Mayor Takes to Hustings, Gets Backing

Mayor Roger Hedgecock greeted the loyal supporter with a smile, a handshake and a quip: “God! A three-piece suit!”

Nicole Murray, one of the leading political fund-raisers of San Diego’s gay community, laughed at the joke. It’s not that Murray seldom dresses up; it’s just that Murray is a man who often dresses up as a woman.

“That’s for you, Roger,” Murray said of his politically correct suit. “That’s for you.”

Six months after the start of his trial for felony perjury and conspiracy, and one day after the death of plea negotiations that would have removed him from office, Hedgecock took to the streets Wednesday, saying it was time to concentrate on city business.

His new felony perjury and conspiracy trial is set for August, but Hedgecock wasn’t acting like a defendant-in-waiting. With Murray and another activist leading the way, Hedgecock hit his best mayoral stride on a walking, talking, flesh-pressing tour of Hillcrest and Mission Hills, two neighborhoods in which he has long had strong support.

To some, Hedgecock’s stroll looks more like the start of the defense for his second trial than a return to mayoral duties. Assistant Dist. Atty. Richard Huffman, whose prosecution of Hedgecock last winter ended with a jury hung 11-1 for conviction, said it is apparent that the mayor and his new attorney, Oscar Goodman, were mounting a public relations effort aimed at presenting a mayoral image. “What you’re seeing here is that starting this afternoon we’re going to have our campaign,” Huffman said.

But Hedgecock pointed out that before his first trial began, he took such tours of more than 10 areas of the city, including Rancho Bernardo, Clairemont, Tierrasanta, City Heights, Encanto and San Ysidro. The purpose is to “really get in tune with people by getting out on the streets and talking to the people of this city,” he said. “I think it’s an important part of my job.”

Hedgecock said he plans to continue such tours in other neighborhoods during the next few months.

“I am going to be presenting a case to the public but it is not the legal case,” he said. “The case I’m presenting to the public is, no matter what the pressure is, no matter what the attacks are, no matter what I have to go through on the legal side . . . I’m going to do the job that I was elected to do. I’m going to keep the promises I made in the campaign.”

When reporters asked whether he thought his walks could help raise money for his defense fund, Hedgecock said, “We’re not going to be pitching people for money.”

So the moveable media event that has swirled about Hedgecock for the past several months made its way through Hillcrest and Mission Hills. As the first prominent politician to take a serious interest in San Diego’s gay community, Hedgecock has enthusiastic support in gay-oriented Hillcrest. In his first run for mayor against Maureen O’Connor, Hillcrest was the only precinct that Hedgecock won south of Interstate 8.

“We’re very supportive of Roger . . . we’re really a melting pot,” Murray observed. “There are a lot of minorities and senior citizens here, and of course the very strong gay and lesbian population.”

Surrounded by reporters, photographers and TV cameramen, Hedgecock moved through Hillcrest’s trendy commercial district, from the City Deli to the Quel Fromage coffeehouse to The Gallery Store. The group passed a gay bar, stopped at Karmacy Leather, then ambled down to the Chicken Pie Shop.

Hedgecock visited diners at tables, talked with workers behind counters and in the kitchens, and chatted with people on the sidewalks. His aide, Evonne Schulze, often reminded him of the names attached to familiar faces, just in case he had forgotten.

At times, the conversation seemed forced: “Well,” Hedgecock said during one visit, “You’ve got a wonderful store!”

The vast majority of people he talked with appeared to give a positive response. Passing motorists waved and gave the thumbs-up signal. Several times people came up to him to tell him to keep up the good work and wish him luck.

Francis Tenbroek, a clinical social worker, stopped to shake the mayor’s hand. “He’s strong for women’s rights, so as far as I’m concerned, he’s OK,” Tenbroek said.

But is Tenbroek bothered by the charges of perjury and conspiracy that Hedgecock is facing? “I feel just about everybody in politics is dabbling in that,” she said.

That was a recurring theme in interviews with more than a dozen persons that Hedgecock contacted on his tour: politics is a dirty business; even if Hedgecock got caught, he’s probably no more corrupt than the next guy, perhaps less. And besides, they would say, he’s been a good mayor.

Beverly Morgan said it was a “quite a thrill” when the man she had been seeing on TV news and reading about in the newspapers came up to say hi.

“I’ve always thought they were trying to push him out of office,” Morgan said. “I’ve been rooting for him along.”

The view was not unanimous. Inside the Chicken Pie Shop, a busboy glanced at Hedgecock and offered a terse judgment: “Jerk.” Waitress Linda Powell said, “I really don’t care for him,” just as Hedgecock walked up. She smiled as he spoke briefly. Later, she explained why she didn’t care for him: “He lied, just pure and simple.”

When Hedgecock walked up to Rose Mary Lueders, she told him he ought to resign. “When he was elected, I liked him,” she explained later. “But he’s a lawyer. He knows what is right and what is wrong . . . It’s very sad, but he knew better.”

One member of the entourage, requesting anonymity, confided that “one little old lady” in Hillcrest saw Hedgecock and asked: “Is that the mayor?” Told that it was indeed the mayor, she asked: “Isn’t he in jail yet?”

Hedgecock paid his respects at the Gayzette, a newspaper that serves the homosexual community. Then he headed off to Mission Hills and more stores, restaurants and offices. Again, the response was largely positive.

When Hedgecock jaywalked across busy Washington Street toward the neighborhood library branch, a reporter suggested that a motorist could provide a quick and anticlimactic end to his colorful political career.

“For what I’ve been through,” the mayor said at mid-stride, “this seems like minimal risk.”