Riordan Watchers Hold Their Breath for Major Stumble
By HOWARD FINE
Staff Reporter
Heading down the home stretch of the Republican gubernatorial primary, former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan is way out in front, both in the polls and in fundraising.
Yet it’s anything but a cakewalk, with Riordan getting pummeled on two flanks: from his Republican opponents and, most harshly, from incumbent Democrat Gray Davis.
“Not only has he never had to confront such a broad-scale negative campaign before, but it’s rare to see this so early on in a gubernatorial campaign,” said Republican political consultant Allan Hoffenblum, a Riordan supporter.
How well Riordan is able to maintain his composure in the four weeks remaining until the March 5 primary is seen as one of his biggest challenges.
Riordan is not known for lashing out in response to critics, as, say, former mayoral hopeful Steve Soboroff was apt to do. The Achilles’ heel of Riordan is his tendency to get flustered, confused, or blurt out a verbal faux pas tendencies that also are considered part of his charm.
“The only thing we are all watching out for is that he would have stumbled by now,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, public policy professor at USC. “So far he has not had any major glitches, but it’s still something that people are watching for especially people in the media.”
Far from losing his composure, Riordan has responded to the attacks in the early going with calculated calm.
While Davis so far has gone after Riordan primarily on his abortion stance, Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar left no doubt that the campaign intends to attack Riordan on the energy front as well. That would not only raise doubts about Riordan, it would also deflect criticism of the Governor’s own handling of the energy crisis.
“We think we can neutralize Riordan on the energy issue,” Salazar said. “If he’s going to bring this issue up, he doesn’t have much credibility on the issue because of the actions his (L.A.) Department of Water & Power took in gouging the state.”
Salazar was referring to the DWP’s decision at the height of the power crisis a year ago to sell surplus electricity to the state. State records show that the DWP charged higher prices for some of that electricity than the prices charged by some of the out-of-state companies Davis initially labeled as “price-gougers.”
In his recent State of the State speech Jan 8, Davis obliquely referred to the DWP by mentioning “price gouging by municipal agencies.”
Riordan supporters are quick to point out that the former L.A. mayor had an obligation to DWP ratepayers not to use their money to subsidize the rest of the state.
Nonetheless, Riordan remains vulnerable on the energy issue, especially in Northern California, where anti-Los Angeles sentiment has smoldered for decades.
For the near term, Riordan’s top concern in the primary will be his longtime friend, L.A. investment banker Bill Simon. Friendships, however close and longstanding, have been known to disintegrate during heated political campaigns.
Simon so far has been reluctant to attack Riordan the way Davis has. But Simon campaign spokesman Bob Taylor said his candidate would compare Riordan’s record to his own during the closing weeks of the campaign.
“Bill Simon has no intention of tearing down Dick Riordan, as they are friends,” Taylor said. “But that’s not to say there aren’t policy differences. There are, and we intend to let voters know that.”
In true frontrunner fashion, Riordan has no intention of engaging Simon head-on, said campaign spokeswoman Kim Serafin. “The focus remains on Gray Davis and what Riordan would do as governor,” she said.
That could be a risky strategy for the former L.A. mayor. If the negative ads from Simon, Davis and presumably in the last couple of weeks, Jones begin to raise doubts about Riordan’s record and his positions, his victory in the primary could be less assured.
Riordan can count on being publicly badgered on a grand scale by Davis, who has a whopping $33 million cash on hand. That war chest will enable Davis to air Riordan attack ads throughout the spring, summer and fall.
Indeed, Gray Davis is already trying to link Riordan to the disgraced former chairman of now-bankrupt Enron Corp., Kenneth Lay. Last week, Davis charged that Riordan’s energy policy is based on a plan Lay put out last May at a meeting in Beverly Hills with Riordan and other potential Republican gubernatorial candidates.
In response to those who have criticized the negative tone of the Davis campaign, Salazar said it is merely an appropriate rebuttal to the “relentless negative campaign against the Governor from all three Republican candidates.”
While Riordan with only $2.3 million in cash on hand lags way behind Davis, money is not regarded as a concern for him.
Davis has been raising money for his re-election campaign since before he took office. Riordan only started last summer and has outpaced the governor in the past two months.
Even though he is worth several hundred million dollars, Riordan is not expected to need to pour in millions of dollars into his own campaign. That’s because Republicans both nationally and throughout the state are likely to go all-out in fundraising to gain a foothold in Sacramento.
