Politics : The Gentle Reshaping of Candidate Cleator

In 1983, then-San Diego County Supervisor Roger Hedgecock successfully ran for mayor under the slogan, “A Mayor for All San Diego.”

One of Hedgecock’s major opponents in that year’s primary was City Councilman Bill Cleator, whose personal wealth and conservative record prompted Hedgecock aides to occasionally joke that Cleator’s slogan should be, “A Mayor for All Point Loma.”

In his bid to succeed Hedgecock in the mayor’s office this year, Cleator has often invoked his predecessor’s broader campaign slogan and, through words and actions perhaps more moderate than at any other time in his public career, is now seeking to recast his public image to fit the label.

Aware that he must soften his staunch Establishment reputation if his second mayoral campaign is to end differently from the first, Cleator has been aggressively soliciting support in recent weeks among environmentalists, gays, labor unions and minorities--groups that he has had limited dealings with or has even been at odds with in the past.

Cleator concedes that the reshaping of one’s image is a tricky business--particularly during a campaign, when any shift in style or substance is likely to be interpreted as a pitch for more votes.

“I can understand how some people might be skeptical . . . of what they’ve seen and heard lately,” Cleator said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, so Cleator’s become an environmentalist?’ In their place, I might be (skeptical) too. That’s part of politics.”

Not wanting Cleator’s recent actions to be seen as disingenuous political rhetoric, his campaign handlers have gone to lengths to dispel the notion that a “new Bill Cleator” is being offered for public consumption in the Feb. 25 mayoral primary.

“There is no new Bill Cleator--no, no, no, no, no,” said top Cleator aide Don Harrison. “This is just another manifestation, a more complete picture of the same Bill Cleator.”

Regardless, the ’86 model of Bill Cleator has a significantly different look and feel (“It’s got more mileage on it too,” Cleator joked.) than the one that has been on display at City Hall since the Point Loma businessman was elected to the council in 1979.

For example, the candidate has lately been engaging in such uncharacteristic activities as encouraging developers to get along better with environmentalists; telling gay activists, whom he has largely ignored in the past, that they can count on having access to a Cleator Administration, and getting rousing receptions and endorsements from labor organizations.

“Those aren’t the types of groups you’d generally associate with Cleator or think of as being part of Bill’s constituency,” Harrison said. “But I think it’s proof that Bill has grown and that he’s reaching out to more of the community than he did in the past.

“Plus, he’s been on the council three years longer than when he ran for mayor the last time, and now he has more of a record to offer.”

Indeed, Cleator’s instrumental role in attracting cruise ships to San Diego played a major role in his recent endorsement by the local Longshoreman’s Union.

Seeking to temper a strong pro-development record that once prompted a council colleague to label him “a cement mixer,” Cleator also has recently emphasized the need for--and his support of--strict growth-management policies.

“I really think that we are looking at a period of limited growth in San Diego for the rest of this century,” Cleator said in an interview last week. If any local political observer had been shown that remark three months ago and asked to guess who said it, Cleator probably would not have been on the list.

Cleator, however, has a simple answer for those who question the sincerity of his recent gestures or wonder whether the “old Cleator” will return after Election Day.

“What I’d tell those people is that you can say a lot of things about Bill Cleator, but saying that he says one thing and then does another isn’t one of them,” Cleator said.

“If you look at my record and talk to those who have known me, both in business and politics, you’ll see that my word is my bond. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. You can count on that.”

One of the major risks inherent in any politician’s attempt to reshape his image is that the effort may not only fail to attract converts, but also may cause supporters to defect. However, Cleator’s more moderate tone has received a generally positive response so far from old political friends and from those he hopes to make his allies.

Susan Jester, president of the San Diego Log Cabin Club, a group of homosexual political activists, said that she came away from a recent meeting with Cleator “with a very positive feeling.”

“I didn’t detect someone who wants to win at all costs or who will say or do anything to get elected,” Jester said of Cleator, who has had limited dealings with the homosexual community in recent years. “As far as our community is concerned, he’s almost totally uneducated, probably because he represented a district where it really wasn’t necessary for him to reach out in the way that you have to if you want to be mayor of the entire city. But he appears open and to be genuinely seeking answers. He seems to be very sincere.”

