By Pat Keeble, Editor

The death of retired State Senator John A. Nejedly on Sept. 19 took from Contra Costa County one of a handful of its most influential leaders of the 1970s and 80s, a time when the county's legislative representation held power in Sacramento we haven't seen since.

Obituaries and other memorials could hardly do justice to a multi-faceted man who was a driving force  in state and local politics and public policy.

His activities and interests brought him inevitably into the realm of others of power, not the least of which was Dean Lesher, founder and publisher of the Contra Costa Times and the other area newspapers. Lesher's Times was in the process of becoming the pre-eminent voice of the area in the 1960s when he clashed with then-District Attorney John Nejedly.

Lesher had bought the old daily Concord Transcript and fired the union print shop workers, merging the backshop operation into his non-union Times operation in Walnut Creek. A lengthy protest strike ensued in which the Transcript was picketed for more than a year. One early morning, labor goons burst into the backshop in Walnut Creek with sledgehammers and broke up what they could of the presses and linotype machines. When the police arrived, they managed to arrest a handful of men on vandalism charges. Nejedly refused to press the charges on grounds there was no proof the men arrested had done any damage.

Lesher was incensed. He took his revenge a few months later when, after the death of State Sen. George Miller Jr. on New Year's Day 1969, Nejedly announced he would seek the Republican nomination in the special election for Miller's seat.

Lesher authored an editorial so vitriolic in its condemnation of Nejedly's candidacy that Republicans were driven to work for him. He rather easily defeated the Democratic nominee, Miller's then 22-year-old son, George III. Young George had to wait six years to win elective office, the seat in the 7th Congressional District which, of course, he has held ever since.

Lesher had bought the old daily Concord Transcript and fired the union print shop workers, merging the backshop operation into his non-union Times operation in Walnut Creek. A lengthy protest strike ensued in which the Transcript was picketed for more than a year. One early morning, labor goons burst into the backshop in Walnut Creek with sledgehammers and broke up what they could of the presses and linotype machines. When the police arrived, they managed to arrest a handful of men on vandalism charges.

Nejedly refused to press the charges on grounds there was no proof the men arrested had done any damage.

Lesher was incensed. He took his revenge a few months later when, after the death of State Sen. George Miller Jr. on New Year's Day 1969, Nejedly announced he would seek the Republican nomination in the special election for Miller's seat.

Lesher authored an editorial so vitriolic in its condemnation of Nejedly's candidacy that Republicans were driven to work for him. He rather easily defeated the Democratic nominee, Miller's then 22-year-old son, George III. Young George had to wait six years to win elective office, the seat in the 7th Congressional District which, of course, he has held ever since.

That was not the end of the Lesher-Nejedly saga, by a long shot. A few years later, Nejedly, then divorced, began dating a young mother, Maggie Ryan, a catering administrator at the new Holiday Inn in Concord. They split after his next election, and Maggie was introduced to Lesher, by then a widower. A few months later, they were married. From then on, at Lesher's request, she went by Margaret, Lesher's mother's name.

But both Lesher and Nejedly were pragmatic men. Years later at a large 80th birthday celebration for Nejedly, Dean and Margaret sat with him at the head table.

It's just one of many stories one could tell about Nejedly. There are the stories of how he loved the Sierra Nevada, where he spent much of his youth. How, as a young attorney for the city of Walnut Creek he found a hilltop for sale and borrowed $10,000 to buy it, camping on it in a tent sometimes before he could afford to build. He planted hundreds of trees, none of which obscured the view across the valley straight to Mt. Diablo, which he enjoyed until his death. And how he started a summer camp in the Sierra for disabled Easter Seal kids, regularly dragooning friends and political cronies to work there. Who was going to say no to a state senator?

Because of his love of nature, he authored environmental legislation that gave some of his GOP cohorts fits, although he got plenty of support from the Sierra Club.

He always was a funny kind of Republican who didn't quite fit the mold. It didn't bother him a bit when, after he announced his retirement from the Legislature in 1980, he was censured by the county Republican Central Committee because he dared to endorse Democratic Assemblyman Dan Boatwright of Concord for his Senate seat. The fact was the GOP leaders had failed to come up with a solid competitor against another of the most powerful men in the county. Nejedly didn't have a choice.

