Even He Has Helped Fuel Speculation : Ueberroth for Senator? The Rumor Refuses to Die

For more than a year the rumor has refused to die. It has popped up in New York, made the rounds in Washington and thrived all over California.

The rumor is that Peter Ueberroth, handsome hero of the 1984 Olympics, may run for the U.S. Senate from California in 1986.

Ueberroth, who is now commissioner of baseball, says he has no plans to make such a race and in fact seems irritated when the subject comes up. Yet at times, Ueberroth himself has helped fuel the speculation.

The rumor has already had an impact on Republican plans to defeat Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston next year. It provides a safe haven for Republican contributors who are reluctant to commit themselves at this stage, frustrating politicians who have entered the race.

Even Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said recently that he was not “bowled over” by the current Republican Senate field in California and talked wistfully of persuading Ueberroth to run.

The rumor got started because Peter Victor Ueberroth, a former San Fernando Valley travel agent, became a celebrity when he presided over the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. That job gave Ueberroth, now 47, what political consultants call “high positive name recognition.”

In other words, by the end of 1984 a lot of ordinary people had heard of Ueberroth and liked what they were hearing. And as Ronald Reagan, John Glenn and other celebrities have shown, such a person can go a long way in politics--even with no experience.

Started Before Olympics

“It (the Ueberroth rumor) began to come up before the Olympics started,” said Los Angeles journalist Joe Scott, who in the last year and a half has mentioned the possibility of a Ueberroth candidacy numerous times in his widely read political newsletters, The Political Animal and The California Eye.

Scott is not sure where it came up first. It could have been in a phone conversation with one of the dozens of political consultants with whom Scott talks every week.

It could have been at one of the dozens of parties and dinners held all over California each month to raise money for political candidates and causes.

Someone had checked Ueberroth’s voter registration and found out he was a Republican. And in the words of California pollster Mervin Field, “the Olympic Games were a great demonstration of Republican principles--a marvelous demonstration of management and fiscal control.”

To consultants and contributors who are often “looking for a horse,” the next question was obvious: which race? The answer was Cranston’s race in 1986.

Pursuing the Rumor

Scott--whose contacts in numerous political camps have made him a steady player in California politics--did some checking and decided to pursue the Ueberroth rumor.

But first he wanted to talk to Ueberroth himself, and he got an unexpected opportunity in October, 1983, when the Olympics president spoke to the Friday Group, an organization of Southern California political reporters who hold breakfast interviews with politicians.

In Scott’s judgment, Ueberroth had the chance right there to quash the notion of a political career. But he didn’t.

“He gave sort of a put-down answer,” Scott said. “He never went far enough in turning it down. He sounded equivocal. . . . I think part of Ueberroth’s problem is that he has an enormous naivete in dealing with the press, particularly political writers.”

In other words, Scott said, if Ueberroth really wasn’t interested, “he did not know how to say ‘no’ ” to political writers and get them to believe it.

Speculation Fueled

That Ueberroth would agree to sit down with a group of political reporters only helped fuel speculation about his ambitions.

“I invited him (to the Friday Group) because I thought he was an interesting person who was going to go on to other things and he definitely had some political sex appeal in California,” said NBC correspondent Dan Blackburn, who is chairman of the Friday Group.

But Amy Quinn, one of Ueberroth’s top aides at the time, insists that the invitation was accepted for another reason.

“At the time a lot of political reporters were covering the Games,” said Quinn, who has worked in the past for such politicians as Cranston and former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. “Our philosophy for the Games was to tell as many people across the spectrum (as possible) what we were doing.”

In any case, by the time the Los Angeles Olympic Games began in July, 1984--and with Ueberroth’s popularity soaring--California Republicans had become convinced that Cranston was vulnerable, because his 1984 run for the presidency had drawn attention to his liberal voting record.

Since Cranston had clobbered weak opponents in 1974 and 1980, the Republicans were determined this time to come up with a top prospect. Ueberroth’s name was popping up in a lot of conversations. It also was showing up in Scott’s newsletters and in other political publications.

New Developments

In early 1985, two new developments kept the rumor alive: Field decided to put Ueberroth in his California Poll for February, and someone found out that Ueberroth had met with President Reagan’s consultant, Stuart K. Spencer of Newport Beach.

Field’s February survey tested the name recognition and images of a number of California leaders.

“Peter did the best on the image score,” Field said. “He was off the chart.” Ueberroth also had high name recognition, although Gov. George Deukmejian, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Cranston were better known.

Ueberroth was included in the California Poll, not because he had expressed interest in the Senate race, Field said, but “because he had been mentioned in the press. I also talk to political people and I read the political newsletters. . . . There were a lot of individuals who had been mentioned as possible candidates.

