The Mayor Who Got Caught

This town’s new mayor, the impeccably credentialed progressive Tom Bates, remains under siege. Next month, he is expected to plead guilty to an infraction for stealing hundreds of copies of a student newspaper endorsing his opponent and, officials said, he has offered to speak in local classrooms about the importance of controlling his impulses.

Even his closest allies say what he did was unethical and just plain stupid.

Bates issued vague apologies that made it sound as though his supporters had swiped the Daily Californian, the newspaper of the students at UC Berkeley, when he alone was caught dumping them. He also likened the trashing of the papers to being caught off-sides when he played football for Cal, an analogy that critics said trivialized the error.

Bates may be suffering from the “Trent Lott factor,” said Orville Schell, the dean of UC Berkeley’s Journalism School, “It’s great to say you’re sorry, but it doesn’t erase the stain.”

The story of what occurred on Nov. 4, the day before the mayoral election, is not only an indictment of a lifelong liberal politician with an until-now-unblemished record in Sacramento, but also an indictment of the local press, which was informed of the story but ignored it until it could no longer be ignored. Had the news been printed on election day, it’s not clear whether the outcome would have changed.

Bates compounded his difficulties when he told the city editor of the Daily Cal that he had nothing to do with the journalistic hijacking.

In Boston or Chicago, such thievery might be considered standard political shenanigans. But in Berkeley, home of 1960s political dissent and the Free Speech Movement, Bates’ tossing of the newspapers is viewed as nothing short of a sin.

Bates steadfastly rebuffs those, such as the editors of the Daily Cal, who have demanded that he step down. And Berkeley law forbids a recall for six months.

At 64, Bates has had a long career in the Assembly built around progressive causes such as the environment, human rights, housing, civil rights, disability rights -- on all things important to the left.

His credentials on the 1st Amendment and free speech seemed impeccable. He even sponsored a bill proclaiming Oct. 1 as Free Speech Movement Day.

Bates and his wife, newly elected Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), are a politically powerful couple not to be trifled with -- compared by some locals to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In the campaign for mayor, the 6-foot-tall Bates challenged Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, a rotund, 4-foot-11 politician of strong will. The fight grew ugly ahead of the election, with Bates insisting he wouldn’t go negative, but at the same time alleging that Dean was both mean-spirited and divisive. Dean promoted her development of the downtown arts district.

Bates contended that his wife, who served two terms as Berkeley’s mayor, deserved the credit for the arts district. With his connections to all things liberal, Bates racked up a tower of local endorsements, including the Democratic Party, the Green Party, the Sierra Club, NOW, the Central Labor Council, the Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club and the San Francisco Chronicle. And although it looked as if he’d win the race, the outcome was far from certain.

On the morning before the vote, Bates was distributing campaign literature at Sproul Plaza, birthplace of Berkeley’s political dissent. Wearing a blue and gold sweater, which the police report said made him easy to spot, Bates approached the Berkeley College Republicans’ table, whose members were handing out their magazine, the California Patriot. He repeatedly asked for copies of the magazine.

That chagrined economics major Kelly Coyne, a campus Republican activist who was handing out the magazine. She found Bates charming when he spoke at her sorority, but the Patriot had written more favorably about Dean and found both candidates too liberal to endorse.

Coyne could not understand why Bates kept returning to the Republican table to pick up copies of the magazine. She described his behavior as downright “weird.”

Republican student Steve Sexton, a onetime Daily Cal reporter, checked out a nearby garbage can to see if Bates had tossed the Patriot copies. Sexton not only retrieved the Patriots, but also found a stack of Daily Cals. Like a good reporter, Sexton immediately telephoned the Daily Cal. While on the line with the city editor, Sexton blurted out, “Oh, my God! He just did it again!” as he saw Bates dump another load of newspapers.

Coyne grabbed her Kodak Fun Saver camera, missing the actual dumping of the broadsheets, but photographing Bates afterward. She later handed the camera over to campus police.

Minutes later, Daily Cal city editor Mike Meyers approached Bates. When asked, Bates denied he had dumped the newspapers. Their conversation, according to the police report, ended with Bates telling the journalist, “C’est la vie.”

Kelly Coyne had to study for an exam, but she thought it more important to alert voters about the mayoral candidate who tried to stifle dissent.

She called Dean’s campaign office, which said it wanted nothing to do with the story. A campaign staffer gave her a list of media contacts, Coyne said. She and friends then spent the afternoon at her sorority house calling radio, TV and newspaper outlets, none of which did the story.

“It was a huge story that fell into their laps at the homestretch,” Coyne said. But the media “thought it was petty. I thought that’s what made the story -- how petty [Bates] was.”

And then there was her affiliation. Editors told her that because she was a Republican, she wasn’t “a credible witness,” a position that still rankles her today.

Sexton said he was told by a suspicious Daily Cal editor, “You guys have a political ax to grind.”

The Daily Cal postponed publishing the story, said Rong-Gong Lin, editor in chief and president, because “we didn’t know absolutely for a fact that, given the gravity of the charge, that it was true. We wanted to be absolutely sure.”

Had Bates told the truth, said Lin, it would have been different. “It would have been the lead story in every Bay Area paper on election day.”

The next day, Nov. 5, should have been a career-capping moment for Bates. He won the election by more than 5,000 votes; his progressive allies won a majority on the Berkeley City Council; and his wife was elected to the state Assembly.

The story of his stealing the newspapers didn’t seep out until a month later, when the Daily Californian, with Bates’ own statement vaguely acknowledging wrongdoing, published the story.

“He’s as contrite as he can be,” said his attorney, Robert Cheasty. “It’s been a very devastating experience for him.”

Bates will pay a fine of $250, pay the campus newspaper $500 and talk to student groups about controlling one’s impulses, officials said.

Bates has had to weather the tempest largely alone; some of his closest allies are saying nothing on his behalf.

Shortly after the story broke, Berkeley City Council member Kriss Worthington called Bates’ actions “immoral, illegal and idiotic.” But stepping down, said the Bates supporter, was going too far, likening it to “capital punishment.”

Despite his many apologies, Bates has not apologized to the Republican students or to Dean, his opponent.

“Never once has he admitted that [what he did] could have had an effect on the election,” she said.

“It doesn’t take very many high-visibility errant acts like this one to contaminate the whole barrel of politicians,” said Schell, the UC Berkeley Journalism School dean. “That’s what makes this so lamentable.”

Writer, critic and raconteur Christopher Hitchens, a visiting fellow at the Journalism School next semester, called Bates’ trashing of the newspapers “a metaphorical moment .... There’s no intolerance like liberal intolerance.”

Protesters objected recently when Hitchens spoke on campus. But the author said he hoped that Bates’ action would confirm liberals’ hypocrisy. “This is a good, flagrant, indefensible example,” Hitchens said. He said Bates’ attitude was: “We just have to win. We can be appropriately ruthless.”

Then Hitchens inquired: “On behalf of what exactly?”

Bates has suffered from an arrogance of power that goes beyond the theft of the newspapers, said Councilwoman Betty Olds. The new mayor, for example, has attempted to shorten council meetings by selecting agenda items along with two council members he has designated. Opponents say that goes too far -- censoring other council members.

“He’s just as cocky as ever,” Olds said. “He’s got to be careful. I don’t know that he is.”