Ex-State Sen. Watson Becomes Ambassador to Micronesia

WASHINGTON — A lengthy quest by former state Sen. Diane Watson for an ambassadorship paid off Wednesday when she became the U.S. envoy to the Federated States of Micronesia, a 1,700-mile-long chain of tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Watson, 65, was sworn in at a State Department ceremony during which her 90-year-old mother, Dorothy Watson, held the Bible. The new ambassador is scheduled to leave for Micronesia in October.

A Los Angeles native, Watson won her state Senate seat in 1978. The first black woman to serve in the chamber, she was forced by term limits to give up the office last year.

She had sought several ambassadorships since President Clinton took office in 1993 and was finally nominated by him last year for the Micronesia post. The Senate confirmed her two weeks ago.

“It’s a very . . . humbling experience,” Watson said. “As an African American and a woman, I feel privileged and honored that I’ve been tapped by the government to serve as ambassador.”

Watson’s new job may be more exotic than her service in Sacramento, but she will be serving a considerably smaller constituency. The Los Angeles legislative district the Democrat represented has roughly 800,000 residents; Micronesia’s population is just under 125,000.

But she will receive a considerable pay increase, making $118,400 annually, compared to the $78,624 she made as a state senator.

Micronesia consists of 607 islands, totaling 271 square miles of land strung out over more than a million square miles of ocean. About 300 miles east of the Philippines, it is one of the wettest places on Earth, averaging 330 inches of rain a year. The per capita annual income is $1,500.

Watson said one of the first issues she must tackle as ambassador is reviewing a compact between Micronesia and the United States, which expires in 2002. According to the agreement, the United States gives foreign aid to the country in return for military access to its waters.

Watson said she first learned about Micronesia while spending a summer in the 1970s in Guam, about 100 miles away, and that she was entranced with the region’s spirituality and beauty.

As a California legislator, Watson was known as an ardent advocate for the poor and minorities; she once described herself as a “liberal, big-spending Democrat.” Her style, meanwhile, was more confrontational than diplomatic.

Although her Senate district included Hancock Park and other affluent neighborhoods in central Los Angeles, it stretched into some of the city’s most poverty-ridden pockets.

In 1989, she agreed to pay a $21,075 civil penalty for using her campaign treasury to pay for personal items. She paid a $2,000 fine the previous year for failing to disclose a $5,000 loan from a health care lobbyist.