Jerry Haleva Sergeant Major Associates With an office at the corner of 12th and L streets, across from the Capitol, Haleva, 57, is "literally two minutes by foot to any meeting room" in the stately building, a location that serves him well. In 1990, he launched Sergeant Major Associates (SMA) as a full-service government consulting firm that plans strategies, does legislative and regulatory monitoring, prepares drafts and provides communications support.

The lobbying success he's most proud of was helping the Watsonville Community Hospital gain $15 million in state and federal relief after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. "Without that money, the hospital would have had to deny care to a large farm worker population," says Haleva. A major disappointment came late last year. A client wanted to build an entire commercial bakery and donate it to the Department of Defense for use by American and coalition troops in Iraq. When the fighting ended and the troops left, the bakery would be left for Iraqis as an infrastructure contribution.

"There was no fresh-baked bread in Iraq and any bread our troops get is already five days old," Haleva says "The first hurdle was getting the DOD to figure out how to accept something for free." SMA worked with Congress and the Pentagon, won support and was preparing to ship equipment necessary for a bakery overseas when Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, commanding officer of alliance forces in Iraq, determined it as "too dangerous" to bring in a civilian team to build the bakery. It is a disappointment to fight for something good that doesn't end up happening, due to war circumstances," laments Haleva. He believes voter-mandated term limits for politicians holding state office are shortsighted and make his work more difficult because of the regular turnover and steady flow of new faces- "As legislators and staff members come and go, there are always new contacts to cultivate. We lobbyists must overcome any suspicions they may arrive with, prove ourselves as reliable sources of accurate information and provide them with the historical perspective they lack on various issues." A Saddam Hussein look-aIike, Haleva built a sideline gig dressing up in a Saddam military outfit and portraying the former Iraqi leader in the HBO film "Live from Baghdad," about CNN's award-winning coverage of Operation Desert Storm, the first incursion into Iraq. He played Hussein in the films "Mafia," "The Big Lebowski" and the comedy "Hot Shots! Part Deux." Until the toppling of Hussein, Haleva appeared at public and private events as the former Iraqi top man and played the ploy to market his SMA firm.

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