Could Avoid Bloodshed

“A lot of Republicans were saying, ‘If we could get behind this guy we could avoid the bloodletting in the primary and we’d have a formidable candidate against Cranston.’ ”

In Scott’s opinion, “once that Field poll came out, the Ueberroth thing took on a life of its own. It became a media-generated event.”

It also generated some interest with Ueberroth himself.

“Peter and I sat down on one occasion after all this talk and he said, ‘What the hell is this all about?’ ” Spencer said recently. “I explained the process and what his opportunity might be, which is excellent. He is without a doubt the premier candidate for the Republicans. If he decided to run, I would help him.”

Soon, Spencer said, Ueberroth was being touted to Republican “heavy hitters” by no less a source than former President Gerald R. Ford, who had met Ueberroth at a golf tournament.

Ford Backs Away

“There was a time when the President (Ford) was talking to a lot of people about Peter,” confirmed Ford’s spokesman, Bob Barrett. “He thought he would be an excellent Senate candidate. But that was before Peter took the stance he has now taken, that he is not interested. The President is now backing away from it.”

But the rumor has refused to die, Spencer said, “because the media feeds off the political pros and the pros feed off the media. It’s something to talk about.”

It has also stayed alive because Ueberroth continues to hedge ever so slightly when asked if he plans to run.

A recent telephone interview with Ueberroth went like this:

Question: Are you interested in running for the U.S. Senate in 1986?

Answer: I have been asked that question a number of times, and I have said no. I have no real affiliation with either political party. I have been approached by no one.

Q: So are you saying you are definitely not interested?

A: The way I have to answer that is, I am currently serving in an elected position (as baseball commissioner) and I don’t think that I could get the votes to be reelected if I wanted to today. You have 26 people (baseball team owners) voting. That’s all I see on the horizon now.

I have the opportunity to try and rid baseball of drugs and provide leadership for other sports to follow, thus having the impact on young people who have sports people as idols. It’s a very difficult task.

Listen, I’m flattered that some people think that I might be a capable public servant, but I have no plans.

Q: Would you describe yourself as a liberal or a conservative?

A: I tend to be liberal on social issues and fiscally I tend to be conservative.

Q: Let’s talk about some specific issues. What about. . . .

A: I don’t want to get into issues. But I tend to be more liberal on some.

Q: Well, what about abortion and what about. . . .

A: I don’t want to get into issues.

Q: Do you wish the speculation about your running for the Senate would stop?

A: Some of it is flattering, but I don’t think it’s useful to anybody.

Ueberroth declined to discuss a report that in a recent meeting with Cranston he promised not to support any candidate against the senator.

Cranston’s staff confirmed that the senator and Ueberroth did have a meeting earlier this year but would not say what was discussed.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), who was the first Republican to enter the 1986 Senate sweepstakes, was surprised to hear about that meeting because he says Ueberroth once offered to help him .

“I ran into Peter at a thing at the Los Angeles Athletic Club,” Davis said. “He told me, ‘I want to support you in this Senate race. Call me Monday.’ So I called him and he said, ‘Well, it depends on what Ken Maddy does because he’s a good friend.’ ”

Maddy is a Republican state senator from Fresno who once expressed interest in the U.S. Senate race but recently indicated he will not run.

Hoping for Help

Davis said he still hopes to get Ueberroth’s help.

There is political gossip that Cranston did some favors for Ueberroth during the Olympics, making it unlikely that Ueberroth would ever work against Cranston.

And it is a fact--not a rumor--that Ueberroth’s sister, now deceased, once worked in Cranston’s Washington office.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the U. S. Senate--who face a major fight in 1986 to retain their majority--keep hoping. And according to a spokeswoman for the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, Ueberroth once gave them some reason for hope.

“He (Ueberroth) has met with Sen. Heinz (John Heinz of Pennsylvania, head of the campaign committee) and at one time expressed some interest in running,” said Chris Kennedy, deputy director of communications for the committee. “But then recently he has said he is not interested. His last conversation with Sen. Heinz was about the Pittsburgh Pirates and about the tax plan’s impact on baseball.”

Spencer said that Ueberroth has such high positive name recognition that he could enter the Republican sweepstakes at the end of this year and still lap the field.

But will he?

“If you ask my opinion, I do not think Peter will run for the Senate,” said movie producer David Wolper, a Ueberroth friend. “If anything, I see him more as the chairman of some big corporation.”

If Ueberroth does want to run, Field says he had better get moving.

“If we had to make the decision right now, Ueberroth would appear not to be running and would not be put in the next survey,” Field said.