TERMED-OUT GOLDBERG EYES EDUCATION SHE MAY APPLY FOR LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT, OR GO BACK TO TEACHING.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- After 23 years in various elected offices representing Los Angeles, controversial and outspoken Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg will end her public career later this year, at least as an elected official.

Goldberg says she wants to return to education, and with Los Angeles Unified School District looking to pick a new superintendent by this fall, she says she's considering applying.

If not that, she says, she's thinking just as hard about returning to inner-city teaching.

``In some fashion, I want to address the achievement issue of low-income kids and literacy skills, but I'm not sure what that capacity should be,'' Goldberg said in a recent interview. ``Maybe I should go back to being a teacher -- that was my best job and my favorite job by far.''

Goldberg says that while many people have approached her about applying to succeed Superintendent Roy Romer, she has had no official discussions with the district.

One thing is sure: Even if the state or the city of Los Angeles extends term limits, she doesn't plan to run for elected office again.

``On the whole, I'm very proud of my record,'' said Goldberg, D-Los Angeles. ``I've always looked out for the underdog, which for me is the most important thing to do. The well-off and well-connected look out for themselves, and have plenty of people who look out for them.''

The 61-year-old often-controversial lawmaker has served as an LAUSD board member, Los Angeles City Council member, and for the past six years as a state legislator.

During that time, she has drawn fire as she gained a reputation as an unabashed champion for ultra-liberal causes, styling herself as an advocate for homosexuals, the working poor and education in low-income communities.

She has fought for measures to ban American Indian school mascots, shorten school textbooks, lengthen the school year for low-performing schools and protect transgenders' rights in the workplace.

But her stances have drawn ire from conservatives, who say her beliefs represent political correctness and liberalism to the extreme.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan clashed with then-Councilwoman Goldberg often, and at one point declared she ``should be ashamed of herself'' for making what he felt were untrue statements about him and his proposal for business tax reform.

Today, Riordan has softened his view somewhat.

``Personally, we got along,'' Riordan said. ``We were just ideologically (on) very opposite sides of a lot of things.

``But on constituent matters in her district, she had a strong staff, and our two staffs worked well together. She hugged me on my last day as mayor.''

Still, he sees Goldberg as an uncompromising ideologue.

``You just couldn't get her to accept something less than 100 percent of her ideology.''

Mike Spence, president of the conservative grass-roots group California Republican Assembly, called Goldberg a ``socialist'' who wants to micromanage people's lives and is ``wrong on almost everything.''

``She's been a committed and articulate advocate for everything we oppose,'' Spence said. ``I wish there were more people on our side that were as dedicated as she was to advancing her agenda.''

Steve Frank, publisher of a conservative political newsletter, said if Goldberg does apply to be LAUSD superintendent, ``I think it's a perfect match -- a failed legislator with a failed system being controlled by a failed city.''

As a legislator, Frank said, Goldberg was a ``radical leftist'' who has stood for more taxes and less freedom.

``Any opportunities to raise fees or business taxes, she voted for them. Anything to harm the businesses in her community and the whole city, she voted for it. She does not believe in the free market. She believes in the government market.''

Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick, a liberal who served with Goldberg for almost eight years on the City Council, said she considered Goldberg a friend and an ally.

``She was passionate about the issues that she believed in. She was a very effective fighter for them. She was extremely forthright in my dealings with her, which is hard to find in politics. There wasn't a lot of subterfuge and doubletalk. It was, say it as it is.''

As a legislator, Goldberg said she has had 39 bills signed into law, including domestic partnership rights, water recycling and relief for school overcrowding.

In 2003, Goldberg was among a group of Democrats caught in an open-microphone gaffe talking about political strategies to possibly hold up the state budget vote in order to convince voters to support a proposal to lower the voting threshold for budgets.

They talked about creating a crisis to draw public attention, and noted that the timing was better because it was not an election year.

The group was having what they thought was a private discussion in a committee room, but a microphone was left on, allowing the press and many others in the Capitol to hear them plotting strategy.

When she was informed that the microphone was on, she was heard exclaiming ``Oh, s--'' before the sound was cut. Republicans distributed a transcript of the remarks.

Today, Goldberg says she doesn't regret that discussion at all. She said her words were misinterpreted.

``They made it sound like I was trying to make up a crisis. When you're $17 billion short, ladies and gentlemen, you're in a crisis. I don't retract the statement I made at all.''

Goldberg, the City Council's first openly gay member, has been with her partner Sharon Stricker for nearly 27 years. Stricker is executive director of a nonprofit organization that runs arts and literacy after-school programs in Los Angeles middle schools.

The two, who live in Echo Park, participated in a marriage ceremony last year when San Francisco was allowing gay marriages before the courts halted the practice. They have one adopted son, who is now married and living in San Diego.

Goldberg says she enjoyed the nonpartisan politics of the City Council and the school board more than the partisan atmosphere in Sacramento.

``When I first got here, the Republicans were the meanest bunch of people I ever worked with in politics,'' Goldberg says. ``I mean mean-spirited, not just philosophical differences. It was like, find a way to make it a personal attack if you can. ... That's gotten a little better. But it's still about winning points and not solving problems.

``I'm happy with what I've accomplished. ... I feel that I have made it clear to people you can be in office and still have your integrity intact.

``So I leave quite happy. And I'm happy to leave.''

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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