Neighborhood Strolls Encouraging : Mayor Walks Around THE Issue

Mayor Roger Hedgecock was in Clairemont to, as politicians are fond of saying, find out what the people think. “Just spending some time here to see what’s on people’s minds,” the mayor told one woman pushing a baby in a stroller outside a Vons store.

Shoppers in the Clairemont Square shopping center asked Hedgecock about issues ranging from growth-management to downtown revitalization to rights of the retarded. The mayor discussed aid for the homeless with volunteers at a church-sponsored community services center and joked about his “orthopedic running shoes” with a sales clerk at an athletic shoe store. Many people just wanted to shake his hand or have their photo taken with the mayor.

At a neighborhood recreation center, Hedgecock pinch hit in a baseball game, swinging at and missing a couple of high, outside pitches. “That’s it--I’m not swinging at any more of your lousy pitches,” the mayor said in mock disgust as he walked away. The kid pitching grinned broadly, and no doubt later bragged to his friends about how he blew a few high, hard ones by the mayor.

None of which is terribly unusual. Indeed, Hedgecock’s afternoon in Clairemont last week was a fairly typical portrait of any politician’s visit to any neighborhood, filled more with short, casual conversations than substantive discussions.

What was unusual about this particular visit, however, is that during three hours of small talk, handshakes and dozens of brief conversations in which Hedgecock invited criticism, no one specifically mentioned THE issue--the felony perjury and conspiracy charges facing the mayor--that has consumed San Diego politicos, the legal community and the media since last year.

“On days like this, it’s easy to almost forget that the legal thing . . . still exists,” Hedgecock said near the end of the walk. “It’s not what people are talking about. They’re interested in other issues that affect their lives. It’s old news.”

Three and a half months after Hedgecock’s first trial on charges stemming from allegedly illegal contributions to his 1983 campaign ended in a mistrial, the story may not be quite as old as the mayor would like to think. Moreover, with Hedgecock’s retrial scheduled to start in late summer, the mayor’s case will soon become Page-One news again.

However, if the Clairemont walk is any indication, the public, at least for now, is far less preoccupied with Hedgecock’s legal travails than perhaps at any other point in the 16 months since the allegations surfaced.

“The subject doesn’t come up much anymore,” Hedgecock said. “Even I’ve tucked it away. I’m not spending time thinking about it. That’s what I pay lawyers to do.”

Hedgecock’s visit to Clairemont was one of a series of weekly neighborhood walks that he began nearly two months ago after the collapse of plea-bargain talks between the mayor’s lawyers and the San Diego County district attorney’s office made a second trial a certainty.

“Primarily, the walks are a reassurance to the public that I’m on the job and not letting the legal side of it interfere in any way with my duties,” Hedgecock said. “I want to communicate to the public that I’m 100% committed to the job, that we’re moving ahead on issues and not wallowing in the doldrums.”

Skeptics have suggested that the neighborhood walks appear to be more a public relations campaign aimed at presenting a mayoral image than a resumption of normal mayoral duties. Regardless, the walks yield insight into the shifting public perceptions about the case and help gauge the effectiveness of Hedgecock’s attempt to remind the public that he is the mayor first and a criminal defendant second.

In Hedgecock’s first two walks in April, in Hillcrest and University City, his legal problems were a major topic of conversation. Most people that Hedgecock met offered words of encouragement, while a few bluntly told the mayor that he should resign in the wake of his first jury deadlocking 11-1 in favor of conviction.

There were frequent thumbs-up signs from passing motorists and shouts of “Hang in there, Roger!” during the two April walks, as well as occasional unflattering epithets shouted from the distance. Amid some perfunctory comments about growth, city services and other issues, it was clear that Hedgecock’s legal battle to stay in office was predominant in most people’s minds.

“Personally, I hope you bring (Dist. Atty.) Ed Miller down to his knees--he’s a jerk,” said Gary Long, a pet store owner in University City, as he shook Hedgecock’s hand during one of the April walks.

“Best of luck--you’re going to need it!” a bicycle store operator told Hedgecock.

Six weeks later in Clairemont, however, Hedgecock’s pending legal problems had been relegated to the back burner, a silent issue that people know about but apparently have tired of as a conversational topic. It was Hedgecock the mayor, not a defendant in waiting, that people saw and treated accordingly.

“There’s nothing going on with (the case) now, so what’s there to talk about?” Tim Gordon asked outside a liquor store. Most of the other people Hedgecock met wanted to talk about potholes, crime, jobs, the mayor’s proposed moratorium on development in Mission Valley--not his trial.

“People are once again saying, ‘Here’s the mayor,’ not ‘Here’s the crook,’ ” said J. Michael McDade, who on Friday resigned as Hedgecock’s City Hall chief of staff to enter private law practice.

Hedgecock said he has noticed “almost a week by week drop-off” in questions about his case.

“When we started (the walks), the legal troubles were still fresh in everyone’s mind,” Hedgecock said. “But it’s gradually faded. I think a majority of people out there in the real world just want me to continue doing the job.”

In contrast to the earlier walks, when Hedgecock’s trial dominated the discussions, the mayor’s legal problems appeared to prompt only two brief, oblique comments last week in Clairemont, one positive and the other negative. A veterinarian commiserated with Hedgecock over “all the garbage you’ve had to put up with,” while one woman, seeing him shaking hands outside a supermarket, snorted, “I wouldn’t cross the street to shake his hand.”

The scarcity of remarks about Hedgecock’s legal problems was remarkable not only because the issue has overshadowed San Diego for more than a year, but also because Hedgecock pointedly asked people whether they had suggestions on “anything that I or the city could be doing better”--a virtual invitation for criticism.

“It shows that people are separating Roger the mayor from . . . my legal problems,” Hedgecock said. “I think Roger the mayor continues to command majority support because of my record and my ability to accomplish things even under the most stressful circumstances you can imagine.”

Hedgecock has received an overwhelmingly favorable response in each of his recent walks, though that gives a somewhat distorted picture of his public support; politicians, particularly incumbents, realize that even some people who despise them or their policies will act cordially in face-to-face encounters.

Nevertheless, Hedgecock said he has been heartened by both the positive response and the fact that the “great majority of people don’t seem to be fixated on the legal issues.”

“The walks certainly fire me up, give me incentive to think I’m on the right track and to keep pushing,” Hedgecock said. “It’s not so much with words, but people’s body language tells you 90% of what you want to know in terms of how they’re accepting you.

“At the same time, I feel like I’m being pulled between two contradictory realities. On the one hand, I was elected by a solid margin, a majority of people support my policies and I get this strong positive feedback in these walks. The other reality, the dark side, is the legal challenge. It’s a strange position to be in. But at least these walks help me to maintain a sense of proportion about things.”