Cranston’s Longevity the ’86 Issue, Aide Says

The man California Sen. Alan Cranston has chosen to run his 1986 reelection campaign says he expects a major issue to be Cranston’s political longevity, not the senator’s ill-fated quest for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984.

“Alan Cranston has a mature career, he’s been there a long time,” Darry Sragow, a 38-year-old Los Angeles lawyer, said in an interview.

Sragow acknowledged that a Republican opponent will probably charge that the 70-year-old Cranston, who was first elected to the Senate in 1968, has been in Washington too long.

“That was one of the things that concerned me when I considered taking this job,” Sragow added. “On the other hand, if he was going to win in a walk, I wouldn’t have been that interested either. . . . It will be an exciting job.”

Sragow said his job will be to turn the longevity issue into a strength by attempting to show how Cranston’s experience helps California on Capitol Hill.

“The issue will be whether, in these complex times, California wants to have a powerful, experienced senator in Washington,” Sragow said. “Anybody who replaces Alan Cranston will have to start at the bottom.”

Cranston is minority whip, or second in command of the Democrats in the Senate. He contends that the job gives him good connections with senators from both parties because one of the whip’s duties is to determine how much support a piece of legislation has before it comes up for a vote.

‘A Good Listener’

The senator is also the ranking Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee and sits on the Foreign Relations, Banking, and Housing and Urban Affairs committees. He is currently holding forums in large California cities to get views on taxes and spending from a variety of community leaders, Democrats and Republicans.

“One of the best things Alan can do right now is listen; he’s a good listener,” Sragow said.

“What we have to do is help people determine ‘How does Alan Cranston help me in my own life?’ with such things as Social Security, jobs, veterans matters, business. That’s why Alan’s casework is so important. And I spent five years supervising casework.”

Sragow was a senior aide to former Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) for five years before leaving his staff in 1978 to attend law school at Georgetown University. In 1972 he managed Indiana Rep. Philip Sharp’s second congressional campaign, which failed. Sragow also worked in the final week of Bayh’s losing Senate campaign in 1980.

He has been in California since November, 1982, when he joined the Westside Los Angeles law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Tunney.

A specialist in banking law, Sragow moved to the downtown Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Meyers in July, 1984. He soon will resign from the firm and spend the next two years putting together Cranston’s campaign. He will be paid $58,000 a year.

Cranston said recently he was so impressed with Sragow that he hired him to be his campaign manager 10 minutes into an interview that was supposed to last all day. Cranston’s son, Kim, 33, is expected to be named chairman of the campaign.

Sragow said he was aware of speculation that Cranston may be in trouble this time, much of it based on poll questions asked during the recent general election.

“That’s why I have been hired two years before the election,” Sragow said.

Comparison Declined

But he said he thought any negative feelings based on Cranston’s run for the presidency would be temporary, and contended that the senator’s situation is not comparable to that of former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., who ran for President twice (in 1976 and 1980) and lost a Senate race in 1982.

“There was some discomfort with Jerry Brown and everything seemed to attach to that,” Sragow said. “But I don’t get that sense with Alan Cranston. I think there is a lot of good will out there toward him and what he has done.”

Sragow said he intends to work closely with the California Democratic Party and others to register voters and turn them out for Cranston in 1986.

“There is a conventional wisdom that California is a media state,” Sragow said. “But I’m not comfortable just relying on media. I think the nuts and bolts will be paid more attention to this time.”

Sragow also said he planned to make the most use of computers and to take advantage of a California law that makes it easy to vote by absentee ballot.

“Alan Cranston has a very young mind; this will be a modern campaign,” Sragow said.

Cranston had trouble with television in his race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The camera’s view of his bald head and lean body was not flattering. And his flat, often wordy, speaking style hurt him in televised debates.

Asked if he planned to use Cranston in the campaign’s TV ads in 1986, Sragow said he has not made up his mind but added, “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.” He would not elaborate.

Asked how he planned to coordinate advice from Cranston’s Washington staff and the senator’s longtime friends on the West Coast, Sragow said, “My style is to manage by consensus. I don’t think anybody in this business has a monopoly on the truth.”