Capitol Hyatt still off limits for Democrats

The following first appeared in Capitol Weekly This weekend, as Democrats from across California descend on Sacramento forthe state party's semi-annual convention, they have snatched up hotel rooms at an early every hotel in the Downtown area. Every hotel, that is, except the Hyatt Regency. "We don't do the Hyatt," said Democratic Party executive director Kathy Bowler. That's because the Hyatt--located only a block from the convention center and across the street from the Capitol--is a non-union hotel. The convention materials sent out to members of the Democratic faithful make no mention of the Hyatt, though the party does recommend six other hotels, five of which are farther from the convention center than the Hyatt, including the Radisson hotel, which is 2.8 miles away. Bowler is quick to emphasize that the Democratic Party never stays at non-union hotels during conventions--in Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles or elsewhere. But the Sacramento Hyatt, located at 12th and L streets, has a particularly contentious history with Democrats and their union backers that dates back almost 20 years. The hotel first opened in 1987 and has been a non-union establishment ever since. Joe McLaughlin, president of the local hotel-employees union UNITE HERE says the Hyatt broke a promise to be open to unions from the beginning. Union volunteers picketed in front of the hotel for two years after it opened. Then there are the stories of Democratic legislators who unknowingly have accepted, and then backed out of, speaking engagements at the hotel. Former Senate President Pro Tem Dave Roberti, who led the Senate from 1980 until 1994, says he only walked into the building once. "I was scheduled to give a speech to a group from out of town and they had no idea about the history of the Hyatt," said Roberti, who says that none of his staffers patronized the hotel. "I think I went through a backdoor and I left that same way." But Republicans regularly hold events in the Hyatt. In fact, the hotel's luxurious penthouse suite is home to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger whenever he is in Sacramento. He paid $6,000-a-month in campaign funds to the Hyatt in his first year in office, and has since set up a nonprofit foundation to pay for his Hyatt residence. The seriousness with which legislative Democrats take the Hyatt moratorium varies from member to member. Almost no Democratic legislator holds events there. But the passage of time and the advent of term limits have softened the opposition of many Democrats to the Capitol's most convenient hotel, as fewer and fewer legislators and legislative staffers remember the contentious pickets of the 1980s. "I admit, I have sinned," says Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, who started his political career as a labor organizer in Los Angeles. "I have gone to the Hyatt on a number of occasions, but only to meet the governor at his suite. Beyond that, I don't go there." But Núñez added that, "Democrats have got to be supportive of hotel-restaurants workers. The best way to show that we support them is to put our dollars where they are paid a decent wage." McLaughlin, the local hotel union leader, was more oblique. "Democrats want union people to vote for their candidates. If they come out against us [by patronizing the Hyatt], we come out against them," he said. Besides living there, Schwarzenegger regularly schedules events at the Hyatt. Since 2005, Schwarzenegger-controlled committees have spent more than $87,000 on meetings, meals and lodging there. And the night before the Democratic convention, Schwarzenegger has a major fundraiser scheduled at the Hyatt, asking "platinum sponsors" to donate $44,600 to his campaign and another $55,400 to the Republican Party. The Alliance for a Better California, the labor organization whose protests dogged the governor throughout last year's specialelection campaign, are scheduled to protest the Hyatt fund-raiser. But, says Alliance spokeswoman Robin Swanson, "the protest has everything to do with the governor and nothing to dowith the location." Swanson points outthat the Alliance protests Schwarzenegger'smajor fund-raisers everywhere, includingthe unionized Sheraton Grand. Schwarzenegger's own residence at the Hyatt has sparked little union ire. That's because it is viewed less as an anti-union, and more as a pro-cigar statement, says McLaughlin. The only other Capitol-convenient hotel is the Sheraton, which has sealed windows and no open-air patios, even for its penthouse suites. Schwarzenegger's Hyatt residence, in contrast, features a spacious terrace on which the governor can smoke his signature stogies, say several sources close to Schwarzenegger. The most commonly used "Democratic" alternative to the Hyatt is the unionized Sheraton Grand, located only two blocks away at 13th and J streets. It is the first hotel listed in the party's convention materials. And it was the site of many of the Democratic campaign parties following last year's special election. But ironically, the current Sheraton general manager, Gunter Stannius, previously worked as the general manager of the Hyatt. "I never had a problem working in a union environment," says Stannius, who moved from the Hyatt to the Sheraton in 2000. "I don't want to have a stamp saying we are Democratic hotel," he said. "I want a stamp that we are a great hotel." Privately, many Democrats have groused that the Hyatt remains on the do-not-patronize lists. In 2003, Hyatt workersrejected a vote to unionize. And some Democrats see the never-ending boycott ascounterproductive, especially as the Hyatt'sbusiness continues to boom. More than aweek before the Democratic convention,the hotel was booked solid through the weekend. "The previous governor wouldn't speak at our hotel. Gray Davis, shall we say, 'recommended' to legislators not to patronize hotels that were non-union," said Brenda Miller, director of sales and marketing at the Hyatt. "But that seems to have gone by the wayside with Schwarzenegger." But McLaughlin says the boycott will continue until he can force the Hyatt to unionize, though that looks unlikely. "It's a standoff," he said. So the Hyatt is here to stay. It's just that Democrats, for the foreseeable future, won't be staying there.