Cleator, O’Connor Join Race to Succeed Hedgecock as Mayor

The campaign to succeed Roger Hedgecock kicked into high gear Thursday as Councilman Bill Cleator and former Councilwoman Maureen O’Connor announced they would enter the special Feb. 25 mayoral primary.

Cleator, a longtime champion of the city’s pro-development forces, made a formal announcement during the morning aboard the restored ferryboat Berkeley, saying it was time to “re-create an image of respect for San Diego.”

In the afternoon, O’Connor said she would take out nominating papers at City Hall today, the first day the petitions will be available. She said she would hold a press conference after collecting the 2,000 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot.

Cleator, a 58-year-old conservative Republican, and O’Connor, a 39-year-old liberal Democrat, are native San Diegans who cut their political teeth in the council’s District 2, which includes Point Loma, Ocean Beach and Mission Hills. O’Connor, who was the youngest person ever elected to the council, represented the district from 1971 to 1979, when Cleator won the race to succeed her after she decided not to run for a third term.

Both are making their second bids for the city’s highest elective office, having been defeated in the 1983 mayoral election by Hedgecock, who resigned from the job just before his sentencing Dec. 10 on perjury and conspiracy convictions stemming from illegal contributions he received in that race.

O’Connor was the winner in the 20-candidate 1983 mayoral primary, polling 36% of the vote to 30% for Hedgecock and 25% for Cleator, but she lost to Hedgecock, 52%-48%, in a bitter runoff race. The estranged wife of Robert O. Peterson, multimillionaire co-founder of the Jack in the Box restaurant chain, poured $383,000 of their money into that campaign.

Cleator wasted no time seizing the personal financing issue. He promised that he and his wife would personally give only $250 each to his primary campaign, “and I urge my opponents, whoever they are, to do the same. This city has gone through a lot because of the campaign financing situation, and people are angered by the amount of money that is being spent on these elections.” This will be the third mayoral election in three years.

He also pointed out that his four-person office staff and operating budget have consistently been the smallest of the eight council members.

“Let’s give the taxpayers of this city what they deserve--an honest government putting in an honest day’s work every day,” Cleator said. “I have the lowest operating budget of any City Council member because I watch every nickel spent. That’s how I’ll conduct business in the mayor’s office.”

As acting mayor in 1983, serving for five months after Pete Wilson’s resignation to assume his seat in the U.S. Senate, Cleator said he did not have time to properly organize his mayoral campaign. “I just didn’t have time to take the issues to the neighborhoods,” Cleator said. “This time, I’ll be out talking to people throughout San Diego.”

O’Connor, in a brief telephone interview, said she would defer details on her campaign strategy until her formal announcement. “This is Bill’s day,” she said. But her spokesman, Ralph Anievas, said she would “put as much emphasis on volunteer help as possible.” In 1971, O’Connor, buoyed by a large cadre of volunteers from Rosary High School, where she was a physical education teacher, scored a stunning election upset while spending only $7,000.

It was no coincidence that Cleator opened his campaign at the foot of the refurbished B Street Pier, aboard a historic ferry docked next to the cruise ship North Star. As chairman of the San Diego Cruise Ship Consortium, Cleator has spearheaded the movement to bring passenger ships, and the revenues they generate, to the city.

Cleator said the boats symbolized the “vision and . . . positive action” of San Diegans working “together for the good of the city”--the Berkeley because “a few people were dedicated to save our nautical heritage,” and the North Star because it and other cruise liners represent “a new and clean industry to San Diego.”

“I’m proud of what I have been able to accomplish as the chairman of the cruise ship consortium because people were willing to get together, set goals and then go out and make the idea work,” Cleator said. “That will be how a Cleator Administration at City Hall will operate. It will not be filled with flash and a lot of empty promises. It will be an administration that seeks advice from all sectors, sets an agenda and takes action.”

Although he told a developers’ lobbying group this week that he “lost enthusiasm for the (anti-) Proposition A campaign,” and has repeatedly pledged to help implement the slow-growth initiative approved last month by the city’s voters, Cleator, a staunch supporter of controversial developments like La Jolla Valley, North City West and Fairbanks Ranch, said his position on land-use issues has not softened. “My record speaks for itself,” he said.

At the same time, however, he pledged Thursday to “set aside land so we can have more parks and recreation areas throughout San Diego . . . for future generations.”

O’Connor said she was running “for the same reason I did last time--because I have the most experience in city government.” She cited as strengths her eight years on the council, as well as four years each on the Metropolitan Transit Development Board--on which she was instrumental in the development of the San Diego Trolley--and the San Diego Port Commission, where she was a leading critic of the escalating expense of the port-financed bayfront convention center.

As a council member, O’Connor was a loyal political ally of Wilson, despite the differences in their political party affiliations, and an early supporter of his growth management plan. “On balance, I have the best background of any of the candidates,” she said. “I have spent a long time working on the growth issue, as well as with senior citizens and low-income housing, the expansion of the trolley and community-oriented policing.”

O’Connor and Cleator joined former Councilman Floyd Morrow, a Democrat, and political unknown Dr. John Kelley as candidates in the primary.

Police Chief Bill Kolender and acting Mayor Ed Struiksma, both Republicans, and Councilman Mike Gotch and Assemblywoman Lucy Killea, who are Democrats, also are considering entering the race. Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) announced that he would not be a candidate, “after considerable deliberation with my family and friends.”

The filing period for the primary ends Jan. 3. If no candidate in the Feb. 25 primary receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff scheduled for June 3.