San Diego Braces for Free-for-All Over Mayor’s Seat

Within hours after a jury convicted Mayor Roger Hedgecock of 13 felonies Wednesday, mayoral hopefuls and political consultants began deliberations of their own to decide who might replace Hedgecock when he resigns or is removed from office.

“There are a whole bundle of people looking at it right now,” said political consultant David Lewis. “Of course, they are holding back in deference to what has happened today. But certainly in days, we’re going to see a free-for-all.”

San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender, City Councilman Bill Cleator and state Assemblyman Larry Stirling said Wednesday they were considering campaigns for the city’s top elected office.

Other names mentioned prominently Wednesday included Councilmen Mike Gotch and Ed Struiksma, and Maureen O’Connor, who lost to Hedgecock in a bitter 1983 campaign to fill the vacancy left when Pete Wilson was elected to the U.S. Senate.

“We’re going to talk to our friends and supporters and see if it (a campaign) is do-able,” Stirling said Wednesday. “The city needs a good mayor and I think I would be a good mayor. That doesn’t mean there are others out there who wouldn’t be, too.”

There were indications Wednesday that some wrangling over running for mayor had begun even before the jury delivered its verdict, which sounded the death knell for the career of a man once considered unbeatable in his quest for public office. For example, Cleator said he discussed making a mayoral bid with Stirling on Wednesday morning.

Cleator, the council’s senior Republican, said he told Stirling he had some interest in running for the post. Stirling, also a Republican, said he might sit out the race if Cleator decides to run because both men would be tapping the same base of contributors and political supporters.

“Marilyn and Bill Cleator have not made any decisions,” Cleator said. “You asked me a question that we certainly will be thinking about, but as of this minute, we really haven’t discussed it.”

Kolender, the popular police chief rumored for months to be interested in replacing Hedgecock, said he was going to give a mayoral campaign “some serious thought over the next few days.”

“I’ll make an announcement in due time,” he said. “It would be in poor taste to be coming out and speculating on this so soon after the verdict.”

Wednesday’s verdict means Hedgecock must resign or, apparently, be forced from office. After Hedgecock leaves office, the City Council has 30 days to decide whether to appoint a new mayor--a prospect council members said would be unlikely--or call a special election to fill the office.

Once Hedgecock leaves, the mayor’s office must be filled within 150 days, said City Atty. John W. Witt. If a special election were called, a runoff would be necessary if no candidate received more than 50% of the primary vote.

Perhaps the person with a leg up on any election would be Struiksma, who is running for reelection in his north San Diego council district.

Having won convincingly in the primary, he is now waging a citywide race to capture his seat. Armed with a series of radio ads that appeal to voters on a range of citywide issues, he is engaged in a campaign that would give him a head start on any mayoral bid, said Lewis, his political consultant.

“It puts him in an advantageous position because he’s just come off a campaign where he’s spent several hundred thousands of dollars addressing the electorate,” said Lewis.

In addition, Struiksma may be next in line in December to become the council’s deputy mayor, traditionally a ceremonial post but one that could be of crucial advantage during a mayoral race. With Hedgecock gone, the deputy mayor runs council meetings and in other officials duties is acting mayor.

“I am currently involved in a campaign for reelection, and that is the only thing I’m working on,” Struiksma said Wednesday when asked if he was gearing up for a shot at mayor.

Councilman Bill Mitchell, the current deputy mayor and a two-term councilman who is involved in a tight race against Abbe Wolfsheimer to retain his seat in the November election, would not rule out running for mayor should he be reelected. “It’s tough running for election, though,” he said. “It would take a lot of thought on my part before I decided to campaign again so soon.”

While some were considering campaigns to replace Hedgecock, others Wednesday mourned the loss of an ambitious, sometimes acerbic mayor who marshaled a political coalition of environmentalists, homosexuals and yuppies to best the traditional Republican Establishment and win election in 1983.

“He will be remembered at City Hall for attempting, more than any mayor before him in modern times, to involve the average person in the working of government, to open this city, to reject the notion that only the downtown boys can get their way at City Hall,” said Councilman Mike Gotch, a Democrat who sided with Republican Hedgecock on most issues.

Of those mentioned as possible successors, Gotch seems to be in the best position to inherit Hedgecock’s coalition. Gotch has emerged as a spokesman for Proposition A, the managed-growth initiative which has received Hedgecock’s endorsement. And at least one member of the gay community hinted that his fellow voters may find Gotch a suitable substitute for Hedgecock.

“We don’t have the same kind of relations with the people who are prominently being mentioned as mayoral candidates, with the possible exception of Mike Gotch, so I’m not sure what our immediate political prospects are,” said Chris Kehoe, editor of the Gayzette newspaper.

But Gotch declined to say Wednesday if he would campaign to take Hedgecock’s place.

“That decision will be made and will be announced after I complete the Proposition A campaign,” he said. “After Nov. 5, we’ll make that decision.”

On Wednesday night, Gotch was scheduled to debate Stirling, who has become a leading spokesman against Proposition A. Stirling acknowledged that the meeting could have larger implications than the ballot measure alone.

Stirling said: “I assume that folks will be looking at both of us to see how we measure up as mayor.”

O’Connor, who narrowly lost the bitter 1983 mayoral race to Hedgecock, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Tom LaVaught, chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party Central Committee, said O’Connor and Gotch were the “obvious names that we would consider” to support as candidates. LaVaught said the Democratic Party would immediately begin searching for a single candidate to back in any election.

Times staff writer Tom Greeley contributed to this report.