Similarly, Robert Morris, executive vice president of the politically potent Building Industry Assn.--a group that has strongly supported Cleator in past races--said that the organization’s members were “not bothered at all” that Cleator’s recent message to them was considerably different from those of previous years.

Indeed, in asking for--and receiving--the BIA’s endorsement earlier this month, Cleator’s normal gung-ho enthusiasm for growth was supplanted by a plea that developers help carry out the intent of Proposition A, the initiative approved by local voters in November that requires public approval of any new development in the largely undeveloped regions of north San Diego.

“I thought Bill struck exactly the right tone,” Morris said. “He didn’t lose any friends here. He may have even made a few new ones with his candor and frankness . . . about how we can move forward from here.”

However, because Cleator’s slide toward the center of the political spectrum is occurring during a campaign, his modification of long-held positions, particularly those dealing with growth, has met with some skepticism.

Recent episodes include a call for a task force to study ways for the city to preserve open space in urbanized areas. Also, although Cleator opposed Proposition A, he has repeatedly pledged to “faithfully implement” the measure in order to “carefully manage growth . . . and set about guaranteeing that San Diego remains San Diego.”

“I think voters will see through Cleator’s posturing . . . as a born-again environmentalist,” said David Lewis, a consultant to acting Mayor Ed Struiksma, another mayoral candidate. “Over a period of years, when you have votes to back up what you’re saying, you might be able to change people’s perceptions. But not in six weeks. You have to show us something besides talk.”

“This certainly isn’t the same Bill Cleator we’ve been used to seeing over the years,” added Jay Powell, conservation coordinator of the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club. “We’ve been eyeing these recent things, not with suspicion, but by being very cautious about the extent of his rebirth.

“Whether this is being done for political expediency or is evidence of some root that has been retapped is what we’ve got to ascertain. We want to make sure that there’s no gap between the rhetoric and the reality.”

Insisting that he has “reevaluated and reexamined” his position on growth in the wake of Proposition A’s approval, Cleator says he now “brings a little broader perspective” to development issues. So, the candidate who in 1983 remarked that open space “is great but probably doesn’t mean much to you if you don’t have a job or a home,” now says that the city must “focus on protecting what we have . . . before we worry about getting bigger.”

“I think Prop. A affected everyone at City Hall,” Cleator said. “It’s hard to miss that kind of a strong public message--if you do, you’re not going to be in office very long. For me, Prop. A really drove home the point that before we even talk about growing, we have to complete our freeway system, get the infrastructure in place and get a public transportation system that works.”

That comment, however, contrasts sharply with Cleator’s voting record on the council, where he has generally sided with developers on most of the major issues that environmentalists regard as litmus tests on growth-management--notably, the controversial Fairbanks Ranch Country Club and La Jolla Valley projects, two occasions on which the council authorized development in “urban reserve” areas originally intended to remain undeveloped until 1995.

Cleator also has been much more aggressive in pursuing support in minority communities than he has in the past, telling various groups that his business ties could help attract needed economic development to the southern half of San Diego, where much of the city’s unemployment is concentrated.

“The great thing about an election is that everyone wants to be your friend,” said Councilman William Jones, who accompanied Cleator to Los Angeles last week to explore business opportunities for Jones’ district. “I welcome help from Bill Cleator or anyone else. But I don’t want my district or the problems in my district being used as campaign tactics. At this point, I’m willing to take Bill’s willingness to help at face value. The key, though, is convincing people that you’re going to be there after the election too.”

Confident that he will be able to convince Jones and others on that point between now and Feb. 25, Cleator characterizes his recent efforts to broaden his constituency as “something I probably should have been doing a long time ago.”

“I think the problem is that because I came on the council from a business background, I felt more comfortable dealing with business and development issues, since that’s where I had some expertise,” Cleator said.

“But somehow I allowed people to get the idea that that’s all I was interested in. This isn’t a case of Bill Cleator changing his tune or doing something different just to get more votes. It’s a case of Bill Cleator getting wiser.”