After his retirement, California water issues became a major cause and consumer of  his time.  He helped win the fight against the construction of a peripheral canal around the Delta that environmentalists feared would lead to the end of the Delta ecosystem. He supported the Contra Costa Water District's construction of the Los Vaqueros Dam to assure adequate quantities of good quality water for nearly half the county.

John's death was not unexpected, least of all by him. He had been in ill health for some time, hospitalized in the early summer with heart problems and physically frail at 91. But his mind was sharp, his sense of humor intact.

Until his final illness, this writer was helping him edit an article urging a vote against Proposition 1E on the Nov. 7 ballot. It could, he alleged, bring back the peripheral canal idea and would not, as it promised, provide adequate maintenance of the levees protecting the state's water supply. CalFed, the state-federal water agency, had done little with billions of dollars already given it, while the bond measure would give it billions more for a sparsely described agenda, he argued.

Nejedly's political legacy lives on in his three children. He encouraged them to become involved in politics and all three now hold elective office -- daughter Mary on the County Board of Supervisors, son John A. on the Contra Costa Community College board, and son Jim on the Central Sanitary Board. e 7th Congressional District which, of course, he has held ever since.

That was not the end of the Lesher-Nejedly saga, by a long shot. A few years later, Nejedly, then divorced, began dating a young mother, Maggie Ryan, a catering administrator at the new Holiday Inn in Concord. They split after his next election, and Maggie was introduced to Lesher, by then a widower. A few months later, they were married. From then on, at Lesher's request, she went by Margaret, Lesher's mother's name.

But both Lesher and Nejedly were pragmatic men. Years later at a large 80th birthday celebration for Nejedly, Dean and Margaret sat with him at the head table.

It's just one of many stories one could tell about Nejedly. There are the stories of how he loved the Sierra Nevada, where he spent much of his youth. How, as a young attorney for the city of Walnut Creek he found a hilltop for sale and borrowed $10,000 to buy it, camping on it in a tent sometimes before he could afford to build. He planted hundreds of trees, none of which obscured the view across the valley straight to Mt. Diablo, which he enjoyed until his death. And how he started a summer camp in the Sierra for disabled Easter Seal kids, regularly dragooning friends and political cronies to work there. Who was going to say no to a state senator?

Because of his love of nature, he authored environmental legislation that gave some of his GOP cohorts fits, although he got plenty of support from the Sierra Club.

He always was a funny kind of Republican who didn't quite fit the mold. It didn't bother him a bit when, after he announced his retirement from the Legislature in 1980, he was censured by the county Republican Central Committee because he dared to endorse Democratic Assemblyman Dan Boatwright of Concord for his Senate seat. The fact was the GOP leaders had failed to come up with a solid competitor against another of the most powerful men in the county. Nejedly didn't have a choice.

After his retirement, California water issues became a major cause and consumer of  his time.  He helped win the fight against the construction of a peripheral canal around the Delta that environmentalists feared would lead to the end of the Delta ecosystem. He supported the Contra Costa Water District's construction of the Los Vaqueros Dam to assure adequate quantities of good quality water for nearly half the county.

John's death was not unexpected, least of all by him. He had been in ill health for some time, hospitalized in the early summer with heart problems and physically frail at 91. But his mind was sharp, his sense of humor intact.

Until his final illness, this writer was helping him edit an article urging a vote against Proposition 1E on the Nov. 7 ballot. It could, he alleged, bring back the peripheral canal idea and would not, as it promised, provide adequate maintenance of the levees protecting the state's water supply. CalFed, the state-federal water agency, had done little with billions of dollars already given it, while the bond measure would give it billions more for a sparsely described agenda, he argued.

Nejedly's political legacy lives on in his three children. He encouraged them to become involved in politics and all three now hold elective office -- daughter Mary on the County Board of Supervisors, son John A. on the Contra Costa Community College board, and son Jim on the Central Sanitary Board.

Oct. 31, 2006