But hey, it's a free country, and I guess it's a public building.''

State Sen. Newton R. Russell, R-Glendale, also said he was surprised to see Robbins on the plane from Burbank.

``It was a little awkward,'' Russell said. ``You didn't know what to say. There are people you feel close to warm and fuzzy and there are people you don't gravitate to. I consider him a person who failed. We all have personal failings, but his were just to a greater extent than others.''

Robbins was released from prison after serving 18 months. He spent two more months in a halfway house and now is working in real estate, managing three apartment complexes he helped build before he was elected to the Legislature.

He lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Westwood, in one of the apartment complexes he manages.

Robbins said he doesn't expect to make frequent trips to the Capitol, but will come if invited to speak. He may even lobby on behalf of animal rights groups on a strictly volunteer basis.

``The last thing I want is to get back in the political limelight,'' he said.

Robbins, who resigned from the State Bar of California in 1991, said he also has no interest in trying to get back his license to practice law, although he is eligible for reinstatement this year.

Robbins was elected to the Legislature in his Van Nuys district the same year that President Nixon resigned in the wake of Watergate. Nixon later was forgiven and eventually embraced as a statesman. Robbins sees very few similarities.

``The only parallel is in terms of a fall from grace,'' he said. ``I don't see myself becoming an elder statesman. I don't see myself writing books.

``I'm just sort of finishing for me what I think is some unfinished business - to see if I can help bring some good from the sorrow that came out of my life.''

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Photo: (Color) There was no red carpet waiting for former s tate Sen. Alan E. Robbins at the Capitol on Monday.

Phil McCarten/Daily News